I’m excited to say I’ve added a new spreadsheet to my box of writing tools.
Getting to know new characters, or even existing characters, is exciting.
For each scene, I ask the POV character the following questions and then answer in their first person voice:
- How did you get into the predicament you’re in?
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it?
- How did you feel when (insert disaster or setback here) happened?
- What are you going to do next?
The questions open my mind to new ideas and remind me to keep character personalities consistent.
Do you ask your characters questions to get to know them?
Thanks for reading . . .
Creative Story Editors 
I think you know the answer from me already!
I like your questions, but I usually have to approach my characters in a more roundabout way to gain their ‘trust’, otherwise I get the, “Excuse me? Do I know you?” response. 😉
I’ll start by commenting on something about their appearance, or an odd mannerism, and keep going. Once we’ve ‘bonded’ I get all kinds of cool stuff, including their motivations and desires. 🙂
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I like to develop in a round about way too. Once I know a character a bit, I need a formal process to fill in the depth.
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First I get a solid picture of my character in my mind. I need to know what they look like, their surroundings and the general chaos of their world. So, from there, I prod them with the Why did you? How did you? What are you going to do about? Usually, they answer and often they surprise me – an assassin turns into a philosopher, a confident scientist becomes a warrior… that’s the best part of all.
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Looks usually comes last for me, and sometimes not at all. I get set on age, fitness level, interesting features, but hair colour, etc are difficult to come up with. I don’t know why.
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Way to go!!
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🙂
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