Character Interviews

A good way to flesh out your characters is with doing a character interview. Ask them questions in kind of the way that a journalist asks a person they are interviewing for a news story. An example below:

IW: Can you tell us your last name Adisa?

Adisa: I could but I won’t.

IW: And why’s that?

Adisa: I don’t want to. Simple as that.

IW: Okay, what kind of work do you do?

Adisa: I do private contract work for Danil Burlomov. I find out things he wants to know.

IW: Can you tell us how?

Adisa: I have the gift of persuasion. I can be very persuasive at finding out things from people.

IW: And how do you do that?

Adisa: You don’t really want to find out.

IW: Okay, so how did you get involved with this line of work in persuading people to give you information.

Adisa: It’s a long story. I would like to tell you that I grew up on the mean streets of Moscow or some other Eastern European city. But the truth of the matter is, I’m the daughter of a Russian oil tycoon. I used my feminine wiles to get information from my father’s rivals. Information that he used against them to further is own business and get and stay in the good graces of the government. I kept my father out of jail.

IW: Can you elaborate on how you were able to get information from your father’s rivals?