top of page

Character Development - Week 5

This month for our Character Development exercise, we are going to look at "interviewing" our characters. I first heard of this way of doing things from J.R.Ward's Insider Guide for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. It really helped me develop my imagination to the point where my characters could "talk" to me. And that way works for me. So today we are going to look at that a little further.


I have personally done this exercise myself. I thought of all the questions for the "interview" myself but today I am going to give you some to think about and you can feel free to add your own also. So I am going to make up a character on the spot and fill this in.


So to start we go to the basics:


Name: Edith Babcock

Date of Birth: September 5th, 1894

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Current Residence: New York City, NY, USA


Then I would move on to their family:


Mother's Name: Marie O'Callaghan

Father's Name: John Babcock

Number of Siblings: 2 sisters

Name of Siblings: Maryanne, Ruth

Other Details: Oldest of the sisters.


Finally, I would move on to education:

Grade School: St. Mary Margaret's Catholic Girl's School - Dublin, Ireland

St. Patrick's Catholic School - New York, USA

High School: N/A

College/University: N/A


Now I write mroe specifc stuff that has to do with the timeline.


Current Occupation: Child

Where does this character see themselves in 5 years?: Having a wonderful new life in New York.

In 10 years?: Returning to Ireland to raise a family.


These questions shoudl be applied to when the story is happening. If you are seeing this in 2021, obviously Edith who was born in 1894 is long deaseased. But these questions would be about five years from when her story starts.


So that is about it. You want to keep questions in mind, like what you would ask someone you just met, or what a college admissions panel would ask, or what a boss trying to interview a new employee would ask. Anything to help give yourself a little insight to who your character is and why they are that way.


Comments


Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square
bottom of page