Writing Exercise: Interview

Image from The Graphics Fairy

    Last Monday I was eating out with a fellow writer friend and we touched on the subject of writing at least a few times.  We talked about how we learned about our characters.  We talked about how we would try talking to the characters and feel like we had to swear we were not crazy.  If you also write you may be familiar with this, but you are in good company.  What better way to make your characters feel real than to start out by treating them like they are real.  Talking to them as though they are their own person.  While this isn't my only method for generating and fleshing out characters it is very useful.  For today's writing exercise lets try our hands at something like this.

    Write out an interview between yourself and one of your characters.  It can be in an office setting or it can be in another setting.   For example where would you expect to see your character?  Where do they work or hang out?  Ask your character a series of questions and see what they answer.  Also see how they answer.  Are they curt and short with you or do they go off on long tangents.  Or in some cases do they answer your questions at all?  Most importantly have fun and be creative.