As a writer of screenplays or prose (novels, short stories, etc.) we all craft stories that should be character-driven. You may have heard that it’s a good idea to interview your characters. I agree with this. I have found that by interviewing your main protagonists and antagonists you glean a much deeper understanding of them. But you should conduct the same exercise with all important secondary characters as well to understand how they interact with our heroes and villains.
All this gives you insight into your literary darlings on an intimate level. As a result, they become far easier to picture in any situation you might put them in, and by extension, so much easier to write with depth. Interviewing those you intend to make life ‘interesting’ (as in the Chinese curse), brings out more flavour in action sequences and dialogue with a fine, authentic feel. Doing this with every important primary and secondary players creates a smooth, believable ebb and flow throughout your project and helps you construct a deeper story driven by those beloved characters. Another benefit of this exercise is that as you ask you characters questions, more and more scenes in your story spark to life.
To interview my characters, I start with their personal logline. Yes, yet another logline. Whereas the story logline is about a ‘protagonist’ with a ‘flaw’ tries to achieve a ‘goal ‘but is opposed by ‘powerful antagonist’ or ‘event’. Or, the When, Then, Until if you prefer. I will write about how to construct loglines in a future blog.
A character logline is a bit different from the story logline in that it is solely about the character within the plot as opposed to the character up against a plot. Your main character figures, or should figure prominently in a story logline but with the personal logline, that main protagonist’s deeper persona comes to life. Each of your main and secondary characters be they helping the protagonist or the villains opposing their desires and goals should have a personal loglin. In fact, especially the baddies.
You may be wondering; what questions should I ask? Most of you out there already have a good idea on that, but to help anyone who may be interested, I have a series of questions designed to get to the inner core of where my characters live and allow them to show me what they’re made of, and what drives them to do the things they do.
The following is an example interview I conducted with my main protagonist in a project titled Deviant Evolution. Feel free to use the same questions I put to him on your own characters. During the interview, I refer to an incident called the ‘World Ender Riots’. That is a specific event in the story the character inhabits.
As stated, I start with the character’s logline and here it is. “Mike’s aimlessness causes him trouble navigating relationships and scholastic pursuits until his girlfriend’s murder focuses his commitment to discover the truth.”
Writer – Mike, what’s your full name?
Mike – Michelangelo Gerrard Steller.
Writer – Wow, that’s a mouthful. Has that monicure ever given you angst?
Mike – Sure, in school. But most often, I just introduce myself as Mike Steller. They used to call me Turtle Man. You know, as in Teenage Mutant Ninja?
Writer – Where did you go to school?
Mike – Stanford University. I got an Undergraduate Degree in Archeology and I’m close to getting my Doctorate. In fact, I’ve finished my dissertation and I’m about to present it.
Writer – Your surname has German roots. Where were you born?
Mike – North Platte, Nebraska. My Grandparents immigrated from Germany sometime after World War II. Not sure exactly when, why, or how. My parents died when I was three. My sister and I grew up in foster care.
Writer – How did your parents die?
Mike – Plane crash. There might be more to it. I don’t know yet. Their plane was kept in high maintenance. The investigation into the crash was inconclusive, leaving me with unanswered questions.
Writer – Tell me about your childhood. How was it growing up in foster care?
Mike – It was all right, I guess. I mean other kids it worse, far worse than us. The first and only family I was put with were Japanese Americans. It was quite a mashup of cultures. They were quite traditional in their Japanese values, and they taught me a great many things in that regard. They were, are, still alive, very smart, and instilled not only the ways of their heritage but American values of the country I was born in. They also went out of their way to teach me my German cultural ancestry. The latter I didn’t much care for because of WWII, but they showed me that things in Germany are very different now compared to then.
Writer – Where’s your sister now?
Mike – She died when I was 17. Subway accident. She slipped off the platform. I miss her so much. We were placed in the same foster family by the way. Most aren’t that lucky.
Writer – What’s special about you? What do you have that would make an audience admire you?
Mike – I’m not a boastful person. In fact, I’m rather self-conscious. So, answering this question takes me out of my comfort zone. But for the sake of giving an answer, I guess it would be the supernatural ability that manifests in the story; I can see into the past. Let me clarify. I can stand in a room, or a place, anywhere really, and concentrate on a time and date, whatever happened at that time, in that place, I witness as though I was there. I’m not really there though. I can only watch, never interact, like an invisible, incorporeal ghost. So, in theory, I could stand at the Mayan Calendar at Chichen Itza and watch them build the pyramid or be in the Oval Office and listen to Nixon’s missing eighteen minutes.
Writer – What are the basic traits of your personality?
Mike – On the positive side, I’m fair-minded, sociable and I like to think, diplomatic. On the negative side, I can carry a grudge and I’m very self-conscious.
Writer – What about subtext? How do you subtly hide things through actions or dialogue?
Mike – My Japanese upbringing has instilled a polite way of doing that. Reserved, I guess you’d call it.
Writer – Everyone has a Nature; the inner truth about a person, and a Demeanor; that person you let others readily see. What are yours?
Mike – You would label my Nature as a Decoder. Puzzles intrigue me to the point of assimilating me into them until they can be solved. This sometimes leads others to see me as an Explorer. That would be my Demeanor.
Writer – Do you have a weakness? A flaw that causes you to fail or at least consternation.
Mike – Admittedly I have a couple. I can be indecisive in key moments. Before I know it, the moment has passed and what I need to do, what I should have done, doesn’t happen, to great detrimental effects. I’m also rather insecure. I don’t know how I got the girlfriend I did. Whenever a situation with an interesting woman presents itself I get rather, ah, awkward. There’s a quote from a movie, I don’t remember which film, that states it well. “He like an artist, and awkward is his medium”. I’m also rather aimless. I mean, I know what I want some of the time. Check that. There’s only one time I knew what I wanted out of life; to get my doctorate in Archeology. The rest? I don’t know. I couldn’t pick an area to specialize in. I can’t seem to commit to the long-term plans my girlfriend wants me to. I have no idea what I’m going to do once I get my doctorate. I’m basically lost on the dingy of life floating on a vast ocean of possibilities.
Writer – What do you do when you get stressed?
Mike – I have a bad habit of rubbing my forehead. I’m not good at poker because of it. Huge tell.
Writer – What triggers that stress?
Mike – Mostly, discovering something I don’t expect. Like drawing to an inside straight in poker or finding dinosaur bones when I’m excavating an ancient city.
Writer – What motivates you in the story?
Mike – I feel the need to find injustices and make them right. I don’t like bad people getting away with bad things.
Writer – What are your values? What makes your world bright?
Mike – Harmony of life and between people, gentleness, sharing and Justice.
Writer – What’s your relationship status.
Mike – I start out with a girlfriend, but I’ve been single since her murder.
Writer – How do you view that status?
Mike – I don’t like it. Being single is lonely. I’m not like most others my age in college. I need companionship on a deeper level than a simple hookup every week. Not that I’m needy, I just desire that intimate trust, you know?
Writer – Is that your emotional goal?
Mike – Partially. I’d love to find someone to share my life with on that level, but my more immediate goal, emotionally and plot-wise is to get justice for my murdered girlfriend.
Writer – What about long-term goals?
Mike – My family has a secret and I want to know what it is. By secret, I mean that I know virtually nothing about my ancestry. That’s my German family, not my foster parents.
Writer – What do you like most about yourself?
Mike – I may be aimless and indecisive, but when I do make a decision, I never give up on it.
Writer – What about you that you like least in yourself?
Mike – Two things. My indecisiveness and that I’m so self-conscious.
Writer – What are your living arrangements now?
Mike – I live in a small apartment in New York City.
Writer – What are some of the things we might find in your apartment?
Mike – I love monster movies, so you’ll see posters of Godzilla, King Kong, the Mummy and others. Also, posters of Stargate ‘cause it has roots in archeology. I have an Indiana Jones fedora hanging off a bedpost with a whip, just for décor, not for use. I wouldn’t know how.
Writer – If a ringtone spoke to your personality or your world view, what would yours be?
Mike – Easy, Highway to Hell.
Writer – Do you have any tag lines associated with you?
Mike – Yeah. I said it once in university and my friends never let me live it down. Now it kinda suits; “Well splash me with water and call me baptized!”
Writer – What are your good habits? Do you have any bad ones?
Mike – I’m happy to say I brush my teeth twice a day. And I have that Japanese politeness. As for bad ones, I have this incessant habit of cleaning my fingernails in public.
Writer – What are your dreams and aspirations?
Mike – One, to get my doctorate in archeology. Two, to have a lasting, stable marriage.
Writer – Have you ever been married before?
Mike – Twice.
Writer – Twice? You’re like, 24 years old and you’ve been married twice?
Mike – Don’t remind me. I got married when I was 19. Cerise. I met her at a bar. She was arrested for a murder that she committed before we met. She divorced me so I wouldn’t be associated with a murderer. It all lasted less than a year. The second was Trina. Man, I loved her. We got married when I was 21. She died in a car accident.
Writer – You say you have trouble with committing to long-term plans, but you’ve been married twice.
Mike – Yeah, and that’s why. Jaded, I guess.
Writer – Do you have any friends?
Mike – My best friend is Paul Rolland. He’s a fellow graduate student. Currently, he’s away on a dig in Egypt. I have other friends, but they don’t play a big role in my life.
Writer – What are your skills?
Mike – Besides being an archeologist? I am not a bad baseball player. I do seem to have a knack for research. It takes me fewer hours than most to get to the meat of what I’m researching. Oh, and don’t tell anyone, especially the IRS, but I put myself through university partially by playing pool. I’m pretty good at it.
Writer – What’s your greatest fear?
Mike – Letting everyone around me die. From my birth parents, my sister, my second wife, I’ve had more than most should be expected to endure. I felt so useless. I couldn’t do anything to help them. And now my girlfriend in the first few pages of this story. No more.
Writer – Do you have any tattoos, or if you were to get one, what would it be?
Mike – I don’t have any. Not that I’m against them. I just think that if I were to get one, it would have to be something I firmly believe in or love so much that I can’t imagine ever not loving it. That being said, I wouldn’t tattoo someone’s likeness or name on myself. My own history has shown me how fleeting that might be. Right now, the only thing I might consider is a tattoo of the Earth. It’s where I live, where we all live, and we should love it that much.
Writer – How are you empathic? Or, why would an audience feel for you, connect with you?
Mike – So many bad things happen to me it’s hard not to have a sympathetic audience. Everyone would relate to at least one of the troubles I’ve suffered.
Writer – How are you unpredictable?
Mike – It’s a slow burn for me to come to a rational decision most of the time. One never really knows when I’m going to get to one.
Writer – Where were you during the ‘World Ender Riots’?
Mike – When I heard about the asteroid I did what most did, I think; I sank into a depression. Not as bad as the one after my second wife died, that was truly a low point for me. No, I was in high school and didn’t have much to do. My foster parents and my sister and I had a prolonged staycation. When there were three days left, I spent every penny I’d saved and went down to Chichen Itza. The asteroid was supposed to hit close to the Mayan Calendar and I wanted to have it end quick. There were tens of thousands there with me.
Writer – What’s the ‘Character Lie’ that you don’t know about?
Mike – I’m really not as awkward as I think I am. All I need is a little confidence and I’m fine. Getting that confidence, that’s the hard part.
Writer – What’s your paradox? What are the warring elements within or about you that cause internal conflict?
Mike – I know what I want but I can’t seem to come to the decisions that will help me get it.
Writer – So do you have a ‘world view’, a general attitude with life?
Mike – When life gives you lemons, sell the lemon grove. Pessimistic, yeah. That’s how I can get sometimes. Mostly it’s, Life is archeology. You have to work hard to uncover the truth. There’s a lot of layers to uncover and most of it can be found in the past. By digging for the truth of the past, we can build a better future.
Writer – What do you do when you’re alone?
Mike – I read archeology journals or watch tv. Preferably a monster movie or science fiction. Oh, and of course the Discovery Channel.
Writer – Is there a wound that haunts you, something in the past that keeps on hurting whether physical or emotional?
Mike – Oh, yeah. My sister’s death and the death of my parents, all left me without answers. None of it makes sense to this day. The loss of my second wife too hits me hard at times and I’m dealing with the fresh murder of my girlfriend in the story all play into my greatest fear of letting those around me die.
Writer – Do you have a moral issue?
Mike – I like to think I don’t, but I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I ever find out who’s behind my girlfriend’s murder. Would I kill him? Would I have him arrested? It’s a conundrum for me. Hopefully, my better nature will win out, but I fear there’s a darkness within me that may dominate in that moment.
Writer – Do you have any secrets? What are they?
Mike – The only secrets I have are the ones I inherited from my family. And I don’t know what they are. Oh, yeah. I smoked quite a bit of MarJa, Mary Jane, grass in University. Though with each passing year, that becomes less important as they pass new laws.
Writer – If there was something about you that needed to be changed, what would that be?
Mike – Definitely my indecisiveness. It hinders me more than anything else.
Writer – So, you start out indecisive, self-conscious and aimless. What would be the completion of your character arc?
Mike – Picking a path and committing to it. Whether that’s pursuing my Archeology Doctorate, or something else remains to be seen. Whatever it is, it needs to make sense within the progression of my life. Saying that, with this new supernatural power manifesting as it does, anything is possible.
Writer – What’s your public mask? Something everyone knows and sees.
Mike – Archeology graduate student.
Writer – And what’s your secret identity?
Mike – Fledgling superhero with self-conscience issues.
Writer – What’s your role in the show?
Mike – I drive the story. First by getting myself in all sorts of trouble, then by actively investigating crimes committed by other people with supernatural abilities.
Writer – Situationally, what are your hopes? Your fears?
Mike – In the pilot episode, my hope is to figure out who killed my girlfriend and why. My fear is getting someone killed in the process.
Writer – You’ve stated what you want; justice for your girlfriend, discover your family’s dark secret. Often what we want is at odds with what we need. What is it you need that you don’t know you do?
Mike – Same as my arc completion I guess. To pick a path and commit. And maybe, just maybe let someone in and find trust again. That trust is fluid, because first I need to trust myself.
Writer – What are your plot goals?
Mike – Easy, find out who killed my girlfriend first off. Then in later episodes, discover the truth about my family.
Writer – Just a few more questions. Do you have a hidden agenda in the series?
Mike – Hidden? Not so much, unless there are forces preventing me from digging up the truth about my family. In that case yes, that would become a hidden agenda. I guess there’s another; I keep having to find new ways to convince people, cops mostly about the truths I uncover
Writer – Are you in competition with anyone for anything?
Mike – Yeah. I compete with the cops on several levels; against incarceration, investigating crimes that only I can solve, and convincing them of the truths I discover. They never seem to believe me when I give them an ‘eye-witness’ account of things when I was nowhere near an incident at the time it occurred. I’m also in competition with Izzy, the PI I partner with over teaching me how to conduct an investigation.
Writer – Are you involved with any conspiracies?
Mike – Not as a conspirator, though I may become one as an investigation might demand. No, I’m the one people depend on to root out conspiracies.
That’s it. A lot of questions, I know. I’m sure you can think of a few of your own. Once you go through them, whether you write them down as I have or keep them in your head, you can go over them again, rewriting them in the character’s particular voice to find deeper even meaning and flavour.
One note; the more minor the character, the fewer the question necessary. It’s totally up to you how much work you wish to put into each character.
Happy writing, “break a pen”, so to speak.