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Interview with a Character 
7th-May-2008 10:37 am
Possession2
I rememeber a while ago (months maybe?) someone on my LJ list interviewed their characters as a way to get to know them better. Was it [info]britlitfantwin? I remember enjoying the post and had said I'd give it a try but never got around to it until now.

I interviewed Kahne, because he's more interesting and complicated and hardly ever talks about himself. How's a writer to get to know her characters if they won't talk?

So I dragged it out of him...

Good morning, Kahne! I thought we'd start this interview out by playing a game.
Games are for children. Do I look like a child?

Um...okay. No game. Let's start with the basics then. Boxers or briefs?
Did you just ask me what kind of underwear I prefer?

Yes?
*silence*

I'll take that as boxer briefs then?
*scowls*

Okay, tell me what you like to do in your free time?
*looks out the window*
I like the rain. I like to run. And chocolate.

You like chocolate? Interesting. I'd never expect a demon to enjoy chocolate.
I prefer "damned". I am not a demon. At least not in the terms populated by literature or cinema. 

Oh. Okay. So back to the chocolate. What's your favorite kind of chocolate? Dark chocolate? Chocolate with caramel?
Ice cream. 

Now you're talking. Have you tried the ice cream at Shoreline Sweets? They make it right there and---
I've tried it, yes, though I wasn't able to fully enjoy it because---

Because what?
I was interrupted.

By who?
Not who---what. An eleven-year-old pest.

A little kid interrupted you?
*grunts* It wasn't a kid. If hell were a real place, it would have crawled out of the bowels of it. 

Oh-kay. So I guess that means you probably don't want children?
I'm dead. I can't have children.

Right. But if you were alive, would you have wanted children?
Probably not.

And staying with the whole "let's pretend" idea, if you could be any animal, which animal would you be?
A crow, so I could spread my wings and fly out of this absurd interview.

Haha. You do have legs, you know. And you said you like to run. You could run out of this interview.
Good idea.

Comments 
7th-May-2008 03:34 pm (UTC)
LOL -- very accurate :)
7th-May-2008 06:41 pm (UTC)
See, this is why these interviews are such a cool writerly tool ... even the WAY in which the character answers--or doesn't answer--the question is revealing.

(It was me, by the way -- I'm so glad you decided to try it! Did you have fun?)
7th-May-2008 09:59 pm (UTC)
So it was you! I thought it was!

I had a ton of fun. I might do some interviews for other characters or even have a character interview another. This interview here revealed a lot. I was surprised. ;)

7th-May-2008 10:40 pm (UTC)
Hehe. Great interview. Then again, character interviews are always amusing.

I've never done one of these, but I like to write skits or make comic strips with my characters, to see what they're doing in my head when I'm not busy writing their story. It's especially fun to have them interact with characters they'd never meet from other books of mine; I've gotten the most random character revelations that way.
10th-May-2008 12:47 am (UTC)
I love hearing about people trying different things to connect with their characters. This worked great!
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