July 27th I kicked off my Bewitching Blog Tour for Hurricane of the Heart. It coincided with the release of my latest multicultural romance Hurricane of the Heart in kindle format and paperback. You can follow my tour schedule by clicking on Bewitching Blog Tour.
I began the tour with a character interview on Eclipse Reviews. For that interview I chose Alia Graneau, the indigenous native of Dominica and female lead in Hurricane of the Heart. You can follow this link to see the full interview complete with dreamcast photo. In a nutshell, the interviewer asked a wide range of questions as if she was interviewing me and I answered them as Alia would.
It was the first time doing a character interview and I had great fun getting into the mind of the character I had created. But it was more than just fun. It was getting to know Alia on an intimate level. Doing this interview I learned a lot of nuances about the character, what she would and wouldn’t do, her love, what she abhorred and her angst. I learned how her past was affecting her actions, her decisions, her outlook on life. I got intimate exposure to her personality and her thought processes.
When I completed the interview I had to ask myself why I didn’t do this before. We often read books or reviews of books where the characters are not fully developed. If authors did character interviews with the main characters, they would be so much more developed because their creators would get to know them intimately. Consequently I made the decision that in addition to or in lieu of a character sketch I would do an interview with my lead characters in my future books.
I’m not saying the character interview can replace a character sketch. I’m saying it is a great tool that allows writers to develop great three dimensional characters. It is a tool I intend to utilize to ensure well developed characters.
How do you ensure well developed, dimensional characters in your stories? If you haven’t already, read my character interview on Eclipse reviews and let me know if interviewing your characters is a tool that you may consider using in the future.
2 comments:
I have done this and its fun. I also often pretend I'm meeting a character over a campfire in the woods and just having a conversation. It helps me get to know them.
I like that idea too, Charles, of pretending I'm in a meeting with them over a campfire.
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