A lot of blogs do author interviews, but I thought it would be fun to do character interviews! I’ve been working on this since March (sadly), but since then Ruth Ann Nordin has done something similar on her own blog (Great minds think alike, don’t they?) and I know I’ve really enjoyed reading them!
I’m kicking it off with an interview of one of my own characters today, but I used the same questions to make his interview as I am posting for other authors to answer. I’ll break them up some and add some variety so each doesn’t seem like a carbon copy.
I am accepting interviews from all genres, as I have a pretty diverse reader base on my blog. Interested authors should send an email with the answers to the questions below to Joleene at JoleeneNaylor dot com – do NOT post them as a comment to this post. Be sure to answer the questions as though your character is answering them, and if some of the questions don’t apply, then just skip those.
If your character is from a book that’s for sale, be sure to include a link(s) to where readers can buy it!
There’s no deadline on this. I plan to do one a week so long as I have one to post and I will let you know before your interview goes live.
Have fun and look forward to your answers!
1- tell me a little about yourself (what do you look like, where do you live, what book are you in)
2- How do you evolve during the course of the story/series?
3 – Do you have an enemy or nemesis? If so, who are they and how did they become an enemy?
4- What is the biggest challenge you face in the story?
5 – What is the one event that you feel has helped to shape your personality?
6-Are you involved in a romance? If so with who and what is it about them that you find appealing?
7 – What is the one thing you want the most in the whole world?
8 – If you could say one thing to your readers, what would it be?
9- If you could say one thing to your author, what would it be?
10-What 2 or 3 questions do you wish I’d asked, and what are your answers to them?
Please send your answers (and any other relevant info) to Joleene at JoleeneNaylor dot com.
Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors 
What an interesting concept, Joleene! I’m going to email this post to myself and will add it to my things-to-do list.
Judy, South Africa
Thanks Judy! I’ll look forward to it 😀
On their way (a character from each of the three books currently on offer, each with their own email)
Got ’em! Thanks! 😀
I love the Self-Published Authors Lounge. You ladies always send something useful that really makes me think. I’m not sure it was your intention, but these are the kinds of questions that are extremely useful for writing and “getting into character,” even if they’re never used for a blog post.
I have struggled lately with plots, because my characters have minds of their owns and they have gotten quite rebellious. I try not to do this, but I ended up using a lot of the “how to write” books I’ve bought over the past six or eight months. Lately I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to go back to writing for ME again (I loved Ruth Ann’s post about the Author’s Bill of Rights a few days ago – it was perfect) otherwise I’ll never finish the series I’m working on.
I said all that to say this – what I’ve noticed from readers is that they respond to sincerity more than anything. They can tell in an instant if the writer isn’t being true to their characters. Plot’s definitely important – arguably, the most important thing – but if the author doesn’t trust their character, the plot will fail no matter how good it looks on paper.
Even all the good “how to write a plot” books tell you “understand your character,” and that’s hard for me. The questions are so vague… “what motivates him?” “what are his flaws?” “what are his secrets?”
But YOUR LIST!! THANK YOU! It’s simple and interesting and it really made me think. Especially those last two questions. I’m going to copy this list to a very special “never delete this” folder and use it to help me in my writing.
Thank you again!!!!
Shaina Richmond
So glad it has helped! 😀
I agree completely. I’ve read books that were flowing beautifully and then all of a sudden the author forces the characters somewhere they don;t want to go and it becomes a stilted struggle. In some cases you can almost *feel* the characters fighting against their “path” and it really makes a book clunky and contrived.
What a fantastic idea! I will get an interview ready straight away.
“Mysterious Japan” blog: http://lediarunnels27221219.wordpress.com/
Joleene, Your email is missing some characters. I tried to email you, it would not send.
Change the ‘at’ to @ and the ‘dot’ to . and remove all the spaces. It’s worked for me twice now. If you put the actual email address in the blog post, it gets recognised by programs that troll the web and you end up with an inbox literally filled with spam.
Ledia, you’ll need to replace the at with @ and the dot with a period 🙂 Hope that helps!
I’ve done character blogs. This sounds like a fun idea!
Thanks, Norma! I thought since everyone does author interviews it might be something different!
Well, that was fun. I’m going to have to write some more books so you can interview the characters. Three should be in your inbox.
This is also on my to-do list. Like Norma, I’ve done character blogs as well (I picked it up from her), and I’ve even done interviews with my characters. I’ll give it some thought as to who’d do well with this sort of thing….
Thanks William! Will look forward to that 🙂
Loving this idea! I’m writing my response right now.
Will look forward to your response, Belinda 🙂
I’m doing mine right now…what a wonderful idea!!!
Look forward to them 😀
I agree. This is such a neat idea, and it’s a very generous thing you’re doing. 😀
Thanks, Ruth 🙂