The famous French writer Marcel Proust periodically interviewed himself, with the following questions. These work very well as character questions, too, and it is for this reason that I list them here.<\/p>\n
As you go down the list, think about how a specific character would answer the questions. Write down the answers, and keep them for future reference. Not all of these questions will be relevant to a particular story or character; not all the answers will necessarily show up in your story. However, the questions will help you create more rounded and believable characters.<\/p>\n
You can, of course, do this with more than one character per story, too. In fact, I recommend that you think about using this questionnaire, or something like it, for all the major characters in your work.<\/p>\n
* what do you consider your greatest achievement?
\n* what is your idea of perfect happiness?
\n* what is your current state of mind?
\n* what is your favorite occupation?
\n* what is your most treasured possession?
\n* what or who is the greatest love of your life?
\n* what is your favorite journey?
\n* what is your most marked characteristic?
\n* when and where were you the most happiest?
\n* what is it that you most dislike?
\n* what is your greatest fear?
\n* what is your greatest extravagance?
\n* which living person do you most despise?
\n* what is your greatest regret?
\n* which talent would you most like to have?
\n* where would you like to live?
\n* what do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
\n* what is the quality you most like in a man?
\n* what is the quality you most like in a woman?
\n* what is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
\n* what is the trait you most deplore in others?
\n* what do you most value in your friends?
\n* who is your favorite hero of fiction?
\n* whose are your heroes in real life?
\n* which living person do you most admire?
\n* what do you consider the most overrated virtue?
\n* on what occasions do you lie?
\n* which words or phrases do you most overuse?
\n* if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
\n* what are your favorite names?
\n* how would you like to die?
\n* if you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
\n* what is your motto?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The famous French writer Marcel Proust periodically interviewed himself, with the following questions. These work very well as character questions, too, and it is for this reason that I list them here. As you go down the list, think about how a specific character would answer the questions. Write down the answers, and keep them … Continue reading “Marcel Proust’s Character Questionnaire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-168","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/scripsit.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}