Character Interview Questions Worksheet

Get to know your characters inside and out with this Character Interview Questions Worksheet – a comprehensive questionnaire designed to help authors in any genre create realistic, three-dimensional characters.

This printable (and fillable) worksheet features 100+ insightful questions covering every facet of your character’s life: from childhood memories and personal quirks to core fears and ambitions. Developed by K.M. Weiland (the internationally recognized author of writing guides like Creating Character Arcs), this resource acts as an in-depth interview, allowing you to step into your character’s shoes and answer as if you were chatting with a real person.

• Background & Upbringing: Delve into your character’s past with questions about family, childhood, and formative experiences. These prompts help you uncover the events and relationships that shaped who your character is at the start of your story.

• Personality & Traits: Uncover the nuances of your character’s daily life and demeanor. This section includes questions on habits, hobbies, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, quirks, and style. Answering these builds a vivid picture of how your character behaves and interacts with the world.

• Motivations & Fears: Identify the driving forces behind your character’s actions. Here you’ll answer questions about goals, motivations, core beliefs, and deep fears. This section is crucial for plotting your character’s arc and conflicts.

• Relationships & Role in Story: Explore how your character relates to others with targeted questions on friends, enemies, love interests, and mentors. If this is your protagonist, it helps define supporting cast dynamics; if it’s a side character, it clarifies connection to the main plot and characters.

• Organized & Easy to Use: The 100+ questions are grouped into logical categories, making this worksheet straightforward to work through. It’s provided as a PDF that you can either print out and fill in by hand or type into using any PDF reader (the file is fillable). A Word doc version is also included. You can tackle the questions in order or jump around to the sections you find most interesting or relevant. You don’t have to answer every question. Pick and choose the ones that inspire you. With so many prompts, you’re sure to uncover aspects of your character you hadn’t considered.

• All Genres, Any Character: These interview questions are applicable to characters in any genre or setting, from a medieval fantasy knight to a sci-fi spaceship captain to a contemporary teenager. They focus on universal humanizing details so you can adapt answers to your world-building. (For example, “education” might mean sword training for a fantasy warrior or college for a modern character. You decide the context.)

• Personal Use & Reusability: The Character Interview Worksheet is a tool you can use over and over for each new character you create. Print multiple copies or save separate filled PDFs for each of your characters to build a complete character bible. It’s an invaluable reference to keep on hand during writing; whenever you’re unsure how characters would react or what they might do, refer back to their interview answers to stay consistent and true to their personalities.

• Instant Digital Download: Start discovering your characters immediately! As soon as you purchase, you can download the PDF worksheet and begin filling it out. No waiting for shipping. No physical product will be sent. Jumpstart your creative process by conducting an “interview” with your character today.

By the time you complete the Character Interview Questions Worksheet, you’ll feel like you’ve met a real person. Your characters will have history, depth, and nuance, which means readers will find them believable and engaging. Say goodbye to cardboard cut-outs. This comprehensive questionnaire will help you create characters readers remember. It’s an essential addition to any writer’s toolkit, ensuring you know exactly how your character would behave when you sit down to write dialogue or conflict. Have fun with it, and watch your storytelling soar as your characters come to life!

P.S. Don’t forget your supporting cast! We also offer a Supporting Character Interview Worksheet tailored for developing side characters. It’s a perfect complement to this main character questionnaire, so be sure to check it out in our shop to round out your entire cast.