How to Interview a Novelist’s Characters and Narrators

The previous post introduced the idea of interviewing a novelist’s characters. Let me elaborate.

1. Getting The Novelist’s Permission

The novelist has to agree to the idea of interviewing a character. Some novelists might reject the idea as an invasion of privacy or an interference in the relationship with their characters. A novelist might think that it simply doesn’t make sense for their characters to talk to anyone else. And a novelist might fear that doing such an interview would look crazy and damage their reputation.

Other novelists might see such an interview as possibly interesting and even fun.

2. The Novelist Suggests Which Character to Interview

Ask the novelist which character(s) would make the best interview(s). The novelist may know of some characters who have already participated in interviews, either by making comments to the novelist while the latter was being interviewed or by actually having been the one interviewed (unknown to the interviewer).

3. Getting the Character’s Attention

Novelists may have many characters from various novels, and most of them are not paying attention to the outside world at any given moment. They pay attention only when something which concerns or interests them is going on. To get their attention, you need to discuss the story that they were involved in and/or their special interest (if the character is a poet, discuss poetry). Discussing a particular character by name is essential. If you do so, and persist for a good length of time, you will probably get that character’s attention. Of course, during the interview, you must continue to discuss what interests that character. If you change the subject, the character will be gone, and you will be back to just the novelist’s regular personality.

4. The Character Communicates Indirectly or Directly

Will the character talk inside the mind of the novelist, so that the novelist will have to tell the interviewer what the character is saying? Or will the character come out—like the novelist has switched personalities—and speak to you directly? The best predictor is what the character has done in the past. If the character has come out in the past, it will do so again. They may start by speaking to you through the novelist, but as that becomes tedious, they may come out to continue the conversation directly.

5. Interviewing a Novelist’s Other Narrative Voices

If a novelist has published under more than one name, then the author of those other books—addressed by their pseudonym—may be interviewable. Even if all the novelist’s books have been published under only one name, some novelists have more than one narrative voice. If you can clearly identify the implied personality of alternate narrative voices—and refer to the specific novel or aspect of a novel that a particular narrative voice wrote—then you might be able to get the attention of, and interview, each such narrative personality. 

All this may seem ridiculous to some readers, but novelists who have characters with minds of their own, and more than one narrative voice, will relate to the issues.