Using Interviewing Techniques to Improve Your Craft

2-part blog based on a workshop by Jenna Caputo and Janine De Tillio Cammarata presented on April 11, 2022 to the Eastern NY SCBWI region called Journaling & Interviewing Techniques to Improve your Craft.

The first installment focuses on journaling techniques by Janine De Tillio Cammarata of Highland Mountain Publishing.

Part 2

By Jenna E. Caputo of Silverpen Productions, LLC

As the owner of www.silverpenproductions.com, part of my job is to write feature articles for multiple local magazines. Interviewing adults for profile stories doesn’t seem like it would help my creative writing for children, but it has had a big impact on my craft. Having that interaction with real people allows a writer to not only expand their knowledge on human nature and world events but to see in real time how moments from a person’s childhood can affect their personality and choices all throughout life. Practicing basic interviewing techniques teaches us how to dig deeper into a story and to develop fully realized characters.

My advice for developing your characters is to ask yourself a few basic questions to discover who they truly are.

Ask:

• What is their backstory?

• How has their past influenced who they are today and the choices they are making?

• What things do they avoid, downplay, or brag about?

• What is their motivation for these actions?

• What are they passionate about?

• What do they wish for?

To achieve these answers, you need to know their worldview and characterizing details. Think about Mary Kole’s checklist in her book Writing Irresistible Kidlit:

• Worldview — How do they think about life and what is their overall attitude? 

• Context — A detail (or two!) about how they relate to and interact with the world.  

• Objectives — At least 1 objective or goal – whether big picture or scene at hand 

• Characterizing Detail — At least one detail that teaches us something about their personality. 

• Voice — At least 1 piece of voice that gives a hint of language, energy, and way of noticing things about them 

• Concrete Choice — Show at least 1 concrete choice or action (a Save The Cat moment)  

• What are their: Attributes/Characteristics/Motivations/Actions/Conflicts/Flaws 

To develop those realistic and relatable characters, you need to know their Core Identity:

• Strength — When things get tough how do they keep going?

• Virtue — What do they hold in highest regard both in themselves and in others?

• Role — What role do they play in life?

• Flaw — What is something on the darker side of your Main Character (MC)? What isn’t admirable?

• Emotions — What do they love, need, fear, hate?

• Boundaries — What do they view as right and wrong?

• Beliefs — What does the world look like through their unique lens?

Interviewing real people has given me insight on how to find what a person’s story is, how to dig to ask the right questions to draw out that story, and how to read between the lines of how they answer the questions to get a fuller picture of who they are as a person. Just like writing creatively, something unexpected always manages to pop up that will lead the story and make it interesting for the readers.

You don’t have to be a newspaper reporter or magazine editor to practice interviewing. You can recruit a family member, neighbor, or friend to help. Try to find multiple people of varying ages to interview and compare how their answers differ or match up. Pay attention to the things that are important to people at each life stage, how they differ, and what may be universal across the ages. Then transfer these ideas to your own writing. You should be able to answer these same types of questions for your MC too!

In addition to their physical attributes, your reader should know how your MC:

• Thinks

• Reacts

• Their quirks and characteristics

• Their wants

• The lie they tell themselves

• What their conflicts are in their life – both external and internal

These techniques are great for your villains too. To avoid the risk of a stereotypical antagonist, get to the core of why they are such a jerk to your MC:

• What in their past history has led to these actions?

• What’s their big, dark secret?

• What’s their objectives and motivations?

• What makes them vulnerable and human?

• What characteristics do they hold in high esteem and what things do they hate?

• What is their internal struggle?

Use your journaling techniques from Part I of this series and get to know your characters. Your story (and readers) will thank you!