I didn’t post last week, as I spent most of that time
looking for my notes on my current WIP. This was complicated by instead of compiling all of my written notes into one notebook, I used my journals for notes. Take my word for it, this is a bad idea. Entertaining to see what I was doing five, six, seven years ago, but such a time suck. From now on, I will use one notebook per manuscript. Makes life easier. Here is a photo from the Mollie Kathleen Mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado, where they’re still digging deep.
I’ve often said that I use character questionnaires in order to do a deep dive into personalities so that I’ll understand their individual quirks, hopes, dreams, and psyches. Filling out such questionnaires also helps to define how each character is different from the other (I tend to write characters as extensions of myself – very boring). Well, I found several questionnaires. This is a very famous one taken from thewritepractice.com.
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What quality do you most like in a man?
13. What quality do you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is/was your favorite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favorite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?
More to come next week…
