Proust's Thirty-Five Questions to Ask Your Characters

I’ve been reading the Write Practice for several months and always find the posts informational and provocative. I was particularly taken with today’s post about delving into the lives of your novel’s characters. I’m in the midst of the first revision of my novel and I’m looking for ways to round them out. Marcel Proust’s Thirty-five Questions to Ask Your Characters will definitely help. Here’s his list, written in the late nineteenth century. By the way, his answers sold in auction for €102,000 in 2003.

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 is the quality you most like in a man?

13.    What is the quality 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 a 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 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?

And as Joe Bunting (@joebunting)of the Write Practice asked:

Which questions do you ask your characters to get to know them better?

  

****

Who is the Write Practice?

Joe Bunting is the founder of the Write Practice. Joe is a ghostwriter, editor, and an aspiring fiction author and writes and edits books that change lives. He loves the sound of a good sentence and would like to think of himself as a literary snob but can be kept up far too late by a page turner meant for thirteen year old girls. He would like for you not to know that though. He and his wife, Talia, enjoy playing backgammon and Angry Birds on her iPhone. You can view his website and follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Liz is on the left

Liz Bureman has a more-than-healthy interest in proper grammatical structure, accurate spelling, and the underappreciated semicolon. When she’s not diagramming sentences and reading blogs about how terribly written the Twilight series is, she edits for the Write Practice, causes trouble in Denver, and plays guitar very slowly and poorly. She occasionally blogs at http://bureface.wordpress.com, but only when she feels like it.

        

I’m inundated with writing information

I get posts from the sites listed below either daily or weekly. They take over my email stream. And if I read each and every one of them every day, I wouldn’t have time for anything else – including what I’m sitting down to do – WRITE! 

Mind you, this list doesn’t include posts from blogs I regularly follow, a daily poem, and other various emails from the Writer’s Market, Amazon, Powell’s Books, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter – the list goes on and on.

So what do you think? Which ones should I continue getting? Which ones should I toss? Also, are there any that I’m missing? I’d love to hear from you.

Storyfix is about getting real with your writing dream. About writing the kinds of stories that attract a readership through an understanding of craft and harnessing the power of the underlying principles that make it so.

“If you want to publish your work, if you want a career as a writer, then you’ve come to the right place.” ~ Larry Brooks

Copyblogger has been teaching people how to create killer online content. Not bland corporate crap created to fill up a company webpage. Valuable information that attracts attention, drives traffic, and builds your business.

The Write Practice is here to kick-start your practice. You have to write millions of words no one is ever going to see before you can write the ones that will change someone’s life.  

The Story Circle Network is dedicated to helping women share the stories of their lives and to raising public awareness of the importance of women's personal histories. We carry out our mission through publications, a website, classes, workshops, writing and reading circles, and woman-focused programs. Our activities empower women to tell their stories, discover their identities through their stories, and choose to be the authors of their own lives.

Seth’s Blog Seth Godin is a writer, a speaker and an agent of change. American Way Magazine calls him, "America's Greatest Marketer," and his blog is perhaps the most popular in the world written by a single individual. As Seth says, “Choose wisely. It's perhaps the most important decision we make, every day.”

Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in — until you are.

  

She Writes Press is an independent company founded to serve members of She Writes, the largest global community of women writers online, and women writers everywhere. Its regular emails include articles by successful authors and an opportunity to write something related to your writing in six words.

 

Writer’s Digest includes prompts, articles about writing and publishing, competitions, and info about conferences and workshops.

Author Marketing Experts blogs about book marketing, publishing, social media, writing, author and book promotions.

Guide to Literary Agents Part of the Writer’s Digest family, it includes posts about all aspects of writing and provides lists of agents looking for new books. I had a guest post there, so there are opportunities for you. Chuck Sambuchino is very accessible.

CRWOPPS Creative Writers Opportunities List Group provides daily lists of publishing and writing contest opportunities.

HARO Help A Reporter Out  is your exclusive publicity genie, delivering you three free email alerts daily, straight from journalists and media companies on a deadline who want your story and expertise! Plus, with HARO, you can submit unlimited pitches to top journalists from local, regional and national media outlets. I’ve had a couple of successes here, including a paying gig.

My Name is Not Bob  provides guest posts and writing and marketing tips by Robert Lee Brewer, who describes himself as Father. Poet. Editor. Curator. Occasional slap-happy smack talker.

BookBaby is a small team of authors, bloggers, programmers, and dreamers. We're dedicated to helping authors make the journey from composition to publication. Includes lots of writing and publishing tips in its blog.