20 Character Questions Every Writer Should Know — Christopher Riley

From Christopher and Kathy Riley’s book THE DEFINING MOMENT: How Writers and Actors Build Characters [Michael Wiese Productions]

Christopher Riley, Screenwriter, Author, and Instructor: It’s not a formula, it’s not paint-by-numbers but it at least is a way to say Here’s how I’m going to start my work today.

Film Courage: Before you and Kathy wrote The Defining Moment what was your process for writing characters?

Christopher: Kathy and I approach character from lots of different angles because characters are slippery critters that have a lot of facets, a lot of dimensions. For many years we have asked these questions about what are the moments that define these characters. That’s a really important part of what we’ve always done. We also have a set of what we call The Hero Questions where we ask things like what does this character wantbecause every character is driven by some intention. Then we ask how does this character need to grow and change because the most interesting characters very often do transform in some way or even adjust. Not all characters and all genres transform but often there’s at least a small growth or adjustment in them and that’s satisfying…