I've always been a fan of compiling character histories. You know the ones - writing down everything related to your character, including what they have in their fridge and their greatest fears. All this back story helps to shape their motivation and interaction with other characters in the story. But delving one step deeper, I conducted a character interview.
I was at a point where I wanted to explore the main events in a character's life that were important to the story. I was then able to place this information in relevant and appropriate scenes to help it come alive in the context of the story.
On this occasion it was character work that didn't just end up filed away or placed in a box ready for my ritual burning (this is a story for another time). Instead, it was very guided exploration that got to the heart of the character. Definitely an approach to try with other characters...
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