We put our heads together and came up with a bunch of great potential interview questions for authors:
- Are you a plotter or a pantster?
- As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
- Describe yourself using… ( a food, a book, a song, a movie, an animal, a drink, a place etc)
- Did you start out in (online or real life) crit groups?
- Do you ever get writers’ block?
- Do you have any strange writing habits or superstitions?
- Do you still have the same crit partners/betas you had when you first started?
- Do you write more on the romance side, or the speculative fiction side? Or both? And why?
- Do your books spring to life from a character first or an idea?
- How did you deal with rejection letters?
- How do you construct your novel?
- How long does it take you to write the first draft?
- How nervous were you at your first signing? At conventions?
- How would you describe your writing style/genre?
- If I were a Hollywood producer about to put your book on the big screen, who would you want me to cast as the leads? Why? And can we have pictures to drool over?
- If you could change ONE thing about your novel, what would it be? Why?
- If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?
- If you could kill one person, who would it be?
- If you could sit down with one other writer, living or dead, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
- If you had the opportunity to live one year of your life over again, which year would you choose?
- If you were stuck on a desert island all alone with only three things, what would they be?
- Is there anything you find particularly challenging about writing?
- Of your writing, who is your favorite character/favorite book?
- Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
- Tell us about a unique or quirky habit of yours.
- Tell us something we don’t know about your heroes. What makes them tick? Tell us one thing about them that we don’t learn from the book, the secret in their past.
- Were you a voracious reader as a child?
- What action would your name be if it were a verb?
- What advice would you give not just to newbies, but to (inbetween/established) writers?
- What are you reading?
- What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
- What book or childhood author had the greatest impact on you?
- What character gave you fits and fought against you? Did that character cause trouble because you weren’t listening and missed something important about them?
- What do you like to write about the most?
- What fantasy realm would you choose to live in and why?
- What fictional speculative fiction character would you like to spend an evening with?
- What inspired you to write this particular story? What were the challenges in bringing it to life?
- What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has said to you?
- What kind of character or topic have you been dying to try to write, but you’ve never worked up the courage?
- What meds are you supposed to be taking?
- What pets are currently on your keyboard, and what are their names? Pictures?
- What processes started you as a writer, and what were the struggles you had to overcome to get where you are now?
- What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about him or her.
- What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
- What was one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in writing your books?
- What was the first speculative fiction book (sci fi, paranormal, fantasy, horror) that you ever read? How did it influence you?
- What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
- What’s one moment specifically that inspired you, which you can remember vividly?
- What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
- What’s your greatest weakness as a writer?
- What’s your writing process?
- When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
- When did you start feeling at ease interacting with fans?
- Where do you as an author draw the line on gory descriptions and/or erotic content?
- Where do you like to write?
- Which (series or stand alone) character harasses you the most?
- Which character did you (hate) to write the most?
- Which of your own characters would you Kill? Fuck? Marry? And why?
- Would you visit the future or the past?