Okay, I have to tell you what happened last week, because I’m still a little giddy about it.
Honest truth? My character felt like cardboard
I was stuck on a character. Elena, a widowed ferry captain who won’t sell her boat even though it’s losing money. I knew what she did. I had no idea why.
So I asked AI to describe her motivation, and it told me she was “driven by loyalty to her late husband and a fear of losing her identity.”
Fine. True, probably. And completely dead on the page. It could have been about any widow and any boat. I’ve had this experience over and over: I ask AI about my characters and get a very polite, very reasonable summary. But people aren’t reasonable. They dodge, they fib, they change the subject when you get too close.
The plot twist that changed everything
Here’s what I finally figured out: give the AI a role, not a task.
When I say “describe my character,” it writes a report. When I say “be my character and let me interview you,” it performs. And a good performance comes with resistance, which is exactly where the interesting stuff hides. I wasn’t asking for answers anymore. I was asking for a fight, and I got one.
The prompt:
Here’s the one I use now. Copy it, swap in your own details, and prepare to be surprised:
You are [CHARACTER NAME], a character in my [GENRE] story. Here is everything I know about you: [PASTE BACKSTORY, TRAITS, CURRENT SITUATION].
I’m going to interview you so I can understand you better. Follow these rules:
Stay in character at all times. Never explain yourself as an AI.
Answer as [CHARACTER NAME] would, not as the most helpful assistant. If a question touches something you would want to hide, deflect, lie, or push back.
Keep every answer under 80 words.
Never resolve your own contradictions. Let them show.
If my question is lazy or generic, tell me so, in character.
I’ll ask about 10 questions. When I write STOP, step out of character and give me:
Three things I learned about you
Two contradictions you revealed
One thing you refused to tell me
Begin by greeting me the way you would greet a stranger who asks too many questions.
A few things I’ve learned the hard way: paste in as much backstory as you can, because more detail means sharper pushback. Ask short, specific questions (”What did you do the night he left?”) instead of broad ones. And yes, it works with any of the big AI assistants.
What happened with Elena after that
Before, with my plain request, I got that flat little paragraph about loyalty and identity.
After, with the interview, this happened:
Me: Why won’t you sell the ferry?
Elena: Who told you I won’t? Maybe nobody’s made me a fair offer.
Me: The harbor office says you’ve turned down three.
Elena: Then the harbor office should mind its own tide tables.
Me: Did Tomás want you to keep it?
Elena: Tomás wanted a lot of things. He wanted to retire. He wanted to see Lisbon. I’m the one who stayed with the boat.
I actually gasped at that last line. I’m the one who stayed with the boat. Suddenly Elena isn’t clinging to the ferry out of loyalty. She’s clinging to it out of guilt, or defiance, or both. Her husband wanted to leave and she didn’t. That’s a whole story, and it came from her dodging a question.
The summary gave me a label. The interview gave me a wound.
Your turn (10 minutes, I promise)
Pick a character who feels flat or predictable to you right now.
Run the prompt and ask 10 questions. Make at least two of them uncomfortable: a secret, a failure, someone they hurt.
After STOP, read the three lists and circle the one detail that surprises you.
Write 100 words of a scene built on that detail. In your own words, please.
And pay attention to the moment your character refuses to answer. In my experience, that’s the most important thing about them.
A few last thoughts
One thing to watch for: don’t treat the interview answers as finished writing. They’re raw material, like a conversation overheard through a wall. Take the insight and write the scene yourself, or your character will start sounding like the AI.
If you write non-fiction: try this with your reader instead. Replace the character with “a skeptical [TARGET READER], like a busy manager who thinks this topic is overhyped,” and ask them to push back on your main argument. Wherever they resist is where your chapter needs more work. I found two gaps in my own outline this way, and I was a little annoyed at how right they were.
And the bigger picture: I love using AI as a co-pilot, but it’s still your hands on the controls. Use it to discover things but then use your own pen to write about them.
Now go find out what your character is hiding. Hit reply and tell me who pushed back the hardest. I read every single one, and I’m genuinely curious.
Until next week,
Wilma