Key Concept
How can you understand another person’s point of view? One good way is to ask questions. What kinds of things affect a person’s point of view? What questions would give you important information about those things?

When you ask a person a series of questions, you conduct an interview. Imagine you could interview anyone who ever lived. Whose point of view would you most want to understand? Can you interview a person who is no longer living? How about a character in a novel or the subject of a work of art? Yes you can! You can guess how a person would answer your interview questions. But how can you make sure your guesses are accurate? You need to do your research.

The first step to a good interview is to develop questions that you would like to ask the main character in your fictional narrative. Effective interview questions help you understand your character’s point of view. Later, you use your questions to conduct research about your main character and the event the character experienced. Then, you answer the interview questions yourself by using what you learned to imagine that you are the main character.

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