Here’s our list of suggested interview questions. We suggest taking five or six of these at a time, from the various lists, and making a post out of them. We suggest you include this one at the end of each interview:

What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?

Here are the rest of the questions. Feel free to modify them or add your own.

Writing Questions:

• When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
• If you could sit down with one other writer, living or dead, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
• How would you describe your writing style/genre?
• What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
• What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
• Have you ever taken a trip to research a story? Tell me about it.
• What is your writing Kryptonite?
• What do you do when you get writer’s block?
• Do you use a pseudonym? If so, why? If not, why not?
• If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
• Do you ever base your characters on real people? If so, what are the pitfalls you’ve run into doing so?
• How long do you write each day?
• Do you reward yourself for writing, or punish yourself for failing to do so? How?
• Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
• How long on average does it take you to write a book?
• What do you do if you get a brilliant idea at a bad time?
• Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
• How long have you been writing?
• Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book? If so, discuss them.
• Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
• Are you a plotter or a pantster?
• Do your books spring to life from a character first or an idea?
• How did you deal with rejection letters?
• How long does it take you to write the first draft?
• What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has said to you?
• 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?
• Where do you like to write?
• What are your favorite parts of publishing?
• What are your least favorite parts of publishing?
• What advice do you wish you’d had before releasing your first story?
• If you had a grant to write any book you wanted as a freebie without worrying about sales, what kind of story would you like to tell?
• How do you approach covers for your indie stories?
• What was the most valuable piece of advice you’ve had from an editor?
• Name the book you like most among all you’ve written, and tell us why.
• How do you combine all the different worlds of your life in your works?
• What’s the funniest or creepiest thing you’ve come across while researching for one of your stories?
• What’s your writer cave like? Photos?
• What does success mean to you?
• What book is currently on your bedside table?

This Book:

• How did you choose the topic for this book?
• Tell us something we don’t know about your heroes. What makes them tick?
• What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
• What was the hardest part of writing this book?
• Who did your cover, and what was the design process like?
• Tell us one thing about them that we don’t learn from the book, the secret in their past.
• What question do you wish that someone would ask about your book, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it.
• 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 inspired you to write this particular story? What were the challenges in bringing it to life?
• What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about him or her.
• Who has been your favorite character to write and why?
• What was the weirdest thing you had to Google for your story?
• Let’s talk to your characters for a minute – what’s it like to work for such a demanding writer?
• What’s your core motivation in this book?
• Are you happy with where your writer left you at the end? (don’t give us any spoilers).

Personal Questions:

• As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• If you had the opportunity to live one year of your life over again, which year would you choose, and why?
• Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
• Tell me about a unique or quirky habit of yours.
• Were you a voracious reader as a child?
• What pets are currently on your keyboard, and what are their names? Pictures?
• What’s your writing process?
• What was the first book that made you cry?
• What other artistic pursuits (it any) do you indulge in apart from writing?
• What are some day jobs that you have held? If any of them impacted your writing, share an example.
• We know what you like to write, but what do you like to read in your free time, and why?
• What qualities do you and your characters share? How much are you like them, or how different are they from you?

Fun Questions:

• Describe yourself using… ( a food, a book, a song, a movie, an animal, a drink, a place etc)
• Do you have any strange writing habits or superstitions?
• If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?
• If you were stuck on a desert island all alone with only three things, what would they be?
• What action would your name be if it were a verb?
• What fantasy realm would you choose to live in and why?
• What fictional speculative fiction character would you like to spend an evening with, and why?
• Which of your own characters would you Kill? Fling with? Marry? And why?
• Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
• How does the world end?
• Star Trek or Star Wars? Why?
• What’s your drink of choice?
• What’s in your fridge right now?
• What food(s) fuel your writing?
• If you could choose three authors to invite for a dinner party, who would they be, and why?
• Would you rather be in a room full of snakes or a room full of spiders?
• What’s your favorite line from any movie?
• Do you believe in love at first sight?