As a neat writing tool, an author may conduct an interview with a character from their story. This can help the author get their head around the character and try to flesh out some details. In this case, Arty Behrman is the new main character to the story following my novels Cordell's Rebellion and Hour of Consequence.
BT: Hello Arty. Tell me a little about yourself.
AB: There's not much to tell. I'm a reporter with a local TV station. I'm thirty-two years old, single, and live in an apartment.
BT: How long have you been a reporter?
AB: Just a couple of years. I got a journalism degree and started with the station. Mostly just field work for now.
BT: What did you do before becoming a reporter?
AB: After high school, I didn't really have a plan, so I just did retail for a while. It was alright and I got to meet a lot of people. But I kept seeing the older retail people, you know, the ones that never got out, and I kept seeing me becoming that. I guess that kind of motivated me to go to college.
BT: What made you choose journalism?
AB: That's a good question. Mostly just laziness. Without knowing any better, it looked like it would be an easy job, just go around asking people stuff. My mom used to watch old movies from the forties and fifties where the reporters just breezed through and got away with anything they wanted. Boy was I in for a surprise.
BT: Where did you study?
AB: Just at the little college here in town. I don't know the name because you never named the town where that Reverend John novel took place. Why didn't you ever give it a name?
BT: Oh, that. I was being intentionally vague so the readers could fill in what they needed and I wouldn't have to create all the details. Since I planned on doing more stories later, I didn't want to limit myself with arbitrary details that I threw together earlier. I'll create something before we get too far. I'm guessing that it was the same college where this story starts, but we will have to see. I'm not sure that you could afford the tuition at that school. Anyway, now that you're a reporter, what are your goals and ambitions?
AB: Yeah, that's sort of an issue. My goal in going back to school was to not be an old retail person. Mission accomplished. Like I said, I picked journalism because I thought it would be easy; there wasn't really any planning beyond that. That's probably why I work for a tiny, falling-apart local station. They're the only ones desperate enough to hire me. They send me out without a camera man; I have to do that myself. I'm never going to be an anchorman. Unless I break a really huge story, no other network is going to give me a second glance.
BT: Do you think you'll be breaking any big stories? Is that something you're trying to do?
AB: Not really. Again, not really ambitious. I should probably figure out what I want to do with my life. I'm in my early thirties and don't have any real plans. My ambition should probably be to get my life figured out, but there's just no motivation.
BT: Do you think a major disruption to your life would help?
AB: You mean like having some old church dude start a rebellion or something? I'm good. I can do without. That may have worked out for Reverend John, but he already had his big break and then had a community to fall back on. If all that happened to me, I'd probably be in jail or get shot early on. No thanks.
BT: I wouldn't worry about that happening again. Cordell's little story came out in 2018 and real right-wing nuts did a real-world insurrection in 2021. That's old-hat. I was thinking of something a little more sciency for you.
AB: Would it include me losing my job or being shot at or exploded or anything like that?
BT: Maybe a little.
AB: Again, no thanks.
BT: It wouldn't be that bad. You would be the main character. That would be pretty good.
AB: Like the main character in For Whom the Bell Tolls?
BT: Ask anyone who has read my writing; I'm no Hemmingway. No, as a main character, you would have to go through a character arc of discovery and growth that would disrupt your current life and leave you a better person.
AB: A better person with or without all his extremities?
BT: In the current version of the plot, all of them. Really, the discomfort should be kept to a minimum.
AB: Would there be the "big break" that makes me a real journalist?
BT: The current notes say there would be a couple of big stories. There's a good chance you wouldn't be able to discuss them publicly for various reasons. But, yeah, definitely big news stories.
AB: Dammit.
BT: Your buddy Gary Jakanda would be there. He's pretty good in a fight. He saved Reverend John's backside a few times. Does that make it better?
AB: No, it doesn't make it better. I want to just cover my simple, local stories, go home to my grungy apartment, eat my ramen, and doom scroll until I can't do that anymore. I don't want or need any adventure.
BT: Now you're sounding like a Tolkien character.
AB: Screw you.
BT: Look how well it worked out for that character.
AB: Yeah, look how well that worked out. He ended up cursed, senile, leaving a cursed artifact on his beloved nephew who then had to go to hell and back, getting permanently poisoned on the way. Then, both of them were so screwed up that they had to be sent to a mystical rest home across the sea so they would be slightly less miserable while waiting to die.
BT: They saved their world.
AB: Uh huh, they sure did, for all the good it did them. Listen, if you try to use me as the main character in your little story, I'm going to mope and complain the whole time. I will go out of my way to be miserable and to resist anything even remotely resembling heroism. Your story is going to suck completely and I'm going to laugh my ass off when it's done.
BT: That's the spirit! I look forward to that struggle. It should be interesting.
AB: What? No. That's the opposite of what I said I was going to do. I am very specifically going to not be interesting. Your readers are going to hate it. You're going to hate it. I'm going to hate it.
BT: Well, thank you for the interview, Mr. Behrman. I found it very informative and I look forward to telling your tale.
AB: No. Stop it. I don't want to be in your tale.
BT: Too late.