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I’m in the Beau Rivage Palace, looking out on Lake Geneva, a glass of chilled champagne in my hand. The lights shimmer in the water as darkness falls. I have never stayed in such a beautiful hotel.  If only I was on holiday. 

I shake my head, clearly the last few weeks of work have taken their toll. I am not in Switzerland. I am at my desk in Cumbria.  Why has my mind flown to the Alps? 

Well… I have spent the last three weeks creating detailed character profiles following a first read through of my draft novel. 

The good news is that I don’t hate it. The bad news is that my characters need a lot of development. I can see how they have changed and grown through the telling of my story. Now it is time to go back to the start. My characters need to be fully fledged people. Walking, talking, folk I know before I start the first re-write.

I create real people by interviewing my characters.  I ask the usual background questions but then delve deeper.  I really want to get to know them. 

What’s the worst thing you have done? Where would you be if you could go anywhere in the world? What moves your soul? If you had a super power, what would it be?

Interviewing so many different people in a short space of time is the reason I have been transported to the wonderful Beau Rivage Palace. 

I am reminded of the multiday interviews I did as a management consultant, hiring business school graduates into the firm. Twenty interviews in one day.

Building real people from rough sketches in my mind has been a strange and wonderful experience. Now I have seventeen people chatting in my head…

The highlight of character building was definitely interviewing my protagonist’s dog. That’s something I could not have done at The Beau Rivage!