Proust’s Questionnaire – 35 Questions Every Character Should Answer

Discover Proust’s Questionnaire, a famous set of personality questions. Use it as a writing tool to create deeper, more memorable characters.

What Is Proust’s Questionnaire?

Proust’s Questionnaire is a set of short, revealing questions designed to show a person’s tastes, values, fears, and hopes. It is one of the best-known interview formats in the media today because the answers can be thoughtful, funny, and surprisingly personal. Writers can also use it to explore their characters and discover what makes them unique.

The questionnaire is linked to Marcel Proust, who was born on 10 July 1871 and died on 18 November 1922. Proust is best known for In Search of Lost Time, also published in English as Remembrance of Things Past.

When Proust was 13, he answered a questionnaire in an English-language confession album belonging to his friend, Antoinette Félix-Faure. These albums were popular in the late 19th century, and people used them to record their thoughts, feelings, dreams, and personal preferences.

Proust’s questionnaire is an excellent way for you to interview the most important characters in your novel or short story. They may tell you something you don’t already know.

35 Questions Made Famous by Marcel Proust

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favourite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favourite writers?
28. Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favourite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

Source for image

More Resources: 9 Useful Character Questionnaires For Writers

by Amanda Patterson

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