Good Questions to Ask a Writer
Questions to ask a writer about the work behind a finished book: how they got started, what a drafting day looks like, how much revision it takes, what editors change, how the money works, and what they would tell someone starting out.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are you working on at the moment?
Why ask it
The easiest opener, and often the most revealing, because a writer mid-draft talks differently about the work than one who is promoting something finished. If they deflect, they are probably at a stage where talking about it would cost them, which is itself worth knowing.
How did you get started, and when did writing stop being a hobby?
Why ask it
Look for the specific hinge: a commission, a redundancy, a course, a first cheque. Most writers can name the moment, and the answer is usually less romantic and more financial than the version in author bios.
What does a working day actually look like?
Why ask it
Expect the answer to include the hours that are not writing: email, invoices, teaching, reading for research. The ratio tells an aspiring writer more about the job than any advice about discipline.
Do you outline, or do you find out as you go?
Why ask it
Both camps exist and both produce finished books, so the useful part is what happens when their chosen method fails: the outliner whose plan collapses in the third act, the improviser who writes eighty pages that go nowhere.
How many drafts does something take before you let anyone read it?
Why ask it
Writers rarely give a small number, and hearing a real one is useful for anyone who assumes published prose arrives close to final. Ask what changes between draft two and draft five specifically.
Who reads your work first, and what do you ask them for?
Why ask it
The instruction matters more than the reader. "Tell me where you got bored" produces different notes than "tell me if you liked it", and writers who have thought about this can usually explain why.
How do you decide an idea is worth a year of your life?
Why ask it
Reveals the filter they use to say no, which is a harder skill than generating ideas. Some test an idea by writing a paragraph of it, some by whether it still nags after six months.
What do you do on a day when the writing will not come?
Why ask it
Listen for a practical mechanism rather than a mood: rewriting yesterday's page to get moving, switching to research, walking. Writers who work to deadline usually have one, and it is rarely inspiration.
What do you cut first when a piece runs long?
Why ask it
A technical question that usually gets a specific answer: the opening paragraph, the second example, the jokes, the scene that was hardest to write. Useful to anyone who edits their own work.
Which part of the job do you like least?
Why ask it
Most writers name something outside the writing: promotion, invoicing, reading their own audiobook, being asked about the last book while trying to start the next. The answer sets expectations for anyone considering the career.
What has an editor changed that you argued about and then came round to?
Why ask it
Gets past the polite version of the editorial relationship to an actual disagreement. Writers who cannot think of one either have not been edited hard or are not being candid.
How much of your income comes from writing, and where does the rest come from?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly and most writers will answer, because the mixed picture of teaching, journalism, copywriting and advances is normal rather than embarrassing. Anyone planning to write full time needs the real shape of it.
How did you find an agent or publisher, and what did you misunderstand about it at the time?
Why ask it
The second half is the valuable half. First-time authors typically misjudge timelines, advance structures or how much marketing they will be expected to do themselves.
Which writer taught you something technical that you still use?
Why ask it
Steers away from a list of favourites toward a transferable craft point: how someone handles time, dialogue attribution, chapter endings. Ask them to show you the move if there is a copy nearby.
What have you written that never got published, and what happened to it?
Why ask it
Almost every working writer has an abandoned book or a killed commission, and the account of why is usually more instructive than the story of a success.
How do you handle a review or a reaction that stings?
Why ask it
Watch for whether they read reviews at all and whether they can separate a fair criticism from a hostile one. The honest answers tend to admit a bad review lands for longer than it should.
How is your writing different from ten years ago?
Why ask it
Gets at direction rather than habit. Writers often describe cutting more, explaining less, or abandoning a device they once relied on, and that is a description of learning you can borrow.
How do you know a piece is finished rather than just abandoned?
Why ask it
Deadlines answer this for a lot of professional work, and saying so is more honest than talking about a sense of rightness. Ask what they would still change in the last thing they published.
Is there advice about writing you think is simply wrong?
Why ask it
Invites disagreement with received wisdom, which is where experienced writers are most interesting. Expect targets like writing every day, never using adverbs, or writing what you know.
What would you tell someone who wants to do this for a living?
Why ask it
Worth asking last, once the practical answers are on the table, because it will be shaped by everything they have already said rather than by the encouraging line they usually give.
Talking to a working writer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the conversation
- Read something of theirs, even a short piece. Writers can tell within a minute, and the whole conversation changes once they know you have.
- Check what they have said in other interviews so you are not asking the question they have answered forty times.
- Decide whether you want craft or career. Trying to cover both in twenty minutes tends to produce thin answers on each.
- If this is a public event, prepare fewer questions than you think you need. Two good ones and real follow-ups beat a list you race through.
What not to ask
- "Where do you get your ideas?" There is no answer to this, and every writer has been asked it since their first reading.
- Anything that asks them to read or assess your manuscript. It is a large unpaid request dressed as a compliment.
- "When is the next one out?" to a writer who has just finished one. Ask about the book in front of you instead.
- Whether characters are based on real people, unless the book invites it. It puts them in the position of discussing people who did not consent.
- Plot questions you could answer by finishing the book, which signal you have not.
Asking about money without it landing badly
Money questions are fine if they are about the trade rather than their bank balance. "How does an advance actually get paid out?" or "what proportion of writers you know support themselves on books alone?" gets you real information. "How much did you get for this?" does not, and it will close the conversation down. If you are asking because you are considering the career yourself, say so. Writers are usually generous about the economics when they understand you are trying to plan rather than to gossip.
Getting past the rehearsed answer
- Ask for the specific instance. "Which chapter?" or "which page?" turns a general reflection into something concrete.
- Ask what they tried that did not work before the version you read. This is where most of the craft is.
- Let a pause sit. Writers often add the honest part after a silence, once the tidy answer has been delivered.
- If an answer surprises you, say so and ask them to expand rather than moving to your next question.