Three Ways to Talk with Characters

    Talking with characters is a great writing experience. Putting the "we talk to imaginary people" jokes aside, it's both an indicator and a writing tool. Being able to construct a realistic and interesting conversation with a character is a sign of how deep and well written a character is. And as a writing tool, conversations with characters can give an opportunity to develop the character more, and bring up important factors in their backstory that wouldn't come up in the written manuscript. Plus, frankly, having a talk with interesting figures (even if they're fictional) can be really fun.
    A couple forms of talking with characters include:
   Narratives. These would be just like regular scenes that focus on questioning, told from the point of view of either the questioner (oneself, the writer) or the character being questioned. Like this:

    "So," the stranger said to John. "What's your favorite color?"

    John had a really deep feeling that he knew this person somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Nevertheless, he decided to go with it. "Red, I guess."

    It's really great how one can get an in to the character's thoughts through scenes like this; it gives more room for developing the inner details (emotions, immediate thoughts, minute gestures), which formal interview scenes can't really do. Plus, narratives are a good exercise for balancing actions, thoughts, dialogue, and descriptions. However, unfortunately, narrative scenes like this have an upsetting potential for going down rabbit holes (leading away from the planned questions), and finding smooth ways to go from question to question can be pretty tough.
     Interviews. Very different than narratives, formal interviews are usually solely dialogue and the occasional action tag. To avoid the temptation of adding description or excessive action tags, it's helpful to write it as a script like this:

    Writer: What's your favorite color?

    Character: Uh . . . [squints, deep in thought] blue, maybe?

    Interviews are a little quicker than narrative scenes because one doesn't have to mention action in the background, every single gesture the character makes, and setting descriptions are cut out completely. One can just go down a list of questions naturally, and while avoiding (most) rabbit trails. The downside to this sort of chat though is that sometimes it can be difficult to come up with really deep questions (deeper prompts than "What's your favorite color?"), and gauging reactions without descriptive gestures can be tricky.
    Mental conversations. It can actually be done out loud, but being quiet about it is probably best, since it really is awkward to be seen talking to a wall. Having a mental conversation is just like it sounds; basically just thinking out a conversation between oneself and a character. No plans, no outlines, just daydreaming. Such a conversation might go like this:

    "So, what's your favorite color?"
    "My favorite color? Why on earth do you want to know that?"
    "Uh . . . curiosity?"
    "Funny thing to be curious about . . ."

    This is the easiest and quickest way to talk with a character, and it can bring out the character's strongest voice, but it's also sort of the least reliable way to get information unless one is somehow recording the chat. An audio recording would catch everything if the conversation is spoken aloud, and a few quick notes on the important subjects (like a unique term the character tends to use) can be just as effective. However, if diligent notes aren't taken, and there's no record whatsoever, the risk of forgetting what could have been useful is very, very, very high.
    Talking with characters; what's your view on the matter? Do you ever do it? Do you use any methods other than these three?