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Remember the game show “So you want to be a millionaire?”

Contestants were allowed to phone a friend  for help.

I ran a game like that when when I taught 6th grade literature. We would discuss the reading and I asked everyone questions going right down the rows. If they didn’t know the answer they could “phone a friend.” It was a way to discuss the work, keep them interested, and hold them accountable for the reading.

The questions I choose were a mix of deep thematic questions, easy peasy questions(what color cloak was worn by the wizard who bumped into Vernon Dursley in the first pages of the first HP), what did Harry really want?

If I was on that show I would want my dad, my brother’s friend Paul(he tutored me in math my entire high school life) and for a third it ran between my 10th grade bio teacher or journalist Patt Morrison who knows everything about everything– kind of like my dad knew everything about everything.

BTW I loved playing trivial pursuit in high school and college.

Where is this going?

I love it when my real life helps me come up with new character questions that aid their development!

I have a new character question for you.

Who would your character call for advice, for bail, for an airport pickup(in Los Angeles that is practically a proposal of marriage) or to run away?

Who will help your character bury a dead body, rescue a kidnapped child or drive them to their colonoscopy?

What questions can you answer and what are pertinent to your story?

P.S.

(the cloak was violet)