A Way To Get To Know Your Character

[Cia]

Since there has been question on how to create 'original' work, or just to find motivation to write something new, I thought I would post this topic. This was a very interesting exercise on the free online creative writing course I have been exploring. This session is titled, Writing Characters. I'm going to post the exercises here. I know some people say they start a story with a plot idea, some start with a character, some start with the dynamic between two characters. No matter what gives you the idea, without three dimensional characters who you can fully realize to the reader, your story will fall flat. Try one or all these small exercises to get a good picture in your head and then see what happens. Perhaps you will get a new story idea from it. Or, if you don't want to use 'new' characters, pick one you are writing or have written and get to know them a little better. If you are interested in the rest of the course by The Crafty Writer, check it out on her website, HERE Also, check out the poll. If you guys like this I will try to dig up more helpful small workshop ideas to help refine your skills to create characters and plots.

 

Exercise 17:

Find some pictures of people. Beautiful people, interesting people, ugly people – it doesn’t matter. Ask yourself who they are. How did they get there? Where are they going next? What is their relationship to one another? How did they first meet? Do they like each other? Do the answers suggest the beginning of a story or a poem? If so, start writing.

 

Exercise 18:

Take one of the characters from Exercise 17 or, if you prefer, a character from something you are already writing, and ask yourself what are their best and worst memories. How do these memories affect them now? What would trigger these memories? A song? A smell? A phrase? An object? Now write a short scene in which a memory is triggered.

 

Exercise 19:

Ask your character to empty their pockets or their bag onto a table. What comes out? Why does your character have those things with them? Now let your character choose an object and ask them to tell you why it’s important to them. It would be useful to let them speak in first person, that way you can hear their voice.

Exercise 20:

Take the character you worked on in Exercise 19 and ask yourself what he or she wants. Is this ‘want’ big enough to hang an entire plot off? What might he or she do to achieve their goal?

 

Exercise 21:

Now that you’ve determined what your character wants, ask yourself what stands in his or her way. Try to unearth multiple layers of conflict through other characters (easily achieved by giving your protagonist and antagonist opposing goals), external situations outside of their control (a fire, a storm, a traffic jam etc) and an inner conflict stemming from what you discovered about their fears in Exercise 18.

[Andrew Q Gordon]

Okay since no one else answered you, I figured I'd suck up and be the first - after lugh told us all you're scary I want to stay on your good side.

 

For me, no these were not helpful, at least not at this time. Too little time too much to do. I think the exercise is useful because often you read stories and you don't know squat about the characters other than what they are doing. Do they like grape soda? oatmeal cookies? Scooby Doo, Shaggy or Thelma? Do they hate storms? Like the fall? Hate sports? Etc. It's the little quirks in a character that make them memorable and draw readers in. So yeah this would be useful. It's a good way to get inside the character heads.

 

So maybe later I'll get back to this, but for now, I'm a tad busy

[Cia]

Okay, I can understand that. I wasn't intending that everyone had to do them all at one go, or even do all of them, though some obviously can build on the others. For those who want something short that can really help you with both your character's appearance and their part of the story try this next exercise. This could be a helpful bit of information to keep when you are writing a serial story. Most people wouldn't write a story this way but for reference and to get to 'know' your character, it's very handy.

 

Exercise: Write a single paragraph where your character introduces themselves. Try letting them talk in first person so you really get to 'hear' them, even if your story isn't in first. You can do a monologue or you can do one of those cliche intros you see sometimes in stories.

 

I'm going to use an old character of mine, just so that anyone who has read it can see how you could then incorporate the mental picture into your story as you write.

 

For example:

 

Hey, I'm Tap! Well, to everyone at home and school except my mom when I'm in trouble, then I'm Patrick Seamus Leeran. To the baseball team I'm the catcher, the gay catcher, but they don't care as long as I'm squatting behind home plate during games. Oh god! That might sound dirty. I don't mean catcher like that, I'm a virgin and not ashamed of it either, though I am seventeen so it's not like I feel the need to shout it during gym class. I have had my eye on this cute little guy though. He just moved here and he has to stand a full foot below my 6'5" height. My best friend Neri noticed and told me just to intoduce myself. She likes to tease me and call me 'Golden Boy' cause of my light brown hair and tan, plus she says I just seem to have life go the way I want it. Well I want life to let me get to know the new kid. He looks so sad. I bet a big hug would make him smile. I better take a jacket to school though, if I'm going to be making him smile, or I'm going to embarrass myself. God, he's cute.

 

I tried to capture not just his 'details' but some of his personality traits. The way he likes to tease a bit and have fun, the way he feels protective and also lustful over Dane (he is 17 after all), and a bit about his family/friends dynamic. Try it with your characters from an ongoing or new story and see if it helps!

[Lugh]

One thing that helps me to get to know my characters are character interviews. I find them more interesting than random exercises but they do require other people to play along. I guess the same things can be learned, but I dunno, it's just more interactive, and I like interactive sometimes.

[Nephylim]

Personally I don't find any writing exercises or prompts useful. For me they get in the way of the writing.

 

I could easily take a few days to complete the exercises you've listed above and I would do nothing with the work I produced and to me that's a waste of time.

 

I have to admit that I'm not really sure how anyone would benefit from them. It's just a piece of writing that isn't productive from my point of view

[Mark Arbour]

Personally I don't find any writing exercises or prompts useful. For me they get in the way of the writing.

 

I could easily take a few days to complete the exercises you've listed above and I would do nothing with the work I produced and to me that's a waste of time.

 

I have to admit that I'm not really sure how anyone would benefit from them. It's just a piece of writing that isn't productive from my point of view

 

I feel the same way. I can see how some people may find it helpful, but I personally don't.

[Cia]

I like doing it for when I am feeling stuck on a story or a character I'm writing is bothering me. Sometimes I'll stop and think of each major character and use that to get their voice and image clear. Then I save the 'character blurbs' in a file to refer to as I write. Hair color, eyes, height, full name... Maybe it's just me but I hate having to try going back through the chapters to keep all that straight. With all the stories I write and read and edit... I HAVE to do that or I forget stuff.

[Nephylim]

I tend to write information like that right at the end of the story, I mean the piece that I am writing. I don't have a problem actually keeping the character straight because i know them very personally

[Cia]

I think you are both more organic with your writing than I am. I think about the mechanics of what I am writing and how I am writing. Rarely I get a story that just hits me and I don't have to work to visualize it. I think that is why I will always consider myself a much better reader than writer. But at least all the looking up rules and how to's help me help others!