Character is one of the
biggest parts of writing. Any kind of writing. Who's telling the story?
Why are they telling it? Why should I care? The exercises below cover a
wide range or character related "stuff." There's the simple who is your
character? as well as the point of view from which your character speaks
(or you speak about the character). There are flat characters and round.
As I've never come across someone who has had trouble with ~not~ making
the character come alive, these exercises focus on how to breathe life
into a character and make them believable, as well as worth reading about.
Take a look at the Character Profile to really go indepth on a particular
character. Also, check out all the Emotion exercises. All of those deal, in one way or another, with character development.
1. Have a character you've
created introduce you, describe you. Do they like how you write about them?
What do they feel about what you put them through?
2. Write a scene involving
at least two people and some kind of action or event. Use a single viewpoint
character, either in first or limited third person, who is involved in
the occurance. Give the character's thoughts and feelings in their own
words. Do this with a character you don't particularly like, but remain
true to them. Remember, you're writing from their view point, so your biases
shouldn't show through.
3. Describe a character
by describing a place they frequent (bedroom, favourite coffee shop, prison
cell, etc).
4. Write a page or two
of pure dialogue. Write this like a play. A and B are your characters (no
other names allowed). Don't give any stage directions. No character descriptions.
Just dialogue. Everything that the reader needs to know has to come from
what the characters say -- but the characters aren't speaking to the audience.
They're only talking to each other. The audience is eavesdropping.
5. Take one of your characters.
Change their gender. Write.
6. What you're about
to write with this exercise shouldn't exceed two pages, as you're going
to be writing it a second time. The subject: an old woman is washing the
dishes, editting a Ph.D. dissertation, cleaning her dentures, or anything
else that an old woman might be doing. While she's doing this, she's thinking
about an event that occured in her youth. Write this sketch by "intercutting"
the two times. "Now" is the kitchen, the desk, whatever, and "then" is
what happened when she was young. Your narration will move back and forth
between "now" and "then." Minimum of two time shifts. In the first version,
choose a point of view (first or third, second is not recommended for this
exercise) and a tense (all in past, "now" in past and "then" in present,
all in present tense, or "now" in past and "then" in present tense). The
second version in the other point of view -- if you chose first, do third.
Also, choose a different tense to write this second version in. Don't worry
about keeping the wording identical, and don't change word endings and
"I" to "she." By actually writing it over and making these changes,
a new telling will emerge, and new aspects of the story will emerge.
7. Either write or take
an old scene of several people involved in an event -- such as accident.
Several means at least three. Tell the story using several different view
point characters in limited third person. Change from one to the other
as the story proceeds. Use line breaks to indicate the change in pov. Then
do it without line breaks or any other visible indicator of the pov switch.
Try for a different narrative technique, as opposed to just removing line
breaks.
8. Think about monsters.
All types. Scary types that hide under your bed and mean waiters who spit
on your salad. Write about them from their point of view.
9. Take two or three
people you know in real life. List their characteristics separately. Then
take a few characteristics from each and use them to create a new character.
Don't worry about contradictions -- they'll just add to the character's
being more human.
10. This works well at
a party, but you can also do it for your characters. Have a character in
mind and ask them these kinds of questions: If you were a cat, what kind
would you be? If you were a tree, what kind would you be? If you were a
piece of music, what piece would you be? If you want to add difficulty
and interest, ask in two sets: what kind would you be, and what kind would
you ~want~ to be.
11. Think about a character's
defining moment. What made you notice them? What makes you connect with
them? What makes them interesting to you?
12. Grab a handful of
your main characters. Put them all in one place and have them interact
with each other.
13. This following is
great for net-junkie-insomniacs. Go to a chat room (better yet, a roleplaying
chat room. You can find such in the Rivendell Realm) and "play" your character. Have
them interact with the others in the room. See what they do. Stay true
to who they are. You can also use this method to develop a new character.
14. Write from the point
of view of a victim, but don't make them pitiful. Make them a real person,
with all the strengths and failings of real people. They're simply caught
in a very unfortunate situation -- such as a mugging or they're aboard
the Titanic. How do they act? What do they think?
15. Write a story where X wants Y, but Z doesn't want X to have Y. Make it subtle. Here is an example. It's from Russel Edson's The Tunnel.
A man ambushed a stone.
Caught it. Made it a prisoner. Put it in a dark room and stood guard over
it for the rest of his life.
His mother asked why.
He said, because it's
held captive, because it is the captured.
Look, the stone is asleep,
she said, it does not know whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and
the stone are mother and daugther; it is you who are getting old. The stone
is only sleeping.
But I caught it, mother,
it is mine by conquest, he said.
A stone is nobody's,
not even its own. It is you who are conquered; you are minding the prisioner,
which is yourself, because you are afraid to go out, she said.
Yes yes, I am afraid,
because you have never loved me, he said.
Which is true, because
you have always been to me as the stone is to you, she said.
16. Create a list of
words. Take two of your characters that you want to develop and get to
know better. Using your character/s, evoke one of the words in a page or
less, never actually using the word. This works well over a period of several
weeks, doing one of these exercises every other day or so.
17. Write about a character
from the context of their work environment. What do they do at work? What
do they think? Who do they meet? Who do they avoid? Do this from the character's
point of view.
18. If a story just won't
progress any farther, try changing the point of view. New opinions on events
can never hurt.
19. Describe a character
in that character's own language and tone, using words the character would.
You may need a dictionary.
20. Write a piece in
which the narrator isn't entirely forthcoming; as if they're holding something
back from the reader.
21. Write a character
sketch of an alter-ego, yours or a character's.
22. Write about a stranger
you see on the street. Describe their physical appearance, their mannerisms,
creating their story as you go along.
23. Write a short story
(no more than five pages) in which the protagonist seems to be weaker than
the forces opposing him/her. Give the character one balancing strength.
Let the character triumph.
24. Keep a journal daily
for two weeks. Each day, write a paragraph about a character drawn from
memory, observation, or invention. Each day, also go back and add to a
former characterization. Focus on details: try to invent a past, motives,
memories and situations that interest you.
25. Below is a familiar
list of "types," each of them comic or unsympathetic to the degree that
they've become cliche. Write a short character sketch of one or two of
them, but individualizing the character through particular details that
will make the reader sympathize and/or identify with the character.
Absent-minded professor
Lazy laborer
Rock band groupie
Aging film star
Domineering wife
Timid husband
Tyrannical boss
Staggering drunk
26. Write a character
sketch by describing the contents of that character's garbage can or wastebasket.
27. Try writing a character
sketch without any of the elements of "type." The reader should not be
able to determine the age, gender, nationality, profession, or class of
your gender. Can you do it? Is it satisfying?
28. Briefly describe
a character that is as unlike yourself as you can imagine. Then go inside
the character's head and give them one mental habit, desire, fear, love,
or longing that you have. Make the reader see the character as good because
of it.
29. Create a new character
and write about them employing the four elements of direct presentation:
appearance, action, speech, thought. Use no authorical interpretation.
Put one element in conflict with the other three.
30. Write a scene in
which the central character does something seemingly outrageous -- violent,
cruel, foolhardy, obscene, etc. Let the reader, via seeing into the character's
mind, know that the character is behaving justly, kindly or reasonably.
Now switch it. Have the character do something seeminly kind or prudent
and let the reader know that the character is in truth acting cruelly,
selfishly, etc.
31. Compose a list of
things you hate. Now create a character who loves one or more of those
things. Write from their point of view.
32. Compose a list of
jobs. Write about a person who has that job.
33. Find a picture of
a person you don't know. It could be a picture from a magazine, an old
family album, or a billboard. Create this person. What are they doing?
Why are they doing it?
34. Put a character in
a completely unfamiliar or dangerous situation. How do they react? What
do they do?
35. Take a character
shopping. See what they buy, what kinds of stores they go into, what kinds
they avoid. Are they quick and effecient or do they like to take their
time? Do they bargain shop? Do they take the first thing that strikes their
fancy? How do they treat money? Are they chatty with the sales people?
36. Take a short piece that you've written. It shouldn't be more than 300 words, yet it should be complete. Rewrite it, changing the point of view. Do this for all points of view. First, second, third limited and omnisceint. If you're feeling really ambitious, change the character who is telling the story, not simply the narrator voice. How does the story change when you do this?