workshop: creating characters that leap off the page
Mark Peter Hughes
nescbwi workshop 2007/05/19
The following exercises are intended only as a way of sparking the imagination as we try to create vibrant, memorable, real-seeming fictional characters:
EXERCISE #1: FIRST BROAD STROKES
A. Who is your character? What does s/he want and why? What is his/her problem?
Fill in the blanks:
_______________ is a ___________-year-old _______________
who wants _______________ because __________________
but __________________ gets in the way. (Voila! Conflict!)
If you’re having trouble getting started, here are a few ideas to help trigger your imagination. Your character could be:
based on your own writing – one you’d like to flesh out
* based on a real person in your life
* a child/teen with a dark secret
* a wealthy and lonely older person
* a rebel whose mother has died
* an underachiever who’s being bullied at school
* a character totally from your own imagination
* based on a real person in your life
* a child/teen with a dark secret
* a wealthy and lonely older person
* a rebel whose mother has died
* an underachiever who’s being bullied at school
* a character totally from your own imagination
B. Choose two words to describe your character. Write them below:
1.
2.
--------------------
In the best writing, character is often revealed through showing, not telling. The following are some exercises designed to 1) help the writer imagine more fully fleshed-out, riveting characters, and 2) suggest ways of revealing those characters skillfully on the page.
EXERCISE #2: REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH SETTING
Setting can convey a lot about a character. How much can we learn about a person just by looking around their personal spaces (whether it’s their bedroom, kitchen, car, closet…or whatever)? What is revealed about their everyday lives, about what’s important to them and what isn’t, about who they are?
Describe at least 5 things that can be found in your character’s bedroom. They can be obvious or hidden. Be sure to choose details that say something about who your character is.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
EXERCISE #3: REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH DIALOGUE
What is revealed about a character through his/her verbal connections with others? What can we learn about them through dialogue that we might not learn in other ways?
Your character has just walked into a room only to find that the one person s/he dislikes most in the world has been waiting for him/her to arrive. The two of them get into an argument. What things do these people do or say to each other? How are they feeling? Write out the beginning of this discussion. Describing only dialogue and body language, show their emotions without naming them.
EXERCISE #4: REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH VOICE
What is voice? Unlike dialogue, which is literally what a character says out loud, voice is the unique way a character thinks, delivers information, tells a story. It’s often most clearly found in the non-dialogue narration of a first-person story, but it’s always there, even in third person (although in that case the narrative voice is often the voice of the narrator, not necessarily the protagonist).
One good way to develop your character’s voice is through a journal.
Imagine that your character keeps a daily diary. Write one day. Make sure you are careful to stay in your character’s ‘voice.’
EXERCISE #5: REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH CLOTHING
What we wear says a lot about who we are: our social status, our attitudes to those around us, even how our day is going. Clothing can be an effective tool for developing a character, and/or for “showing” character on the page without “telling.”
Imagine your character at school (or at a new friend’s house, or at a party thrown by older kids). Describe what s/he is wearing—find a way for the clothes to reveal something about the character, perhaps focus on one item. Why is your character wearing this? Did they choose it—why? Does it fit? How is it different from what your character normally wears when s/he is flopping around the house? Is your character happy about the way s/he looks? Why or why not? What does the clothing say about your character?
ADDITIONAL CHARACTER-REVEALING EXERCISES AND QUESTIONS:
Think about a time in your character’s life when they were especially worried or anxious. How did that anxiety get expressed? Imagine if a stranger had happened to be in the same place as your character at that moment. Write out the scene from the stranger’s perspective. Don’t tell, but show what the stranger might have seen. Does you character interact with the stranger? If so, how? And what does that reveal about your character? About the stranger?
Describe your character's best friend.
List three things your character likes to do for fun.
How does your character react to a loud person sitting directly in front of him or her in a movie theater? What does s/he do?
List five things that bother him/her.
List the items in your character’s pockets (or luggage, handbag or living room).
How does your character treat strangers on a subway? How about friends of friends at the grocery store? Homeless people on the street? His or her mother?
Who are your character’s heroes? List at least three. Why does your character admire them?
Your character is eating his or her favorite meal. Describe it. How does s/he eat? Where is s/he eating the meal? Who cooked it?
Describe the life your character would like to be living in five years? Why? Is this something they think about a lot? When? Have they ever thought about it?
Write a biography of your character. Where was he born? Where does he live now? Who does he live with? What type of house? How did he get his name or nickname? What are his parents like? His brothers, his and sisters, his uncles and aunts? Is he rich or poor? What sports does he like? Is he a musician? What about school--does he go? Does he like it? Why or why not? Did he ever have a pet? What happened to it? Write down everything you can think of about your character, whether or not you plan to use it in your story. The more you know about your character, the more your confidence will show up on the page.
Now write an autobiography of your character. Be sure to write it in your character’s voice.
Imagine yourself as a psychologist, and your character has just walked into your office. Interview her. What does she say to you? What does she want? What are her fears and desires? Ask her questions. Why does she do the things she does, want the things she wants, fear the things she fears? What does she think about the various other members of her family (or her friends)? What parts of her past have affected your character’s emotional life? How does your character’s inner life affect the way she thinks, the way she interacts with other people, the way she talks to herself? What does she say in response? Is she telling the truth? What is the real truth?
Listen carefully to your friends, your family, yourself, or even strangers you come across. Watch them over a long period of time. What is it about them that makes them uniquely themselves? Pay attention to the clothes they wear, things they say, how they speak, the way they sit, stand, walk, eat, chew gum—anything that you might be able to use as you create new and interesting new characters. (Caution: It might be unwise to create a character entirely based on someone you know. Better to make a few significant changes to avoid issues!)
Keep a diary as your character. Add to it every day.
Pick an important scene from your story and try rewriting it from a different point of view as one of the other (minor) characters. Become this character and see how he or she talks, feels, react in the situation. How does this character describe the main character and what he or she does or says?
Join a writing critique group.