Build A Character

Have some fun building a character

I’m sorry I’ve been absent for a while. I’ve been having some health issues. I’ve spent way more time in doctor’s offices than anyone should. However, things are settling down into the “new normal” as they say. I do have a big announcement about Wordmaster Academy coming later this week. But now back to some fun activities for writers.

I believe that writer's groups should do more than just talk about writing or hear writers talk about writing. I like to engage them in actual writing or doing creative exercises. This one is great for either group or individual exercise.

 Here's what you do. Get a bunch of file cards and a box with dividers. Create 10 dividers: Occupation, gender, age, nationality, height, weight, age, mood, general outlook on life, conversational style, and novel characteristics.

Create cards under each of these categories. Keep adding to them as other characteristics come to mind. As a warm-up to a writing session, pull cards at random out of the box. You might end up with a female prizefighter who is currently depressed. However, she usually has an optimistic outlook on life. She is indirect in her conversational style, and she writes poetry on the side.

Take about ten minutes and write a bit of her story. Where is she now? How did she get there? What is she doing? Another idea is to interview this person on paper.

As a co-operative exercise, you and another person could both pull out cards; together you create a small scene with your characters and perform it for your writers’ group.

You probably won't use these precise characters in a story, but you might get some ideas for creating complex characters.