It's all about posting a writing exercise and trying out other people's. My favourite writing exercise is actually more of a characterisation exercise.
The Character Interview!
- Imagine you're a journalist, writing a column for your favourite newspaper/magazine.
- Pick a character you've been having problems with
- Invite him or her to your office, offer them coffee/tea/lemonade
- Play 20 questions with them! All questions must be relevant to the character and/or the plot. He/she asks you about things that will or did happen in the story, you ask him/her about what they think, feel, whatever.
- Rinse and repeat as necessary ; P
I absolutely adore this exercise. Many, many of my plot and character problems have resolved themselves during these interviews. Sometimes, we (the character & I) discover entirely new storylines and plot points. I can definitely recommend this, particularly if you're suffering from writers' block!
Have fun!
ps. here's some character interviews I've done before:
9 comments:
That sounds like fun! I like the 100 things about my character excersise too. By the time you're done, you know them inside and out.
Great exercise Tessa - I'll give it a whirl and let you know - good timing, I am having a LOT of trouble with one main character and think they need a total overhaul!
Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers
Good exercise. I did something similar for another blogfest.
@Creepy: 100 things? Haven't tried that yet but I think I will!
@Charmaine: Thanks for this blogfest! What a cool idea to get writing.
@Alex: There was a character interview blogfest once, did you mean that? And also THANK YOU for being such a faithful commenter! We must be online at similar times for you to always pop in so soon after I post, LOL. LUV YA!
Hi Tessa. I found you through Captain Alex. Glad to join your following and I'm always up for a hate fest.
Cheers!
I love this exercise! I've done it before and it really does help!
The Write Soil
I love your fun take! Inviting them for lemonade adds to the magic of ease. We need to relax to let the ideas flow~ Great Ideas~
Great exercise! I often use the 20 questions part to create characters as well. I'll pre-determine 20 crazy questions (chocolate or vanilla? designer label or off the rack?) then I let the flip of a coin determine the outcome. Voila! A character full of quirks and contradictions.
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