46 Best Character Development Writing Exercises

Describe each day of the week as if it were a person. Give each one personality traits, a job, and a goal. Write a short story about them.

Describe the same character twice. Once as the hero of a story and once as the antagonist.

Your character's story has been Disney-fied. At what point in the arc does your protagonist break out into song - and what is that song about?

Your protagonist meets your villain for the first time - on a blind date. What happens?

Transplant your character into an entirely new location. It could be a new country, city, or continent. How do they react to the new surroundings?

Set a timer and start free-writing from one of your character's perspectives. Try to really get inside their head - what do they want, what ticks them off, what do they feel passionate about? Are they writing in a diary, telling a story to a friend, or dictating a formal letter?

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind, but not in one ahead" _ Bill McGlashen. Your protagonist is one or the other. Pick one, and roll with it. Go!

Your protagonist has just been bequeathed $5 million dollars. The money came from an anonymous benefactor who wants your protagonist to donate all of it to five charities. How does your protagonist react? In a short story, write down what would happen next.

In order to dive deeper into your character's emotional depths, ask a round of questions - both probing and seemingly innocuous alike. (Hey, you never know when your character's favorite choice of ice cream topping might come in handy!) While we encourage you to build and refine your own set of questions, these questionnaires will provide solid inspiration for now: Arthur Aron's 36 Questions That Lead to Love, and The Proust Questionnaire.

"There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin'. Now, people who talk the talk, when it comes time for them to walk the walk, you know what they do? They talk people like me into walkin' for them," said Key in the 2005 film Hustle and Flow. Which of these two types are your characters? Write down an exchange between two of your characters that confronts this very difference between them.