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A Character Development Writing Exercise
Journaling From Your Characters' Perspectives
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?
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Similar exercises
Get your creative juices flowing with these similar writing prompts.
Put Yourself In Someone Else's Shoes
Choose a character and think of ways they'd react to things that happened during your (the writer's) day. Use your experiences, think how you reacted, and then how your character would have reacted. Possible events: cut off in traffic, caught in the rain, missed an important meeting, lost a valuable item.
Talent Show
Your protagonist has been asked to showcase a little-known, unusual talent at a community fair's talent contest. Begin on stage and show not only the performer but also the crowd's reaction to this talent unveiling.
Musicals
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?
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The Gatsby Method
Establishing how your character is perceived by others is a great way to give them greater context. It can provide the author with expectations to subvert for the reader and add an interesting mystique to the character. To give the Gatsby Method a go, write a scene in which your character is only present through the candid descriptions of him/her by others.
A Whole Week
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.
