NaNo is coming! It’s about 20 days away… already. It’s coming up fast and there’s no stopping it.
Some people outline their novels, some people don’t. There are some people who do quick writing exercises or prompts as practice to prep for the upcoming writing streak. Some people don’t.
No matter what you do or don’t do, that’s okay. I personally love to outline and I love to try new things with my characters to get to know them a little better.
So, here’s a fun exercise to do with your characters.
I got this idea from my 15-year-old cousin. She had English homework one night and had to do this for the protagonist of her summer reading book.
I have to admit, I was a bit jealous. I never had fun homework like that.
The idea is to think a bit outside the box and to get to know your characters on a deeper level. To the naked eye, it doesn’t make sense, but to a writer, it’s pretty clever.
So, ask yourself this:
Is your protagonist (or any character) more like…
- May or December?
- A Jeep, a Corvette, a Saturn, or a Mercedes Benz?
- Brown or blue?
- The letter A, the letter M, or the letter Z?
- Vanilla ice cream or chocolate mousse?
- New York, San Fransico, Salt Lake City, or New Orleans?
- A hammer or a nail?
- White, rye, or pumpernickel bread?
- A short story, a poem, an essay, or a play?
- Soap or dirt?
- Fire, water, earth, or air?
- A lock or a key?
- The comics, the sports section, the business report, or the editorial page?
- A snowstorm or a rainy day?
- A horse show, a hockey match, or a track-and-field event?
- A forest fire or a mountain stream?
- A TV game show, a soap opera, a situation comedy, or a drama?
- Science fiction, mystery, romance, or horror?
- A cat, a dog, or a goldfish?
My cousin’s teacher had the class do this on themselves first so they could get a feel for the assignment. My cousin said she was more like “pumpernickel bread” because it’s a funny word. That right there actually sums up her personality. She’s a funny person and can sometimes be a dope. The fact that she immediately thought “pumpernickel” was a funny word and laughed just sums it all up.
With this exercise, you can get to the heart of your characters. It seems silly and random, but you just might learn something new about them.
Good tips since most stories should be character driven. However, I’m working on Book III for this NaNo (you’d think I’d have book I edited and complete before moving on:-)) Therefore I already know my characters.
It’s a fun thing to do anyway. Good luck with book three. I know exactly what you mean about working on the sequels before officially completing the first one. 😉
And I didn’t mention the backlog of short stories. I could put together a sizeable collection. 🙂
Will you be working on that in November too?
They’re written, only editing left. I only plan on writing for this NaNo.
Well good luck with the editing when you get back to it!
Dec. 1st
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
Giving characters life is a challenge unless you have an immediate idea of who they are. Rowling says all her characters came to her in a flash, already dressed up.
I agree. You need to be able to let them breath on the paper.
This is amazing. I also didn’t have fun homework like this.
Right? How did that happen? My cousin actually enjoyed it as well.
I would’ve as well. 🙂
Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
If you’re preparing for NaNoWriMo, you’ll want to check out this post from author Rachel Poli’s blog on preparatory steps around getting to know your characters.
I am so doing this for my protagonist and three other main characters in my NaNoWriMo prep. It’ll help me get a better comparison gauge on the one of those that I don’t have a very good bead on yet.
Good luck with it! I hope you have fun with it. It’s certainly an interesting exercise. 🙂
Certainly. Because I’m doing all four at the same time, I’m also writing in short, horoscope-like explanations for each thing. Except for the car and bread ones, I think I need to do actual research before deciding on those.
Horoscopes are a good idea too. Have fun!
Sounds a lot more interesting than most of the character outline stuff I’ve done. I’ll have to try it out. Thanks for sharing!!
Have fun with it! And I hope it helps. 🙂
I’m always a fan of non-conventional character development. It works a lot better for me instead of the questionnaires.
Yeah, it’s fun to think outside the box a bit!
Great tips 🙂
Thanks a lot.
That’s one of the cleverest ‘getting to know your character’ excercices I’ve ever seen! I’m going to adopt it! 🙂
Me too! I didn’t understand it at first, my cousin had to really explain it to me. But it seems like it’d be great.