Today’s Tiny Task in preparation for StoryADay May is to gather a cast of character you can audition for stories, when an ideas strikes you.
The prompts are great, but it’s going to be up to you to find characters to make them come alive. Remember:
Plot happens outside, but story happens inside
-Donald Maass, The Emotional Craft of Fiction
Create a list of five characters who are quite like you (this makes it easy to write about them quickly, since you only have to look inside for the ‘research’).
Ways they might be like you:
- External features: race, gender, socioeconomic status, job title, role at your work, role in your family, height, weight, athletic ability, hair color…
- Internal aspects: introversion/extraversion; math ability; reaction to stressful situations; likelihood you’ll stand up for someone in an argument; self-control; preferences for what you like to do in your free time; feelings about people who are different from you; willingness to ‘fit in’ in society…
Bonus points: make a list of ways those things about you a, frustrate and b, delight you. Think about how you might use that to create internal and external conflict, in a story.
Further Reading: Creating Compelling Characters
Discussion
Was it fun to think about writing a character that shares things in common with you? Or did you roll your eyes (do it anyway! It might save you on a day when the writing isn’t coming easily!)