Today’s Tiny Task in preparation for StoryADay May is to expand your pool of available characters in a different direction.

Make a list of characters who are unlike you in specific ways.

• External features: External features: race, gender, socioeconomic status, job title, role at your work, role in your family, height, weight, athletic ability, hair color…
• Internal features: how your character reacts to stress; how they talk to people; their attitude to people who are different from them; their level of courage and fear (not the same things!); their ability to control their emotions; what they would define as a ‘good’ outcome in any situation…

It can help to think of specific people who are very unlike you–whether you admire or despise aspects of their behavior–and make a list of the actions they take, the words they say, the body language they employ, that help you understand how they are different from you (remember that, in storytelling, showing how characters act can be more powerful than simply giving us the narrator/protagonist’s opinions).

Further reading: a writing prompt

Discussion

Are you excited to write about characters who are not like you? Were you able to identify aspects of specific people that are different from you? What kinds of roles will these characters take in a story? (Will they always be the antagonist/bad guy, or did you list some features you admire, too?