One things she suggests, as a great way to go deep into your character, is to create a Character Journal.
The way to compile a Character Journal is to visualize yourself AS your character. You need to sit and tell yourself, "I am (my character), I am (my character)," until your mind and heart and body actually respond AS your character and not as you. Once you've hit that point, you have exercises of questions to ask yourself.
For the exercises, you want to spend about an hour just writing AS your character, and you need to be positive about the good stuff you WILL write. DO NOT expect to get through all the questions in one sitting. Expect to come back to them again and again, and expect to get new ideas and reasons and revelations each time you come back.
Here are some of the questions to start. I recommend checking out Alice Orr's book "No More Rejections" to get her full exercise in total, but these questions will (hopefully) give a jump start to you creativity.
One recommendation of my own: find a notebook, a journal, a memo pad, anything that reminds you of your character and that you can visualize your character using. It makes it a lot easier to go deep as your character.
Keep in mind these are not all the questions Alice Orr supplies. For her full exercise and advice on how to go about writing your journal, check out her book. It is fabulous.
Have fun with these!
Remember, write AS your character, not as you.
I. My Basic Biographical Information
My full name is____________________
I was born in (place name) ___________
My heritage is (racial, ethnic) _________
The other places I have lived are______
II. Additional Biographical Information
My birth (or adoptive) family consisted of…
The member of my family I am closest to is…because…
The member of my family I am most distant from is…because…
As a child, I would describe myself as…
The most significant experience of my childhood was…
As an adolescent, I would describe myself as…
The most significant experience of my adolescence was…
My education background is…
My general health is…
III. My Physical Characteristics:
What I like about the way I look is…
What I hate about the way I look is…
I believe that other people think I look…
My style of dress is…because…
IV. My General Character Traits:
If you ask me what I’m like as a person, I’d say I’m…because…
I would describe my habits (neatness vs. sloppiness) as…
I would describe my attitude toward life in general as…
V. My Outstanding Character Traits:
The most significant thing I’ve ever discovered about myself is…
The thing I believe in most strongly is…because…
The thing I care most about in life is…because…
The thing I enjoy, or have enjoyed, most in my life is…
The thing I dislike most in life is…because…
VI. My Personal History:
I have worked in the following jobs…
My future professional ambitions are to…
My favourite hobby or leisure time activity is…because…
My best friend ever was…because...
My current place of residence is…I like or dislike it there because…
VII. My emotional history:
I am most inhibited in the area of…because…
I have a phobia about…because…
My greatest frustration in life is (or was)…because…
My greatest regret in life is (or was)…because…
The time in my life I was most enraged was…because…
The time in my life I was most humiliated was…because…
The time in my life I was most heartbroken was…because…
The time in my life I was most excited was…because…
My deepest fear in life is…because…
My darkest secret is…because...
I hope you discover a dynamic character with these questions!
God bless.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing this, Cat.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Kelly. I found this in a drawer, and I wasn't sure I'd posted it before. I'm glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Katrina. This is awesome. I do something similar - not as detailed. Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cat. I'm in need of a jump start with one of my characters. Maybe this will do the trick.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Avgusta says hi. Thanks for stopping by my blog..
ReplyDeleteWow, that's an awesome idea- I am going to have to try it... :D
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the best?
ReplyDeleteDawn, me too! I TRY to be more thorough... but I get caught up in the WRITING. :)
Luv, I hope so!
J.O. Jones, nice to have you and Avgusta stop by here! Thanks for comin' over.
ReplyDeleteBree, nice to have you here! I hope this helps you.
Characters are a definite key to success and keeping them consistent throughout the book is critical. Knowing them as if you were them is definitely a good idea. Thanks Cat.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Cleemckenzie! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Cat,
ReplyDeleteI usually do stream-of-conscious freewriting on my characters, but these are wonderful questions to consider! I'll use this as a checklist. And you've just recommended a writing book I haven't read ... so thanks for this post, Cat!