Create Compelling Characters
Warm Up
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I use the warm up much as a dancer, athlete or musician warms up before rehearsal or performance. Writing warm ups create flow between feelings, thoughts and words which are then transcribed onto paper or screen by fingers.
We began Session Twos with a dialogue warm up. We wrote a conversation between two people in Harwich. A few opening lines as prompts helped:
'Would you like to share my umbrella?’ ‘Have you seen this?’ ‘When was the last time you saw him?' |
Many of these quick sprint warm ups told a story in a few lines of dialogue directly from the mouths of the characters.
One character said nothing but 'No!' many times. Another pair simple reaffirmed, with humorous effect, that they were both 'Awright?'
Listening to conversations, finding the cadences and rhythms of a characters' speech, gives them their own, unique voice.
Listen to overheard conversations and make a note in your notebook which by now, goes everywhere with you!
One character said nothing but 'No!' many times. Another pair simple reaffirmed, with humorous effect, that they were both 'Awright?'
Listening to conversations, finding the cadences and rhythms of a characters' speech, gives them their own, unique voice.
Listen to overheard conversations and make a note in your notebook which by now, goes everywhere with you!
I once named a character Frank Matisse, but he acted older than his age; and for some reason he wouldn’t talk as much as I wanted him to. I changed his name to Jack Delany and couldn’t shut him up. |
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Questions to ask your characters
Questions to ask your characters (click here for questions to ask your characters)
WHO are they? Begin with their physical, present reality;
who are they, how old, male or female, name...
HOW are they? Their current emotional state at the start of the story (or what is their problem? This is usually what triggers the story and leads to the resolution.
And their backstory, which tells us WHY they are the way they are.
Together, we created Charles and Dorothy who strode into the room as though they belonged there.
Further questions interrogated them, and then we wrote a scene where they meet. We ended up with nine very different versions of these two characters. Here are a couple of short stories, with hooks which could just take them somewhere else.
WHO are they? Begin with their physical, present reality;
who are they, how old, male or female, name...
HOW are they? Their current emotional state at the start of the story (or what is their problem? This is usually what triggers the story and leads to the resolution.
And their backstory, which tells us WHY they are the way they are.
Together, we created Charles and Dorothy who strode into the room as though they belonged there.
Further questions interrogated them, and then we wrote a scene where they meet. We ended up with nine very different versions of these two characters. Here are a couple of short stories, with hooks which could just take them somewhere else.
Dorothy by Gerald Hornsby |
Charles and Dorothy by Jill Ritchie |
The sun disappeared behind a cloud for a moment, and Dorothy pulled her cardigan tighter around her body. Not for the first time, she regretted coming here. She had endured the long train journey, the noisy commuters, and the shouted mobile phone conversations. Had it really been worth it? She closed her book, pages seen but unread, and held it tight in both hands. She turned her head, looking across the stones, pointing a hundred different haphazard ways, focussing on one. Proudly vertical, it stood in the shade of a tall willow, and Dorothy dearly wished she could be over there, instead of this bench. But she felt reluctance, a kind of invisible barrier between her and … She couldn’t even say her name. Not now. Not yet. Read more... Image by Katharine Sparrow http://www.stockvault.net/photo/131043/cemetery-graveyard |
The doorbell rang at last. She opened the door with some trepidation. He stood there in the morning sunlight, older and perhaps a little less self-assured than she remembered. “So –may I come in?” Even after their recent phone conversations, his voice still came as a slight shock. “Yes---yes of course.” She opened the door wide, as if to make up for her apparent lack of welcome. He stepped in cautiously, his large frame looking incongruous in her neat, tidy hallway. She led him through to her living room, where she quickly shooed the cats from the sofa. The daffodils on the table declared bright springtime, optimism even. Read more... |