Hey everyone! It's been to long since I've been active and I want to change that. I did some searching about and couldn't find anything about this, so I want to share an activity I use to flush out characters and general writing. I will often look up writing prompts, then use my own characters in the short story I create using the prompt. It puts my characters in situations I might not have thought of in the general writing phase, or in writing the story they are originally in, making me really think about their motivations, and who they are as characters. I'll share a recent prompt I use, feel free to drop more, or share an idea from this prompt. "Book returned to library sixty years overdue"
Either or, it doesn't matter, its just a way to use your characters, or build a setting in a manner you might not have originally thought of
I struggle with characters that have depth until I can envision them as someone that I know...then boom...I am off to the races. It does not mean that EVERY quality of that person has to be included, but I sure gain momentum when I can think, "what would so and so do?" From there I use a standard character trait worksheet I found online, and use the questions as prompts to eek a few details out of my character that I had not thought of yet.
Oh yeah! and that's the beauty of using random prompts. Not only do you get to work on world building and a setting, but you can work on plot development with boundaries in place and major character developing too!
Thanks, and I agree, it is just that I hear a lot about "world building", but what does that mean? I am not a "gamer", or even "hip", or whatever the cool thing to be is now, so I was curious what everyone is talking about.
World building the way I see it and have always been told is creating actual world your story takes place in. Whether you're giving details about the places youre in, or hinting at certain histories. In the series I am working on I spent months creating a history of the universe and making the rules that the universe has to abide by. All world building really is is putting together the setting you want youre audience to be immersed in.
Okay...silly me, I was not used to the term. I thought maybe it was more akin to the Fantasy writing side of things like those video games where you build cities and stuff. I could see where the writing of world building might distract a writer into putting more into it then what they should, but I admit I am rather the opposite. I write about the area I live, so I tend to not say enough about settings sometimes. (But wrongly: I swerved the topic from characters to setting. My apologies).
Returning to writing prompts on characterization...one thing you can do is change the main character perspective. In high school a longgggggggggggggggggg time ago I might add, I wrote a story on my hero at the time, and the INDY 500 car race. My first attempt was from the driver's seat...it had to be right? It is story about a major auto racing event. It has to be about the driver! Well it was lackluster, so instead I wrote about the race from my hero's WIFE's point of view. About how she felt as the race transpired, which meant anger towards the other drivers as they put the man she loved in peril. Or animosity towards a driver's wife that she did not get along with, etc. The point is here, by changing the main character, and the point of view, it changed the perspective of the story completely. It gave boring, fast cars emotion, and I got an A on the story. Part of that was not just THE story, but how I APPROACHED the story as a writer, that got me an A. (I am a guy, and wrote it from a woman's perspective. For a kid in high school, at that time anyway, that was a different approach because it showed I was willing to change, to get a much improved story). Prompts: What would your WIP be like if it was from the prospective of the opposite gender?
I like that a lot! My first book it was all written from my MC prospective, but the second book I'm working on now is from both his prospective and his daughters, and the scenes they are in together creates way more prospective as I switch from one to the next! It is interesting when reading to see things from both sides, specially since they have different life experiences they see things differently. He is a disgruntled PTSD suffering veteran with years on the front line, and she is a naive 15 year old looking at the service through the lens of adventure and propaganda. They view the same scenario with two different mind sets and prospectives, it really changes a scene doing that
