Your characters can be like butterflies, they seem just out of reach until you are patient and learn things about them. (And maybe even try talking to them.)
Anyway In some of my writing posts I talk about pretending to talk to your characters, but I only mentioned a few ways to do it. (And there are a lot of ways to do it.)
Act out a scene from your story
This helps especially if you are stuck on a scene, or want to play it out outside of your head. Sometimes just going out and pretending to be your characters in a quiet space is the best way to understand a scene. Don't feel bad if you mess up the scene the first time, because you are practicing the scene.
Interview them
This is more writing than actually talking out loud to them. You ask them questions on paper or on your computer, and then they can answer (you have to write their answer though).
Here is an example:
Writer: What are some of your favorite things to do (character's name)?
Character: (lists things they like to do)
and then you continue from there.
Argue or talk to your characters
I have mentioned this idea a number of times in my posts, but I never mentioned the arguing part. The arguing part I found out about when a character went off script and made their own choices.
Which is good and that means they are developed (beyond your control). However, that doesn't mean having a friendly argument with them wouldn't be good. It helps you talk to them in a different way other than "Hello" and "How are you?".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What ways do you like to talk to your characters? Any other way that I didn't mention?
-Quinley
P.S. I will be doing Camp NaNoWrimo this July, so I won't be posting as much as I normally do. I will working on my novel The Mystery of the Body Thief.
I love these ideas. xP
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I like to do is take the character and put them into a totally new situation and see how they react, because that can tell you a lot about the character.
Thank you, Jane!:)
DeleteThat’s a cool idea. I think I may try it sometime. Putting characters in a different and new situation will be quite helpful for development.
-Quinley
Great ideas!! :D
ReplyDelete
DeleteThank you, Gray! :)
-Quinley
YES, arguing with a character is a great idea, especially if you and a character don't see eye-to-eye in everything. I had never thought of it before, thank you for the ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kendra! :) Arguing with your character can be very helpful. What sort of things do you argue about with your characters?
Delete-Quinley
Wow, these are great ideas! Thanks for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Middle Earth Musician! :) And you’re welcome they were fun to share.
Delete-Quinley
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI act scenes out, mostly. I find it very helpful. It gets weird because normally something happens like this:
ReplyDeleteMe: [lying on the floor, pretending to have been shot]
Me: [also] No, no, how can you die?! How can you?
Me: [as the almost dead one] They'll find you. You have to run.
Me: I'm not leaving you behind. I'm not. You're the only person I care about.
My sister: Hang on, what are you doing?