Writing Prompt: You and Your Character

Posted by David Duhr in Inspiration      1 comment

Mar
13

Today we want to offer up a writing prompt that has always worked well for us in the past, a way to hopefully gain a new perspective of you and your character. It’s aimed at you fiction writers out there, especially if you’re working on a novel or a particular short story. If you write nonfiction, you can find some creative ways to spin it around.

And it goes like this:

First, recall a moment of serious tension from your own life. That time someone broke into your house. The day you rear-ended a cop car. The night your parents took you to the Ice Capades. Envision the scene: the setting, the people, the dialogue, the feelings and emotions. Now, write that scene. You can choose to have yourself be the first-person narrator, or you can write in the third person. Your call.

When that’s done, envision that same scene again, but this time, instead of you, imagine your main character in that situation. What would he/she do or say or feel differently? Write the same scene with your character as the protagonist.

And now compare the two. What have you learned about you and your character? What traits do you and your character share? In what ways do you differ?

Let us know below how it went, or drop us a line at info@writebynight.net.

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