October Novel Prep Challenge

This might be a little strange, but it was something I did for fun that is sometimes helpful and sometimes just a fun way to pass times and envision plots.

When I'm writing, the story usually starts with a character. The thing both sad and encouraging about characters is that the archetypes and tropes exist already--it's next to impossible to create a character who doesn't fall into some sort of mold or a combination of archetypes. That's why your characters meet other characters, and why their personalities and interactions make them multidimensional and endear them to readers.

But sometimes it's hard to come up with two characters who combine in interesting and dynamic ways.

So I wrote a list of popular character types on a piece of paper (crazy stuff, mostly) and then cut all of them out, threw them in a bag, and then created a list of crazy qualifiers (revenge-driven, sociopathic, terminally ill, etc) that had to be attached to whatever character I drew out of the bag. Then I drew another character, and decided that whatever two characters came out, they'd have to exist in a story and have some sort of friendship or other relationship.

It might seem a little unusual, but it's gotten me out of a few tight spots and yielded some interesting combinations.

Here are a few I drew out at some time or another and was amused by:

Ballet Instructor / (crazy) Immortal
(sociopathic) Secretary / Exorcist
Boxer / Violinist
Masseuse / Interrogation Specialist

And on it goes. Some of them are a great study in contrasts (a person who specializes in relaxing people and a person whose job is to hurt or manipulate others) and some of the combinations that come out of the bag are just crazy, but trying to think of a world in which they'd meet and have some sort of relationship is a fun brain exercise.

It's a great way to pass time, if nothing else. If anyone has extra time on their hands, I'd suggest thinking of a list of jobs and/or archetypes and then making your own bag of characters.