 Action/Adventure: January 06, 2010 Issue [#3441] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Free-write to Draw Your Characters Out Edited by: esprit  
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| One of the most useful items in a writer's toolbox is raw curiosity. We look around, see people and places and situations, and wonder what might happen under certain circumstances. Nurture a productive writing habit by listening and looking at the possibilities around you. Train yourself to ask What if? Why? What might happen if...? What if''s are especially fun freewriting exercises during a spell of writer's block. "What if I could write--what would I write about?" |
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Free-write to Draw Your Characters Out of Hiding
Another way to get to know your characters is to let them speak for themselves through free-writing. Free-writing is a wonderful exercise that lets your creative side come out to play, and we all need to have fun with our writing occasionally.
If you usually write on the computer, you might want to try longhand to resist editing. Either way, get comfortable and set your egg timer; these are good 20 to 30 minute exercises. Don't worry about believability.
Exercises
1. Write dialogue and only dialogue between two voices. No names, tag lines, no description. Start wherever the voices in your head do, and don't lead them too much. The creative subconscious knows what to do--let it.
If the voices refuse to talk to you at first, go ahead and urge them a bit--offering a bit of fudge might work. Remember though, offer it in writing or they might not believe you.
You'll notice that the voices begin to evolve into characters and you might want to direct their words--resist doing it! Continue to let them have the floor and just listen. If you start correcting them, you'll break the spell and have to begin again. The subconscious is very jealous of its time and will go away if you don't give it free reign; that's when the dreaded Writers Block will seep in to fill the void.
2. Do the same with one voice by writing internal dialogue of a single character--you know, that voice you hear in your head. We all have them. That is your subconscious trying to convince you to listen to your creative side. This voice too, will begin to show himself and demand to be used in a story.
If you don't exercise your creative side often, it will be difficult to find when you want to write a real story. When you write quickly, without exact planning, your subconscious thoughts are allowed to come out, taking you places you never expected to go. And that's the whole point of daily free-writing.
Be sure to save these exercises. They just might be the birth of a few of your greatest characters.
And as always, keep practicing!
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