Character Development Exercise

So it's time for another activity suggestion courtesy of me! I am constantly on the look out for projects or activities that might help me improve or encourage my writing, and I thought of one a while ago, but just got a chance to try it out this week.

The concept is pretty simple and involves taking pictures  throughout your day while jotting down a few quick notes at each location. For me, it involved taking my camera on campus  and taking pictures while I traveled to and from classes. At the end of the day I uploaded my pictures and used my notes for each one to create a mini storyline. I used the character analysis I had already done  to basically re-write my day in terms of a main character. Essentially, describe your day as though a character of yours lived it instead of you.

To Recap:
1. Take pictures throughout the day.
2. Jot down notes  of what you were doing, thinking, etc. at that point.
3. Upload pictures and review your notes
4. Last, and probably most fun, re-write your day as though one of your characters lived it instead.

Good luck, and I really hope you give it a try because it was actually fun!

(I took all of these photos today, and the captions included are the portions of text from my re-write. Because I couldn't fit much else into the captions, here are a couple things you should know:
-The only building photographed is University Hall on BGSU's campus.
-The rest of the images were taken in my apartment building and the local cemetary, which happens to be right in the middle of campus.)

That being said, here's my day as if it were lived by Brina Claramund, my main character:



Having trouble seeing the full captions? The click HERE .

World; universe: everything that exists anywhere

Now that you have undoubtedly crafted several characters that are sure to entice and entertain your readers, it’s time to give them life. Right now your characters exist only in your mind as thinking, feeling beings and the next step to crafting your tale is to give them a place, a world, where they can share their personalities.

Based on your genre and storyline brainstorming you probably have an idea about what this world will entail, but now it’s time to examine that world from every angle and carve a niche for each of your characters to exist in.

I could go on for pages and pages about the specifics involved in this process, but because there are so many possible unique genres and individual worlds they can encompass I think it’s best to cover a couple of broad tidbits of advice. Remember, these are just a few ideas to get you started, they are in no way all-inclusive, and I urge you to take from them what you choose and add or alter them to your liking!

1. World Generation.
If you are creating a world within your writing that is completely unique, remember that readers will have millions of questions about every little detail. So, if your main characters are the Timindi people who live in the mystical world of Yrdnual that exists through the invisible portal behind every washer and dryer, you better be prepared to describe their looks, where and how they live, what they eat, what they do for fun, etc. These worlds can be incredibly fun to create, but also very taxing, so prepare for an imagination workout should you choose to undertake the generation of a new world. If this is the route you are choosing, I would create a notebook full of the ideas you wish to represent in your writing as well as questions your audience might have and your answers for them.

2. World Description.
In order for readers to become immersed in your characters’ lives, it helps for them to be able to visualize the character’s surroundings. Because of this, it is wise to give a pretty good description  somewhere early on in your writing. This is by no means something that must be done as there are several examples of novels where minimal description  is used to the readers advantage. If they are given no details, they have the opportunity to completely create the world in their minds. It all depends on the demographic your novel is catering too. The best advice I can give is to examine those novels you wish to emulate and take note of some of the methods they employ as far as description is concerned.