Post by Joe Snack Road on Aug 1, 2005 12:17:59 GMT -5
Taken from the textbook "What If? - College Edition - Second Edition, Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers" by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter...
Personally, I use this a bit often to better envision my characters. This is not meant to help you DECIDE how to create your character, but rather, to help you see your pre-existing characters in a new light.
Chapter 25 - What Do You Know About Your Characters?
I could take a battery of MMPI and Wonderlic personality tests for each of my people and answer hundreds of questions with as much intimate knowledge as if they were taking the test. - Richard Price
In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway said, "People in a novel, not skillfully constructed characters, must be projected from the writer's assimilated experience, from his knowledge, from his head, and from all there is of him... A good writer should know as near everything as possible." Yet students frequently write stories about a major event in a character's life, although they don't know some of the most elementary things about the character - evidence, information that, if known, most certainly would affect the character's motives and actions.
Hemingway again speaks to this issue of being familiar with characters:
The Exercise
Work with one of your completed stories that has a character who needs fleshing out. Take a sheet of paper and number from one to thirty-four. At the top of the page, write in the title of your story and the man character's name - and start filling in the blanks.
Character's Name:
Character's Nickname:
Sex/Gender:
Age:
Looks:
Education:
Vocation/Occupation:
Status and money:
Marital status:
Family, ethnicity:
Diction, accent, etc.:
Relationships:
Places (home, office, car, etc.):
Possessions:
Recreations, hobbies:
Obsessions:
Beliefs:
Politics:
Sexual History:
Ambitions:
Religion:
Superstitions:
Fears:
Attitudes:
Character Flaws:
Character Strengths:
Pets:
Taste in books, music, etc.:
Journal Entries:
Correspondance:
Food preferences:
Handwriting:
Astrological Sign:
Talents:
Friends:
Relatives:
Enemies:
As seen by others:
As seen by self:
Scars:
Tattoos, piercings, etc.:
Salary:
What is kept in fridge, glove compartment, medicine cabinet, junk drawer, calender, appointment book, rolodex, etc.:
No doubt you will be able to add to this list.
Note: This exercise should be done after you have written your story. It is not a way to conceive a character, but rather a way to reconceive a character. It is designed to discover what you know about your characters after you have written your story - and what you don't know. For example, one writer, Samuel R. Delany, tells his students to know exactly how much money their characters make, and how they make it. And why not apply this list to your favorite stories? Note how much is known about the unforgettable grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" or about the compelling, bewildered narrator in Peter Taylor's story "The Old Forest."
The Objective
To understand how much there is to know about a character you have created. Of course, it is possible to write a successful story without knowing everything on this list - or perhaps only knowing two or three things. On the other hand, beginning writers often don't know more than a character's age or gender - and frequently neglect an essential piece of information that would have greatly informed or shaped their story. You needn't include these details in the story, but their presence in your mind will be "felt" by the reader.
Personally, I use this a bit often to better envision my characters. This is not meant to help you DECIDE how to create your character, but rather, to help you see your pre-existing characters in a new light.
Chapter 25 - What Do You Know About Your Characters?
I could take a battery of MMPI and Wonderlic personality tests for each of my people and answer hundreds of questions with as much intimate knowledge as if they were taking the test. - Richard Price
In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway said, "People in a novel, not skillfully constructed characters, must be projected from the writer's assimilated experience, from his knowledge, from his head, and from all there is of him... A good writer should know as near everything as possible." Yet students frequently write stories about a major event in a character's life, although they don't know some of the most elementary things about the character - evidence, information that, if known, most certainly would affect the character's motives and actions.
Hemingway again speaks to this issue of being familiar with characters:
If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.
The Exercise
Work with one of your completed stories that has a character who needs fleshing out. Take a sheet of paper and number from one to thirty-four. At the top of the page, write in the title of your story and the man character's name - and start filling in the blanks.
Character's Name:
Character's Nickname:
Sex/Gender:
Age:
Looks:
Education:
Vocation/Occupation:
Status and money:
Marital status:
Family, ethnicity:
Diction, accent, etc.:
Relationships:
Places (home, office, car, etc.):
Possessions:
Recreations, hobbies:
Obsessions:
Beliefs:
Politics:
Sexual History:
Ambitions:
Religion:
Superstitions:
Fears:
Attitudes:
Character Flaws:
Character Strengths:
Pets:
Taste in books, music, etc.:
Journal Entries:
Correspondance:
Food preferences:
Handwriting:
Astrological Sign:
Talents:
Friends:
Relatives:
Enemies:
As seen by others:
As seen by self:
Scars:
Tattoos, piercings, etc.:
Salary:
What is kept in fridge, glove compartment, medicine cabinet, junk drawer, calender, appointment book, rolodex, etc.:
No doubt you will be able to add to this list.
Note: This exercise should be done after you have written your story. It is not a way to conceive a character, but rather a way to reconceive a character. It is designed to discover what you know about your characters after you have written your story - and what you don't know. For example, one writer, Samuel R. Delany, tells his students to know exactly how much money their characters make, and how they make it. And why not apply this list to your favorite stories? Note how much is known about the unforgettable grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" or about the compelling, bewildered narrator in Peter Taylor's story "The Old Forest."
The Objective
To understand how much there is to know about a character you have created. Of course, it is possible to write a successful story without knowing everything on this list - or perhaps only knowing two or three things. On the other hand, beginning writers often don't know more than a character's age or gender - and frequently neglect an essential piece of information that would have greatly informed or shaped their story. You needn't include these details in the story, but their presence in your mind will be "felt" by the reader.
I give my characters more moral lattitude than I give myself. And when I create characters who transgress moral codes I possess - they startle me. - Eve Shelnutt