Character development
I spent all morning and most of my afternoon in a crowded old basement library taking a writing workshop. Specifically, the workshop was on character development, something I sorely need in my fiction. I tent to neglect it, which can be bad. At first I thought I just had poor dialogue writing skills, but if I don’t have properly fleshed out characters than the dialogue will necessarily ring hollow.
Anyway, the workshop was great and I got some really useful tips on building up the main character in one of my stories (oh, I finished one of the two I’ve been writing since 2004 – hooray!) in particular.
If you’re into that kind of thing, we worked with the character development worksheet on this page (or a variation of it anyway; things have been added since the instructor printed it out). I used to find worksheets like this a little cheesy, and they kind of are, but it’s just amazing how much they help. Even if you don’t ever write about the character’s family or what his/her favourite clothing is. It really shows when a writer knows everything about his/her characters.
I think I should do things like this every season or so. I always feel so energized about writing (as corny as that sounds) afterwards!
The workshop was also great because I overheard the following exchange:
“What’s that movie . . . the one where the astronauts . . . go up in space . . .”
“Oh, ‘The Right Stuff’!”
“Yes, that’s the one!”
Whaaaat?
Category: Fiction Writing/Books, General
Very true! Imagine how awful those shows would be without one!
On a related note, at one point we were discussing “character tags”, mannerisms to give our characters for added depth that don’t necessarily add to their personality (like cracking knuckles). I seriously had to restrain myself from crying out, “Like how Picard always pulls his tunic down when he stands up!”
[...] a few days ago I wrote about finally finishing one of the short stories I’ve been working on for an unholy five years. In that time, I did the character development [...]
[...] a few days ago I wrote about finally finishing one of the short stories I’ve been working on for an unholy five years. In that time, I did the character development [...]
[...] finished the second of the two stories I’ve been working on for five years! I’ve sent it off to some people for their comments and then, hopefully, it should be done [...]