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Exercise #3: Craft
Posted 5/16/03
Characters are critical pieces in the writing puzzle. Your protagonist or antagonist must capture the reader's attention and sometimes their empathy.
Superheroes have a weakness and villains have a lovable side. If the reader can't connect to some small piece of your characters, they may lose interest in your story. (Think of a favorite character and why that one is a favorite. Most likely you'll find they share a trait or two of yours.)
The characters we can flesh out best often resemble ourselves, but good writers can make a character "feel" solid, even if the characteristics aren't the author's.
Most of us are familiar with the Myers Briggs personality test. I tried to find one online and couldn't, but I did find this: http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl.htm The site describes the Myers Briggs types and gives a mini-test to help you find where you fit in.
For this exercise, come up with a character. No plot is necessary, and I don't expect posts to be complete stories. Run through the test as your character, or skip to the sixteen type definitions at the bottom and pick one.
Then give us a section, 1200 words or less, of a story. Show us -- don't tell us -- what type your character is. Use dialog, internal thoughts, other character's perceptions, setting, or any combination to help us figure it out.
At the bottom of your post, you might add which type you chose.
Word limit: 1200
Please use the subject line:
SUB: Exercise #3/yourname
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