I've Been Thinking About...Torturing Your Characters

Okay, this is really about ways to get to know them better.

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Not a character but a cat looking, well, surprised. Maybe a little tortured? Photo by Andrew Umansky on Unsplash

Okay, we are getting to cats characters in a minute but first I must announce something. I have learned how to insert emojis into a Substack. The most wonderful Jacqueline Hampton shared the process with me. And so here you go:

😳 ❤️ 🥶 😈 👠 🎶 👏 💟 🐧 '

Okay, you get the idea. Onward.

Ways to get to know your character

The idea for this came from another friend/client, Caroline Harrison. And also, many years ago the novelist and poet Darnell Arnoult shared something similar with me. I have of course, put my own twist on it and come up with different scenarios.¹ But the basic idea is this this: put your character in a variety of situations that probably involve conflict and see how they react.

This is an excellent way to differentiate character traits. Put ‘em in action and see what they do. It’s not only useful for learning more about your main character, but also the secondary actors in your story. I’ve created a whole list of situations below. (Paid subscribers get a PDF.)

I love these exercises because they are flexible and useful. Got a few minutes? Choose one and do a free write. Blocked on a scene? Pick one and go for it. Not sure what your character should do next? You know what to do. Note: the situations are not meant to be exact scenarios for your story, but who knows, they may turn out to be.

In my travels this week, I also came across the Proust questionnaire which I used years ago and sometimes had my clients fill it out to get to better know their characters, too. It’s got some fun questions on it, and this Wikipedia article gives background and also Proust’s actual answers.

(Paid subscribers, I copied and pasted the actual questions onto the PDF.)

How to Use

The best way to get to know your characters is to see them in action. (And it’s the best way for your readers to get to know them, too.) But to write those action scenes, you need to know how your character is going to act and react in a variety of situations. You can learn a lot about your character’s inner life—motivation, misbeliefs, fears, joys—through their actions as well. Hence, these exercises.

The situations listed below are not meant to be actual scenarios in your story, though they may become so as you write. They are just intended to be used as another entry point into better understanding the characters that populate your story. And they are especially helpful in differentiating your characters. Use them for your protagonist, your antagonist, your minor characters, your character’s dogs and cats. Kidding about the animals. Kind of. These exercises can be used over and over again with every book you write. Come up with your own scenarios and add them to the list. Use these when you’re not sure what your character might do next, or when you’re stuck in a scene.

As with garden variety prompts, use these as a starting point. And let your imagination fully flesh things out. For instance, with the “writing something” entry, consider: does she use a pencil, a pen, a fountain pen? In a fancy notebook or a cheap spiral? At a desk, in bed, sprawled on the couch. Does she hate writing by hand and so uses her computer, her tablet, her phone? (Don’t laugh, one of my clients is writing a novel on his phone.) What is she writing? A letter, an email, a journal entry, her memoirs?

Use these scenarios as prompts, set a timer and let the magic happen.

The Exercises

Write about your character:

--Stuck in traffic

--Arriving at work

--Having a tech issue

--Writing something

--Grocery shopping

--Commuting

--Losing her phone

--Catching a plane

--Making coffee

--Choosing an outfit for the day

--Reading a book

--Watching TV

--On a zoom

--In a class

--Arriving someplace for the first time

--Waiting for a bus or a ride share

--Doing a DIY project

--Hanging wallpaper

--When her car breaks down

--When the elevator doesn’t work

--In a power outage

--When rain ruins the picnic

--Coping with an awful boss

--Running into an ex

--Is late

--Misses a deadline

--Trying to get organized

Those ought to keep you busy for awhile! (PDFs after the paywall.)