In the last post on this blog, we have had a discussion about characters, how to get into their heads and so on.

Some of the simplest methods to know my characters, for me, are these:

1. I sit down and speed-write for a specific amount of time, from that character’s POV. If Adam is a character I need to get to know, I time 10 minutes on the stopwatch in my cellphone and then write about anything at all, always imagining I am Adam. I do not analyze or think, because I do not let my hand stop, or look back and read what I have written. I have explained this kind of speed-writing session here. Sometimes Adam would tell me things about himself in this way I would not have known otherwise!

2. I sit on one of the chairs in my balcony, and pretend my character is on the other chair. I do an interview. I ask him/her a question, and then move to the other chair and answer it, but this time “in character”. It helps to write down a few of the questions in advance. I know it must look crazy to someone else looking at me (which, in my case, is the fish in the aquarium), but it works like a dream.

3. Another tool that really helps is the Character Profile Sheet. Pasting all of it here would make this post a mile long, so here is a link. Once you have answered as many of the questions on this sheet, you will have a pretty good feel of who your character is. Some of these questions can also be used for the activity in point 2 above.

4. The last idea that I use often, to create characters and to describe them is a Character Writing Exercise. I choose someone I know, very well or in passing, and create a character based on that. It may not work for the piece I am working on, but such exercises become a sort of database. I write more about it here.

I hope this helps.

Please add in your tips, ideas on characterization, and feel free to discuss or post questions in the comments. Happy writing all…and hope this was a useful Monday post!

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I ‘m in Shanghai for three days, and I’ve decided to enjoy the winter here.

Back in Malaysia, it is rain and sun all the time, and nary a sign of winter. So yesterday, I dragged a reluctant hubby (who has never stayed in wintry places) along the Huang pu river, for a walk on the Bund. It was 4 degrees C but felt a lot lower cos of the freezing wind, I loved my nose getting all cold and runny, my hands turning numb the minute I took them out to click the fairy-tale- science-fiction skyline, which includes the Pearl tower, the Jing Mao tower and the Shanghai Trade Center, the second-tallest building in the world.

I breathed in the dank river, walked past brightly lit stalls with grilled corn cobs, vegetables, octopus, squid, and things to which I could not put a name. I would’ve tried the lot, but hubby dear took me to a tiny KFC tucked under the Bund, and I re-emerged with a tame glass of milo.

Before we returned back to the hotel, we dined at a tiny two-storied restaurant with red wooden windows on strips of pork and mushrooms cooked sichuan style with lots of sliced red pepper, a veggie soup that struck all the right notes of green, sour and sweet, and ate white steamed fish strips drowned in chili-oil, perfect for the weather. Washed all of it down with cha, the local tea, and walked home with lips that were equally numb from the heat of the chili and as from the cold wind.

Now, the internet in the room is not working, so am clicking away at the Business center on a keyboard that has mandarin characters for Tab and Caps Lock.

After I’ve written a page or two into my notebook, (all this grey, rain and people walking and cycling 20 floors below in colorful umbrellas makes for a stimulating view) I plan to take to the road myself, shiver a little and breathe in the damp cold, and munch on a few steaming barbecue sticks of things I cannot name *greedy laughter*.

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I said to Sarah that I’ll be posting a writing exercise today. I found one on a site that I frequent when in search of kick starts, so here it is. I’m going to work on it and report back. If any of you ladies feel like taking it up, please do a post or comment on how it went!

Write a long detailed passage in continuous time that includes opening car doors and turning the key in the ignition and putting the car in gear, or maybe someone getting up in the morning or going to work or putting on his socks and shoes. Write in super-detail.

Lay this aside and come back at least an hour later. What part do you definitely want to cut away? Does some of the detail actually seem interesting and worth saving? Can you revise it in a way that shows what is happening inside the character so that the boring detail is the merest scaffolding for the real interest. You might make it funny, or perhaps as the character cleans his teeth he has a flashback.

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I scrolled down and read Gunnisac’s post. I tried to comment, but the comments keep disappearing. So, I’ll leave my comment in this post.

Hi,

You sound just like me. Sarah will tell you that I’ve been in despair the last week, have not done much writing. Yesterday I tried speed-writing and that helped (this is the only way for me to un-block myself). Sometimes the strangest things will set you off.

So maybe you can take Sarah’s writing-prompt in the last post and let yourself into a burst of speed-writing and see what comes out? I’m hoping it will work for you just as it does for me, like magic

Hope you go great guns again soon!

Best,

Damyanti

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Okay, here is an exercise that we can all do. Copy the sentence. Paste it in a word doc. and then write. Post what you get on here in the comments. We will do this at least once a week.

Cold arctic air slammed into my face….

And now, take it and run!

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I believe in serendipity, and the generosity of the universe. Like I was telling Sarah today, I asked the universe for a writing buddy, and I found her practically within minutes. I was pretty desperate for some time for a writing buddy, only I didn’t know it. After I found Sarah, I realized what I’d been missing.

I’m thrilled to be part of this group blog for writing, and hope to learn more about fiction while writing and reading this blog.

I’ve been a freelance writer for the past few years, writing articles for websites and magazines.

I began writing fiction in 2008, so I’m a novice. You can find some of my short pieces here, and my blogs here, here and here.

Being a brilliant writer is as painful as being a perfect ballet dancer, so here’s hoping this blog will keep us all on our writing toes! In the meanwhile, I stumbled upon a piece on plots and endings by Margaret Atwood, which struck a chord. Find it here.

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