Read this on galpod.com.
This week I’ve been thinking about characters, and how do we know someone, including ourselves. Some character questionnaires would ask you what is your MC’s favourite colour, or who would they vote for. These are fine, but do you really know a person if you know who they voted for?
For this week’s writing session, I’m thinking about what we need to know about a character in order to tell her story. Stories are different from real life because a story needs something to happen. In fact, stories are how we make sense of what happens. Stories can be a way of making sense of what happened to us, or a way to think ahead to what we might do if something happened to us. But what do we need to know in order to tell our story?
I think it boils down to a few things. What does your character want? What does your character needs? These are not necessarily the same thing. What is your character’s biggest fear?
And, for the brave: What do you want (from your career, your partner, your community)? What do you need? What is your biggest fear? Be honest with your journal.
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Love your blog & thought provoking topic on characters of what they need and want. It's made me think about how I get to know my characters.
I try and "have a cuppa" with my characters and try and draw out their proudest moment and least proud moment. It gives me a feel for their resilience and base line beliefs about themselves and morality to . I chat and listen to them when I'm walking- observing what they notice/feel about the environment.