Crawl Inside Your Character’s Head

Has someone told you your characters are one-dimensional? Or flat? Or predictable? 

Let’s take a flat character and make her three-dimensional.

Based on an acting exercise, this will let you become your character, discover multiple objectives, find obstacles, and turn her into someone both likeable and flawed. 

• Breathe in character—whatever that means, and exhale any negativity. 
• Breathe in character again as you stand up. Does she stand slower or faster?
• Begin walking as your character. Does she walk more confidently or hesitantly than you? 
• Turn as your character. Is her balance the same?
• Look out the window as your character. What does she see that you never noticed?
• Continue walking and observing. 
  • Is her posture straighter? 
  • Does she feel more weighted down or lighter than you? 
  • What feels different about being your character than being yourself (whatever that means)? 

Answer these questions in your head, but please don’t skip any. Notice your attitude as you answer them. Is this your attitude or the character’s? 

As your character, sit in front of your computer, pick a font and color she would use, and complete the sentence starts below. The more you can become her physically, the more you will also be her mentally. There are no wrong answers. Trust the answers.

Speaking in the voice of your character, finish each sentence.

• My full name is …
• I live at …
• I live with …
• I am happiest when …
• I daydream about …
• If I had my way …
• I don’t understand why …
• What I could do is …
• Sometimes I think that I …
• If I were in charge …
• I get angry when …
• People wouldn’t like it if …
• I am afraid I …
• I know …
• I really am …
• A person can’t be happy unless …

How did this work for you? I’d love to know. Write to me at Lgood67334 AT Comcast DOT net. 

Writer and editor B. Lynn Goodwin owns Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com. She’s the author of two award-winning books, a YA called Talent and a memoir titled Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62 plus an out-of-print self help book. Her flash fiction is published in Flashquake, Nebo, Cabinet of Heed, Murmur of Words, 100-Word Stories, Ariel’s Dream, and Writing in a Woman’s Voice. Her second YA, Disrupted, is forthcoming from Olympia Publishing. She's also a reviewer and teacher at Story Circle Network.