SPEAKING AS YOUR CHARACTER…

Want to get inside your character’s head and body? Don’t be shy. Instead, try this exercise. I first used it in the seventies and eighties when I was working with actors. We’d have half doing it and the other half observing, and because you could always get compliments for concentration, everyone tried. The results were often wonderful. 

NOTE #1: You may want to have a trusted writing partner or your phone read the first part to you. Remember to leave spaces so you can respond. 

NOTE #2: Make sure the sentence starts are up on your computer before you start so you don’t break out of the character to hunt for them.

NOTE #3: Before you begin this exercise, breathe in your character (whatever that means) and exhale any negativity. Breathe her in again, and stand up as your character. Begin walking as your character. How is her walk different from yours? 

Is her posture straighter? 

Are her steps weaker? 

Does she feel more weighted down or lighter than you? 

Observe differences as you walk, and see what feels different about being your character than being yourself (whatever that means). 

When you feel comfortable in your character’s body, sit in front of your computer as she would sit, pick a font and color that she would use, and complete the sentence starts below. Keep going when she (the character) wants to. Go to the next sentence start when she’s ready. The more you can become her physically, the more you will also be her mentally.

There are no wrong answers. You’re just getting inside her head writing what she is thinking. 

My full name is…

I live at…

I live with…

I am happiest when…

I daydream about…

My mind…

If I had my way…

I don’t understand why…

What I could do is…

Being scared makes me…

Sometimes I think that I…

I have a feeling that part of me…

A person’s family…

No one could help so…

If I were in charge…

I get angry when…

People perceive me as…

I hate…

People wouldn’t like it if…

I am afraid I…

I know…

I really am…

A person can’t be happy unless…

  Lynn Goodwin owns Writer Advice. She's written Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62 (memoir), Talent (YA) and You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers (self help). Never Too Late and Talent are award winners. Shorter works have appeared in Hip Mama, The Sun, Good Housekeeping.com, Purple Clover.com, and Flashquake. She is a reviewer and teacher at Story Circle Network. Visit her website and her blog.

Pat Bean is a retired journalist who is passionate about nature, books, art and writing. A native Texan, and longtime Utah resident, she spent nine years traveling this country in an RV. She now lives in Tucson with her canine companion Pepper. Her book, Travels with Maggie, was published in September, 2017. Pat is a staff writer for the Story Circle Journal, is the co-mom of the Writer2Writer Roundtable, and manages SCN's tweets. Visit her blog.