Interesting Character Exercises

Writing Desk Archive
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One of the worst parts of a story for me is when the characters are two-dimensional. It doesn’t matter how good the plot is! I really can’t find it in myself to care if the characters aren’t well-developed.

With that in mind, I’ve made this thread to fill it with character exercises that will help you with your writing! Feel free to try them out below!

You’re welcome to use any of these exercises in any creative writing club, class or any other group. Please provide a link to these forums if you do. though!

The Rules

Of course, there are a few rules to make sure this thread stays nice and coherent!

  1. Make sure to put the name of the exercise you’re doing somewhere in your post.
  2. Name the character you’re doing the exercise for.
  3. You’re welcome to give a name and link to the story. However, this is not a promotion thread, so please only focus on the characters.
  4. All criticism should be constructive. No hate on this thread, please. However, criticism is allowed as long as you make sure letting the writer know what they can improve on and not just saying “this is bad” etc. Advice is also welcome!
  5. Remember that all writers are different. As tempting as it might be to give advice based on how you would write the story, remember that we all have a different writing style!

Table of Contents

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Character Questions #1

Answer these questions about the characters in your story, starting with the main character. It will be hard, but it will make then 100x more developed!

  1. Favourite colour?
  2. Favourite food?
  3. Biggest fear?
  4. Fondest memory?
  5. Worst memory?
  6. What do they like most about themselves?
  7. What do they like least about themselves?
  8. Sexuality?
  9. Parents’ names?
  10. Biggest motivation in the story?
  11. What makes them cry?
  12. What makes them really angry?
  13. Favourite person?
  14. Biggest flaw?
  15. Biggest struggle in the story?
  16. Most annoying quality?
  17. Most endearing quality?
  18. What makes them different/special?
  19. What purpose do they serve in the story?
  20. Why did you write them?

Good luck!

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Object + Emotion Exercise

This one is quite difficult! However, it helps you to develop your characters by forcing you to write about them in a new, unique way whilst still keeping their characterisation consistent.

Here are the rules:

  1. Think of a character from your story.
  2. Choose randomly from the OBJECTS list. Do this AFTER you’ve chosen the character. It’s supposed to be unexpected and challenge you!
  3. Choose randomly from the EMOTIONS/FEELINGS list
  4. Write 20-200 words about the object from the character’s point of view. The character should be feeling the emotion you’ve chosen during the scene.
  5. Write the object number, emotion number and the name of the character underneath.

OBJECTS

Object 1

A preserved butterfly.

Object 2

A set of Russian dolls with creepy expressions.

Object 3

A bottle of wine. Tasteful. Expensive.

Object 4

Eighteen boxes, tiny but heavy.

Object 5

A pool of suspicious-looking liquid.

Object 6

A yellow flower with a curious smell.

Object 7

A dusty, moth-eaten blanket.

Object 8

Just a ball. A giant, orange ball.

Object 9

Empty armour with eyes.

Object 10

An out of tune, black guitar.

Object 11

A random hat snagged on the branch of a tree.

Object 12

An old, rusted sword.

Object 13

A purple pencil, reverberating with power.

Object 14

A small, withered plant.

Object 15

A bronze coin laying on the ground.

Object 16

A book full of secrets about the character’s enemy/rival.

Object 17

An out-of-date milk carton with the character’s wanted poster on it.

Object 18

A branch… or is it a wand?

Object 19

A fluffy pair of slippers.

Object 20

An old photograph of someone lost.

Object 21

A bone-shaped dog treat.

Object 22

A rotten egg mayo sandwich.

Object 23

An old Nokia phone.

Object 24

A shiny nail sticking out of the wall.

Object 25

A plate: ornate, old and priceless.

Object 26

A green hot water bottle.

Object 27

A fossil inside a huge boulder.

Object 28

An old, bronze, broken record player.

Object 29

A smelly shoe in the middle of the house.

Object 30

A blood-stained t-shirt.

EMOTIONS/FEELINGS

Emotion 1

Longing.

Emotion 2

Impatience.

Emotion 3

Love.

Emotion 4

Excitement.

Emotion 5

Fear.

Emotion 6

Thirst.

Emotion 7

Nostalgia.

Emotion 8

Lust.

Emotion 9

Anger

Emotion 10

Embarassment.

Emotion 11

Confusion.

Emotion 12

Hatred.

Emotion 13

Happiness.

Emotion 14

Joy.

Emotion 15

Sadness.

Emotion 16

Uncertainty.

Emotion 17

Hunger.

Emotion 18

Tiredness.

Emotion 19

Nausea.

Emotion 20

Frustration.

Have fun!

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Character Questions 01

Character: Kito Tiko
Story: Kito

1: Favourite Colour - Aquamarine
2: Favourite Food - Cheesecake
3: Biggest Fear - {Redacted due to spoilers}
4: Fondest Memory - His wedding day
5: Worst Memory - {Redacted due to spoilers}
6: What do they like most about themselves - His heterochromic eyes
7: What do they like least about themselves - Nasty scar on his right cheek
8: Sexuality - Straight
9: Parents Names: Sara and Mannes Tiko
10: Biggest Motivation in the story - to find his father and the thing he was hunting
11: What makes them cry - wedding and holiday photos, sad films/anime/games/books
12: What makes them really angry - Misuse of power, physical or otherwise
13: Favourite Person - his wife or his daughter. too hard to choose
14: Biggest Flaw - Crippling self doubt
15: Biggest struggle inthe story - Finding his place in a world that seemingly left him behind
16: Most annoying quality: lack of self confidence
17: Most endearing quality - Selflessness
18: What makes them different or special - not a lot, mostly hard work and not trying to stand out but getting caught in the middle of things
19: What purpose do they serve in the story - The instigating character for several conflicts and the war hero who helps to put an end to them
20: Why did you write them - At first as a self-insert Ichigo Kuroaski rip-off. Then as an idealised version of what I think heroes can be. Now though, Kito is a show of what heroes actually are. Deeply flawed and intrinsically human characters

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Scenario Exercise

This is another great way to take you and your characters out of your usual comfort zones.

This will help you to make your characters more believable. If you can keep them in character when writing about them in unusual circumstances, then writing about them in your story will seem way easier!

Here are the rules:

  1. Choose a character from your story.

  2. Choose a random scenario from the SCENES list. No cheating! Stick to the first one you get! You can always try another one afterwards.

  3. Write down what the character would want to achieve in the scene (their motivation).

  4. Write down 3 bullet points of how the scene would go down: beginning, middle and end.

Tips:

  • Make sure to tailor the scene to the character. Every character would have different motivations in a scene. These motivations would make them react to the scene in different ways. This is interesting for your audience to see.
  • This time, it’s up to you to tell me how the character feels about the situation. Use it wisely!
  • You can do the same scene from as many POVs as you want. If you do, that’s how you can create a whole, rounded scene. This is a great planning tool, too! It stops you from treating non-MC characters like objects in the scene.

SCENES

Scene 1

The character is being forced to put on a play, at the cost of their life. If they don’t do the play, they’ll die. The villain is sitting in the crowd.

Scene 2

Uh oh! The character did the most cliche nightmare ever! They forgot to wear pants/trousers when they had to speak in front of the whole school!

Scene 3

Someone they hate is drowning. They have the ability to save the person.

Scene 4

All of the character’s secrets are randomly being broadcast all over their school, university or place of work and they have no clue why! Some of these secrets are really embarrassing!

Scene 5

The character is out with friend, who happens to be very hot. They meet their ex and the ex assumes that the two of them are there as a date.

Scene 6

The character wakes up one morning when camping… only to find that the whole tent is covered in black widow spiders!

Scene 7

There’s an announcement that a meteor is going to crash into Earth, and that everyone in the character’s country should do the one thing they’ve always wanted to do, only to find out that the meteor was a mistake and passed straight past the planet.

Scene 8

The character is given information that a zombie apocalypse is going to happen in 10 days. They’re the only ones who know this.

Scene 9

After a weird curse that was placed on them, the character is now able to speak to ghosts… and demons.

Scene 10

The character finds themselves scouted by a modelling agency. They can solve all of their financial problems… but let’s just say it’s not the most PG kind of modelling.

Scene 11

100 years after the character’s death, they’re brought back alive by some unknown entity for some unknown reason. It seems they have a new chance at life! But everything is so… different now!

Scene 12

The character wakes up one day to find that their sexuality is completely different! Now they have to walk in the shoes of people of another sexuality.

Scene 13

The character finds the Holy Grail! But they are informed that it would destroy humanity if they don’t keep it a secret.

Scene 14

The character wakes up one day and finds that a whole gender has just disappeared!

Scene 15

The character gets into an accident and then can only speak the old classical languages. They can understand English, but they can only reply in Greek, Latin or Sanskrit!

Scene 16

Your character finds out that the world of your favourite book exists. CROSSOVER!

Scene 17

The character is bedbound and doesn’t know why. Everyone is treating them like they’re really ill… but they feel fine! They are fine, aren’t they?

Scene 18

The character finds out that they’re slowly becoming an animal (of your choice). The only way to stop this is to change their most annoying quality.

Good luck! You’re more than welcome to use these as story prompts, too! I’d avoid using the crossover ones in your own stories, though, because of copyright issues. Please credit me if you use these as prompts!

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Unimportant Perspective Exercise

This is one that you can do on your own. You’re welcome to post it here, but make sure to tell us where it comes from in your story!

It’s simple! Here are the rules.

  1. Think of a scene in your story that has a character who never turns up again. This person could be a police officer, a barista at a cafe or that sales assistant in the makeover scene of your story.

  2. Write the scene from the unimportant character’s point of view. Make sure to write it as if they were the main character of their own story! Give them motivations, thoughts, feelings and opinions about the things going on around them.

  3. Let us see how the character reacts to your MC and the other important characters in your story. This will help you to see how other people see your MC. It might even give you the chance to think about how likeable they are to the reader!

As usual, good luck! And don’t be afraid to use this as many times as you’d like! It will never get old as long as your scenes don’t!

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Bookmarked!

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I’m currently procrastinating all my stories, but I’m definitely bookmarking this.

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Destiny

  1. Favorite color - Crimson
  2. Favorite food - Baked ziti
  3. Biggest fear - (No spoilers!)
  4. Fondest memory - When her ex-fiance proposed to her
  5. Worst memory - (No spoilers!)
  6. What do they like most about themselves - Her hair
  7. What do they like least about themselves - Her thighs
  8. Sexuality - Bisexual
  9. Parents names - (No spoilers!)
  10. Biggest motivation in the story - To find out who murdered Veronica Carrington
  11. What makes them cry - Sad movies, a close friend dying, trauma
  12. What makes them really angry - Abuse of power, greed, violence
  13. Favorite person - Her best friend
  14. Biggest flaw - Insecurities
  15. Biggest struggle in the story - Finding true happiness
  16. Most annoying quality - Being indecisive
  17. Most endearing quality - Independence
  18. What makes them different or special - She’s been through a lot, but is still working hard to work and survive in the world
  19. What purpose do they serve in the story - To solve the case, and represent true power. And show real-world issues too
  20. Why did you write them - Hmm. I wanted to try something different for this story. I wanted to write a character that I could relate to and place myself in their shoes. Then I realized she was amazing. Destiny is a representation of how a main character should be. Flawed but strong.
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I like this! She sounds like a really interesting character!

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Thank you! I can’t wait to publish this on Episode.

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I can’t wait to read it!

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It’s a murder mystery.

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Ooo I do love a good mystery

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Really?

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Yeppers! Make sure to hit me with a DM when you release it or need any help!

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Awesome! I definitely will.

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Seems intresting though i have no episode characters/stories

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(I’m answering them in the character’s POV)
Character: Star

  1. Green, it’s interesting, bold, and weird
  2. Two dollar fast food- usually on a Tuesday
  3. I’m afraid that I’ll forget this part of my life because I have forgotten bad parts of my life before, I hope it doesn’t get to that point in my life now
  4. Every good day with my friends is a fond memory, but my fondest memory would probably be working at SINGS! a karaoke bar, when we worked for so hard and for so long that my boss just didn’t care anymore and we had an epic party with just the four of us. The business was boring and slow, surprising for a karaoke bar.
  5. The first time I had to lie to and abandon my friends for my revenge
  6. I’m so smexy - No, what I most like about myself is my instincts, I have saved myself several times because of them
  7. I don’t like when I’m easily blind sighted by things
  8. Bisexual - I will always have more options
  9. That’s the part of my life that I forgot
  10. I’m always motivated by the good people in the world, it makes us want to save it, it makes me want to save them.
  11. I cry when I lose something important, and most often times that is my trust in someone.
  12. All the nasty people in the world
  13. (no comment- probably gonna be a spoiler)
  14. My biggest flaw… I move on and forget so easily, that’s good for some, but it makes it so I can’t process what has happened
  15. My biggest struggle so far has been maintaining a double life and handling my powers
  16. Ooh… juicy - my confidence and sarcasm
  17. I try to put other people first
  18. I don’t know about special but I have the power to duplicate myself and turn into any person
  19. (she looks at the question in confusion) Umm… I guess I’m some sort of hero?

Author (aka me): I wrote Star because I wanted a strong female character, at first she came off as TOO strong, but now, she is perfect, and I cannot wait to start on the story

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These are amazing and really helpful for people who want to develop their characters :grin::purple_heart::heart:

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