Jules

Wonder if it’s worth doing Julie Cohen’s character idea from York? I’ll have to dig out my notes – it shows the character in action more than anything by posing a series of questions.

Starting to wonder if I read the right bit of Burroway, as I can’t remember reading anything about a waitress! Must revisit…

I’m glad it wasn’t just me who read the wrong bits! Some of the suggestions in this chapter are quite subtle and may be beyond my sledgehammer approach. 🙂 Was interested at the example of the waitress and how she was characterised by her actions while the customers were characterised by their looks.

I shall have to give this questionnaire some…[Read more]

Afraid to say I find Burroway a bit wordy – which is ironic, given that I’m often too wordy myself! Still not had a chance to play with the characters yet…

She’s good that Burroway, isn’t she? I’m guilty of one-trick dialogue so that’s something that I’m going to work on. (I too read the whole chapter, oops). I’ve never fully explored a character before writing, just a few bits to get me going, so that’s a new way of working for me too. Though I also like the look of the Distinguishing Features exercise.

@JaneShuff – I haven’t even started the book yet, just 300 words of random scenes … but glad to hear it works for you.

Ah another person in search of their murderer. I wrote 90% of my first draft before I identified mine!

I too found it fairly alien until recently but it works for me in a weird way, nudging my unconscious to sort problems out if that makes sense.

Like Squidge, this is an alien way of working for me, but … I need a murderer. One who isn’t immediately identified as such. (And while I know the (probable) victim I don’t know why or how) so I’ll be attempting to discover him (probably him) with this approach.

Just getting to this today & realised after reading this thread that I was reading the beginning of the chapter too! In my defence, it’s interesting!
I might try the exercises on my winter challenge story being as I’ve only got the vaguest idea about my characters in that… wish me luck!!

I am absolutely loving doing the character questionnaires, using the characters from the splurgy and shapeless first draft of my current WIP. Like @squidge though, I am not sure if I would get so much out of doing it before I had written extensively about them. It would feel like inventing a character rather than discovering one. Has anybody tried…[Read more]

Ditto from me @katemachon . Another quote from, I think, later in the chapter is ‘There’s nothing generic about fiction’- probably misquoted as I didn’t write it down. And also from The Art of Character – ‘It’s through character that we bring the general down to earth.’I am feeling both inspired and daunted!

I haven’t finished this chapter yet, but I’m already fascinated. Love the Sloane rule that speech ‘must do more than one thing or it is too inert for the purposes of fiction.’

And the example of the argument about sinking the oil rigs was an eye opener – to engage us emotionally in a disagreement, the characters must have an emotional stake in…[Read more]

I have bought myself a special notebook! Which is surely the start of anything worth doing, no? 🙂

I have yet to write in special notebook as I am overwhelmed by other deadlines at the moment (this month I am finishing an Aboriginal language course and my book 2 edits. I also have ongoing homework from a business/life coach we have signed up to…[Read more]

Or choose a character you’ve developed already and see if the character questionnaire sheds any new light. Like you, I tend to discover who they are as I write.

I’ll try…but it feels so unnatural! Maybe I’ll have to do two exercises – one that challenges and one that feels more natural?!

Yes! I think that is what the MA is all about.

Try something new!

I bought myself an academic diary and I’m jotting in it things I do connected to writing, especially to do with this MA.
I don’t write every day, so my target is to have at least one, hopefully two sessions a week. I’m currently NaNoing, so that’s changed the focus somewhat over this month.
I also want to go back to blogging more regularly again…[Read more]

This will be interesting for me – I don’t normally have a clear picture of a character up front – they develop as I write them – so the character questionnaire will be a real challenge. Do I stick with how I usually work or try something new…?

My intention was to write everyday and to start using the journal, but I am not there yet! I am still working up to actively arriving at my desktop each day…

I like the sound of your plan, Janeshuff. They look like good, realistic targets.