Author Mary Buckham recently conducted a workshop through my local RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter. Her exercise had us (including the published authors) salivating at the chance to try this with our own characters.
First, list five character traits associated with your major characters’ careers. If you write YA or MG (middle grade), then pick an activity/interest that’s important to them (e.g. football player, cheerleader, musician, Goth). I’m going to use the examples from the class.
Cop
• Emotionally strong
• Aggressive
• Self-sacrificing
• Cynical
• Gruff
(Okay, I know Orlando Bloom looks like none of these. So sue me!)
Nurse
• Compassionate
• Anxious
• Busy/rushing/stressed
• Intelligent
• Logical
Exotic Dancer
• Outgoing
• Likes to be the center of attention
• Driven
• Easy going
• Mysterious
As you might have noticed, these traits are subjective. Your perception of a cop might be different than someone else’s.
Now switch things around. Take the career title and move it to a different list. For example:
The cop is now:
• Outgoing
• Likes to be the center of attention
• Driven
• Easy going
• Mysterious
Your cop is no longer a stereotype, and how he deals with a given situation will be different than the cop from the original list. And this will make your characters and story less predictable.
Cool trick, huh?
(Note: The Bookshelf Muse announced yesterday their newest thesaurus: Character traits).
51 comments:
Great ideas. I think it all ties in with surprising the reader. And finding the character least suited or expected for the job like Blake Snyder suggests. I think I'll try this for my next idea. Thanks Stina.
that is neat! I guess my answer is to try and make them as life like as possible- using people I know from real life. I give them quirks and try to steer away from stereotypes as much as possible. I find physical description can help too- giving them not only personality flaws but small physical flaws as well.
So true. I think that's why cheesy romance novels annoy me so much. It's always hot girl, hot guy, one of whom is afraid to get involved, both of whom wind up saying terribly corny things... ugh! And the YA stereotype of teens who don't get along with their parents is way overdone, too. Good post!
Oh how true is that! And what a great idea for mixing things up a bit...
I like to remember that characters are never cookie-cutter perfect. People contradict themselves, they have issues because they don't quite fit into their chosen lives/the lives they 'fell into'.
Nobody is ever exactly what you expect them to be, so characters shouldn't be, either.
I like this! It's interesting for the reader, and for the writer too. It's always fun to bring something new to a character, and to a story, in an unexpected way like this.
hmm! Cool! Thanks, Stina!
I think this is really fantastic Stina! I'm currently molding my new characters and this will be very helpful! I also have a new writing book I'm reading called See Jane Write that so far is a lot of fun!
Oooh. I like it. Thanks :)
Great point, I am going to go makes lists!
Thanks
Great idea. Thanks Stina ;)
Reminds me of the exercises in Don Maass' The Fire In Fiction. Very useful tips. Thanks for the reminder!
Hey now, this is something! I am totally doing this from now on.
Wow~ that's just an awesome trick! It seems simple, but I never would have thought of it!! So cool, thanks for sharing :)
How fun! Definitely going to try this. :)
Hahaha! Love it! My cop hero is actually a fairly laidback playboy BUT he is a big time rule follower, so that probably fits with the stereotypes.
Great exercise! Thanks for sharing this.
Love that trick.
That is a really COOL way to do it!! Thanks for the tip, Stina. ;o) Yeah, I've not only read stereotypical characters, I'm sure I've written my share of them, too!
Ah, what an interesting take on characterization!
Oooooh, nice! Handy trick :D
Great tip Stina, thanks!
This is such a great exercize. BTW I always misspell exercize. DOH! I like this way of thinking. ANd I just downloaded Save the Cat to my Kindle and you are right!!! It is outstanding! Thanks for recommending it. :)
VERY cool trick (And who knew that was Orlando?)!
LOL - Oh, i hear what you're saying. Romance writers do liek to write about cops as heros, don't they? It's nice when mystery authors put a spin on their characters, or when horror writers make the MC seem so normal....but then changes it and mix it up. Definitely keeps you on your toes.
Oh, this is cool! Like the pictures, too, especially Orlando Bloom :)
That is a very cool trick! I've gotta try this out now. Thanks for sharing! Hope you're having a great week. :)
Totally!!! Super cool trick! :D Thx for sharing!
Very good idea. Thanks for the tip.
Fun idea. I see character development lessons for my students using this technique. Yay.
Great exercise. Although you have to be careful switching the "nurse" and "cop" stereotypes!
Yes, that is a cool trick. Thanks for the idea. :)
Oh, that is a fun trick! And I got an extra chuckle out of it, because my husband is close friends with 3 cops - one of them fits the stereotype perfectly, the other two fit the exotic dancer stereotype!
That is a fun trick. Thanks, Stina!
Amy
Ha! That is fun to play around with. Thanks for the tip : ) And omg, that burning picture is kind of scary.
This is a great idea! Thanks so much for the tip :)
That's a great idea! I never thought of that. I worry about my characters being too stereotypical.
I think the best way to make interesting characters is to take elements from the people in your own life and mash them up with other ideas.
Such a cool trick! I'm going to try this on my characters now--thanks, Stina!
Wow that is both simple and awesome!! I love that. What a fun exercise. Can the cop then look like the exotic dancer too? WHAT?? :D
My husband was just leaning over my shoulder wondering why I was staring at an Exotic dancer. gee thanx Stina! ;)
I thought you were going to suggest flipping each of the traits but I think I like this trick more! Thanks for sharing, Stina: the tips as well as the exotic dancer.
- Sophia.
Good way to switch it up!
Great exercise. I often think of the Robert DeNiro's character as cross-dressing Pirate Shakespeare in Stardust when trying to think of a non-stereotypical characteristics. How creative his character was!
veri nice.
What an awesome exercise - I'm definitely going to try that as I'm planning my new wip. Thanks so much for sharing that with us!
This sounds like such a fun excercise, and not just because your pictures rock! ;) But they totally do. In fact, I'm scrolling back up...
That sounds like a great trick. Thanks for sharing it.
Hey, that's a fun trick! I love it. Wish I had a local RWA chapter... very jealous. But you're keeping me up to speed. Thanks! :o) <3
Oooh! I love this idea and will use it. Thanks so much for sharing it! christy
This is a smart technique. When I revise my WIP, I want to make sure none of my characters are stereotypical so I will try this. Thanks! :)
I'm new to your blog and I loved the post! I've read several of your articles through QT, and I'm glad to have found your personal blog, as well.
Oh wow, that's a very nice idea. I'd never thought of it before, so thanks for sharing. I don't like stereotypical characters either...it makes me really sad to see STILL.
Post a Comment