Inspiration for writing characters Archives — Page 2 of 3

Today’s prompt is to have fun writing about this character. Maybe it’s the opening lines of a story. Maybe it’s a short character sketch. Maybe it’s the backstory for this little girl’s expression. Here’s mine.

“Uncle Matt.” My niece Amelia slid her glasses down her nose. “I told you not to give Pumpkin treats from the table.” She glared up at me, tapping her foot.

I gulped pop. A grown man should not be made to feel so awkward by a six-year-old. But if the six-year-old was the clone of her mother, who was the big sister who had been born without a funny bone but with a terrifying sense of what was proper, then such a reaction was understandable.

I swigged more pop as Amelia tapped her scuffed croc.

At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

For more character prompts, click here.

Since this month is all about having fun with writing, I’m giving you ideas on how to have writing fun with characters. I’m a character writer. I start with developing characters and getting to know them. Once I understand them as well as my kids, it’s time to throw them into a story. When my writing isn’t going well, I look to my characters to rescue the narrative. And to put the fun back into a story.

Fun Ideas for Characters

Here are some ideas to write about characters for just the fun of it.

Create two very obnoxious characters. Then put them in a scene together.
Write from your pet’s POV, especially what it thinks of you.
Insert yourself in a scene with one of your favorite fiction characters like Sherlock Holmes or Bilbo Baggins.
Insert yourself in a scene with one of the characters you’ve created.
Reverse a famous hero-villain pair. For example, Superman terrorizes the world, and only Lex Luthor can save it.

Fun Ideas for Characters in Your WIP

If you’re writing on a deadline, you might not have time to write something outside of your WIP. So below are ideas to consider adding to your WIP, if you’ve found all the fun has gone out of your current project but you can’t step away from it.

Add a scene or two with your favorite supporting character.
Have two characters who don’t like each other meet.
Have your main character (MC) fight wither their closest friend.
Have your MC do something that’s outrageous for them.
Have your antagonist do something outrageous for them.
Bring together two characters who haven’t had a scene together yet.
Add a character who isn’t supposed to be in the story. For example, you decided you didn’t need your MC’s grandma in the story and sent her on vacation. Bring her back and see if she can fit in the story.
Write a scene that isn’t working from the POV of a different character.

What suggestions do have for writing fun with characters? For more character prompts, click here.

Creating characters is the theme for JPC Allen Writes this month. As a character writer, I have to have a good grasp on my main characters before starting a story. But what about starting a story with a setting and see what characters it suggests? So that’s the prompt I have today: create characters for this setting.

This is a photo of Coney Island in New York, but imagine any amusement park next to a beach. Who would you find there? Families with young children, teens on a day trip, a young couple on a first date, an elderly couple celebrating their first date. What about the people working in such a place? Lifeguards, teens working a summer job in the park, managers overseeing the summer workers.

Once you have some ideas of who would inhabit a setting, then you can begin creating characters. Since my mind turns to crime, what if the mother of the young family sees her father, who left her as a child, working at the park? Or a couple of teen workers, who don’t like each other, going forces to investigate some mysterious accidents that have occurred on a couple of rides? Maybe it could the overworked manager who starts an amateur investigation into the accdodents and finds unexpected help with two of the teen employees he’s had the most trouble with.

From the list above, create characters for this setting and tell me how they interact with each other.

For more character prompts, click here.

After tabulating the votes, we have a tie for which one of the photos from last week will be our YA protagonist. To break the tie, I selected … the young man below. I like his thoughtful look. This week, choose an antagonist for a YA story from the other photos I provide. An antagonist doest not have to be a villain. It is just someone, or sometimes, something, that stands in the way of the protagonist from reaching his goal. That antagonist could be someone the main character loves, but for some reason, they are on opposite sides of an issue.

Here’s our protagonist.

Now here are the antagonists. Please let me know in the comments which person you think would be a great one.

For more writing prompts for YA stories, click here.

Protagonist is just an English major way of saying main character. My prompt today is for you to choose a protagonist for a YA story based on the photos below. In the comments, name the one you think would make a good protagonist. I’ll pick the one that gets the most comments, and then next week, we’ll pick an antagonist. By the end of the month, we’ll have the building block for a YA story.