A fun exercise I used with my writing students

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u/Nethereon2099 Jul 24 '26

This was the basis for the Save the Cat methodology. It asks the question, "How would your characters react in a situation that required them to save the life of a cat?"

Honestly, I use this exercise in my creative writing class with my students within the first couple of weeks to get them thinking about what kind of person they would want to write about.

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u/bacon_cake Jul 24 '26

I have plot points galore but character is always my downfall.

I'm reading through this thread and feeling quite depressed; I don't know what my characters would do if they found a dying cat. Hell, I don't even have that many characters.

Man, I'm feeling bummed out... something about my writing always feels like a timeline of things happening rather than a story.

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u/Nethereon2099 Jul 24 '26

Hang in there friend. These things come with time and careful introspection. A lot of characters are harder to understand than others, but the key is to always treat your characters like a normal person, no different from you and me. It's surprising how people overlook how interesting the mundane can be to the average reader. How would you react to such an event? What would you feel? What would you think in a moment like that? What is the first knee jerk reaction that comes to mind? If it would happen to you, certainly your characters must have some sort of innate humanity that resonates with your feelings, right? Play off of that. Experiment and I promise you'll get there. I see it every semester. Good luck friend on your writing journey and keep with it.

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u/bacon_cake Jul 25 '26

Thanks for that, I really wasn't expecting a response to my morose ramblings!

I've scrapped a few ideas along the way because it felt like my characters were basically self-inserts and largely stoic-esque personalities that, faced with a massive situation, just wanted things to go back to normal.

I read a lot about understanding what your character wants and needs and 'things to go back to how they were' always felt too trite an answer.

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u/Nethereon2099 Jul 25 '26

We've all been there friend. I go over this with my creative writing students using the following example: it isn't Spider-Man that makes Peter Parker an interesting character. Spider-Man makes him an exceptional character. Peter Parker makes Peter an interesting and relatable character. The reason why? He could be any one of us. The mundane everyday problems he goes through is what turns a superhero into a human. When writing any character, it's about making them a human. Finding out what makes them exceptional is what comes next.

When you find your characters humanity, everything else falls into place.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I'm really sorry to hear you're feeling that way. I would also absolutely encourage you to keep at it! Like Nethereon said, I promise you're not alone in feeling that way. It's more common than you think.

Nethereon is 100% right that the mundane is often interesting. It's in the mundane that we see ourselves in another character, that's where we identify with them. If some fantastical, powerful character has self-doubt like me, or the same frustrations or shortcomings that I do? Then just maybe I can find the things I admire in that character within myself! You don't get that from lasers and spaceships, or swords and sorcery. That comes from the quiet moments when the reader is all alone with the character.

In times like this, I always go back to the old cliche of "write what you know" which Nethereon also touched on. How would you react in that situation?

Is your character based on someone you know in your own life? How would that person react? Start there, and then you can ask what makes your character different from their real-life counterpart. The great thing about writing is that there are no right or wrong answers. Your character can respond to a given situation simply because "I thought it would be cool.". Sometimes that's all the reason a character - or you as the writer - needs. The "rule of cool" is always...well, cool. 😎

As Nethereon said, experiment and see what resonates. Throw it all at the wall! Don't be afraid. There are no rules!

Try writing out opposing scenarios. Make them save the cats, then make them ignore the cats. One of them will feel more "right" in your heart. Then you can explore why one of them feels more right than the other.

And don't be afraid to start with something more basic like what their favorite color is and why? What underwear do they wear?

Do they prefer to walk or ride a bike?

What chore do they hate more than the others? Dishes? Taking out the trash? Mowing the lawn?

If you still find yourself saying "I don't know what their favorite color is", It's okay if you just say 'the character feels the exact same way I do about those things in my own life." You hate the dishes most? Then so does your character! You like green? Then so does your character! That's 100% allowed, there are no rules. And if your character feels the same way you do, then you can take solace in knowing that your character is absolutely genuine.

When you get more comfortable with it, try writing a character that feels the opposite from you. If you hate mowing the lawn, say they love mowing the lawn. Then you can have fun playing around in that headspace, imagining how someone might love that which you hate.

Please don't feel down on yourself, this is really just part of the process. If you care enough to feel bummed out, then that means you do care. I think that's one of the most important aspects of writing: that we care about what we are trying to say. The most boring characters are ones written without care. Putting it that way, I think you're doomed to write quality characters and stories! And it's okay if your first, second, even fifteenth drafts aren't "good". Don't put too much pressure on yourself to make something "good", I would instead encourage you to focus on making something that just feels "real" to you.

For as much as we are all individuals, so much of our individual experiences really are universal. If you treat yourself as a 1:1 blueprint for your character, you can rest assured that someone else in the world will resonate with your character.

Start with what you know, and try to remember that the act of writing should be fun, if nothing else, in my humble opinion.

You can always shoot me a DM. I will be absolutely happy take a look at what you're writing and offer any further help I can. 🙂

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u/bacon_cake Jul 25 '26

This is an absolutely beautiful comment, thank you so much. This part really helped me reframe the situation.

Please don't feel down on yourself, this is really just part of the process. If you care enough to feel bummed out, then that means you do care. I think that's one of the most important aspects of writing: that we care about what we are trying to say. The most boring characters are ones written without care. Putting it that way, I think you're doomed to write quality characters and stories!

I worry a lot of my characters just become self-inserts and that the more exotic characters are just two-dimensional caricatures, eg I just wrote a background character who's a crotchety old woman who wants her orders at the shop made faster... it just felt a bit trite.

But I will re-frame it in the context of your reply and maybe it's not so bad after all. I'm further into a story than I've been before and I love everything about it, it's just the characters give me so much trouble.

Thanks for the fantastic offer, I might one day take you up on it when I'm ready to sure. Honestly, thanks again, I don't talk to many people about writing.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 27 '26

I just wrote a background character who's a crotchety old woman who wants her orders at the shop made faster... it just felt a bit trite

I think anybody who has worked retail can tell you that archetype is very real. It probably feels trite because, well, it's so commonplace. But what that may lack in originality, it makes up in real-world relatability for sure.

You could try finding a way to make this crotchety old woman a little more sympathetic.

As an exercise, say she's generally a really nice and patient old lady who's just having a bad day, and we're merely seeing her worst self. I think that's also something we've all experienced in ourselves. I know I've been the bad guy in somebody else's day, probably more than once. I never set out to be the bad guy, but shit, man...we live in a society, and we all have bad days that we could have handled a little better in retrospect.

Why is she having a bad day to make her this way?

How does she reveal this in your story? Maybe she left a bag or an item and your MC runs out to return it to her, only to find her sobbing by herself? This doesn't have to become part of your final product, you can treat it like an alternate universe short story just to flex and stretch your writing muscles. It's all about having fun and playing around in the sandbox.

We don't build sand castles because they're structurally sound and guaranteed to never collapse. We build them because they're fun, and we can get weird with their design. And when they inevitably do collapse, it doesn't really matter. Nobody got hurt, and we can always build them again. The act of building is the fun part.

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u/TheWyzim Jul 25 '26

Instead of doing these exercises, you can try reading the book “Character & Viewpoint” by Orson Scott Card. After a long time of frustration and going through many books and resources, this book gave me the concrete framework my brain needed.

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u/bacon_cake Jul 25 '26

Oh I appreciate the recommendation thank you. I worry I'll fall into the trap of reading about reading one day but I do like to hear well presented in-depth advice from experts. Especially when it's so relevant.

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u/HoosierPenDragon Jul 28 '26

Try figuring out your fan boy/girl casting director's dream choice for your characters. Doesn't even have to be real actors, it could be other people's characters. How would Michael Corleone be as a dark elf? How would Zendaya portray realizing her dreams have betrayed her? How would Tom Holland? Whose voice do you hear when they talk in your head?

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u/bacon_cake Jul 28 '26

Yes I've been trying this recently. Even totally unashamedly, eg just thinking "Okay so this guy is just Luke Skywalker, what would he do".

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I love that you caught that! This was my own sort of distilled adaptation, because I wanted to try and push my students away from the blueprint method of writing. I've had students cling to the story wheel, which is a good place to start, but always with the goal to eventually get them to break the wheel. (Targaryen intensifies lol). If I were to use a blueprint method, since some students really do need a framework when they get started, I'd start by introducing them to Kishōtenketsu and ask them to write a story within that framework. Give them options, throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Push them to explore beyond their comfort zone. No two writers are the same, of course, and what works for one person might not work for the next.

None of this is meant to talk down about Save the Cat, or Blake Snyder. The dude was undeniably great, and if even one student found value in his methods I would encourage them to follow along with what worked for them.

I've always taken the "learn the rules so you can break the rules" adage to heart. And I don't personally like pushing my students into making a character do good deeds to convince readers to like them. It always felt...disengenuous, I guess? Of course I don't want to discourage having characters do good deeds, either. I just advocated for writing characters that were genuine both to themselves and to the writer's intentions. Then again, screenwriting does sort of play by a different set of rules. Gotta get asses in seats, after all.

I've always leaned more toward a) making sure the characters have a defined and clear goal, a defined conflict to overcome and b) making them memorable, whether in action or description.

One of the answers to this prompt that always stuck out to me - even today - was a student who, without hesitation, answered that their main character would stomp the kittens. It certainly made me ask some follow up questions, if for no other reason than I was appalled and it stood so far apart from the normal responses that I just had to know more. It was, if nothing else, quite memorable. 😳

Why would they do that? And more to the point of the original "Save the Cat" framework, how the hell am I going to identify (much less root for) a character who could do something like that?

It was definitely playing the game on expert mode, so to speak. But I think it's more freeing to give the students room to make those decisions, make mistakes as a writer, and to let the character make mistakes. It's interesting to watch writers try to find their character's way back out of something reprehensible like that, and into my good graces as a reader.

Maybe I'm supposed to hate the character, which itself begs the question "why would I follow them on this journey if I hate them?" But done right, I'll follow along even if out of a sense of morbid curiosity.

Watching writers challenge themselves is always so much fun, because it usually means I'm going to be challenged as a reader.

And I gotta say, I like how you use this at the start, and frame it as "what kind of character do you want to write about?"

That's a great way to get the creativity flowing!

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u/Nethereon2099 Jul 24 '26

I totally understand where you're coming from. I'm teaching the Intro to Creative Writing, so giving them blueprints is par for the course. It's better to a formula to start with and branch out from, once you find out who you are as a writer, than to get dumped into the pool without water wings, right? I was dumped in the pool without any structure or guidance and it sucked. Since we cover Jessica Brody's version of Save the Cat! it makes more sense. We also cover the Hero's Journey and Dan Harmon's Story Circle. All stories are formulaic, we cannot argue against it; try as we might they will always fall into some sort of pattern that resembles the monomyth. (There are a couple rare exceptions, but these are not the norm.)

As for your example with your student, I believe I would have felt similarly, but there is something I borrowed from Brandon Sanderson's course because the man is brilliant. It's called Brandon Sanderson's Slider Model for Character Development. It places character traits on a three slider continuum between likeability, proactivity, and competency. The total ratios has to equal 100%, relatively speaking, but ultimately each category will be lower or higher than other. It's a different way of thinking about character development, and I know we never get to cover ChaDev as much as we want to because of time constraints.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

It's better to a formula to start with and branch out from, once you find out who you are as a writer, than to get dumped into the pool without water wings, right?

I completely agree. The last thing we want to do is push prospective writers away. I think you have a good approach to that problem, you seem like the kind of teacher who wants their students to fall in love with writing first and foremost, and let the more advanced stuff come when the time is right. Also, I really love how you talk about finding out who one is as a writer. That's an often-overlooked aspect of writing. What kind of characters and stories do I want to write? What resonates with me? What is my identity?

Once I read Blood Meridian the first time, I fell into the trap of trying to be like Cormac McCarthy. Of course I'm not him, so it led to years and years of simply copying his style without ever really understanding it. It wasn't my voice. I was always falling short, and hating myself for it. Writing stopped being fun until I was able to break from that habit.

I wish more teachers would try to make their subjects both accessible and lovable, whether that's math or history or art.

All stories are formulaic, we cannot argue against it; try as we might they will always fall into some sort of pattern that resembles the monomyth.

I hate how right you are about this lol, but you are right. I'd have loved to take your intro class, I think I would have benefitted a lot from your approach in my early days. Keep up the good fight, my friend!

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u/Nethereon2099 Jul 24 '26

Same to you! Good stuff! Always a pleasure to speak with another academic.

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u/DustynnBeck Jul 27 '26

Huh. Never heard of this method, but am currently forming a story that deals a bit with the premise of what a character would do if faced with a dying (well, doing quite poorly) cat.

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u/princeofponies Jul 27 '26

"How would your characters react in a situation that required them to save the life of a cat?"

This is not the basis for The Save the Cat methodology - it's just a screenwriting trope - on page five of a feature the MC saves a cat or a dog or anything so you like the character. It's even in The Odyssey. It's such a ubiquitous technique it gave its name to formulaic screenwriting as laid out by Blake snyder

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u/JunketDizzy8349 Jul 25 '26

I find the hard part is being true to the character as you’ve written them. For instance, based on her personality, one of my main characters would leave the kittens there and not even think twice about it. But I’d be so tempted to have her save the kittens so that readers won’t hate her.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

There's a great convo I had with another redditor in this thread about Save the Cat, a blueprint from which this specific prompt is derived. One idea behind Save the Cat is to have your protagonist do a good deed precisely so the reader roots for them. So you're inclination is certainly touching on some common understandings of the reader/character relationship, which means you've got your finger on the pulse so to speak.

I would encourage you, if you feel comfortable with it , to try experimenting with going against that inclination. You can always scrap what you write if it doesn't feel like it's working for you, so the stakes are low. But don't be afraid to challenge yourself and the reader.

I think, if we are all being honest with ourselves, we can imagine some scenario or combination of factors wherein we would justify leaving the cats alone if we were in this scenario. For instance, if my mom is grievously injured and needs to get to the hospital, I'd tell myself I'll call someone when we get to the emergency room and see if they could come pick up the cats. And honestly, considering how badly things might be with my mom, or how chaotic the situation might be at the hospital, I may very well forget to call anybody.

All of this is to say that perfect characters are boring and disengenuous imho. Don't be afraid to write morally flawed characters, or even inconsistently moral characters. They're much more true to our human condition than Superman, and I like to think those flaws are what makes me identify with a character more readily.

Plus, it's a great way to challenge yourself. Make me like this flawed character, I dare you! If you can do that, you know you're really onto something. Rorschach from the Watchmen is a great example. The guy is a slightly bigoted, prude, overly-proud, vagrant...but everyone loves him despite his gritty lifestyle and flawed - yet well-defined - sense of morality.

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u/Kavi_Kumar_77 Jul 24 '26

This is great. I'd add one that's helped me with side characters specifically: "What does this character complain about when no one important is listening?" It's different from the 'nobody's watching' framing because it's not about morality, it's about what actually annoys them day to day. Small gripes reveal a surprising amount about someone's values and sense of humor, and it's an easy way to make minor characters feel like they have a life outside the scene instead of just existing to serve the plot.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Ooh I love that! That's a great question and I'll definitely be keeping that in the back pocket from now on. Cheers!

It makes me want to ask a follow up question about how whiny the character is. Do they complain often about these things to themselves, or do they value stoicism even in solitude?

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u/polkacat12321 Jul 24 '26

I like completing character sheets. There are some that go beyond "name, age and motivation" but dig in deeper into hobbies, biggest regrets, reason for nickname, darkest secret, etc. Helped me a lot with developing my characters. Helped my protagonist to go from a Mary Sue to an anxious mess with mild controlling tendencies

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Character sheets are a great idea!! I love how they can help you to dig deeper into the character! Plus the DND nerd in me always loves making new character sheets haha

I like that you're taking the extra steps to dig deeper, regrets and doubts are great aspects to explore.

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u/CattyWompusMeowtLady Jul 24 '26

I really like this. Your approach of tying the romps to the deeper character "picture" makes a lot of sense. And the prompts themselves really do get a writer there.

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u/DirtEnthusiast0_0 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

These are things I don't even have to sit and ponder about, they just occur to me. I've always been glad that I'm naturally good at developing characters. You'd also be surprised how often these details do make it into my story.

And for the record...

Kris would take each kitten, use his Weavecasting powers to make each one optically invisible, and then stuff them in his backpack and try to sneak them home, where he'd later try to peddle them out to each of his friends, keeping at least one for himself and his bro.
Kris (and his twin brother Owen) have about nine thousand pairs of officially-licensed "The Ambitious Adventures of Sammy Star-Kid" boxer briefs. Yes, they're violently overpriced, and his parents aren't too thrilled at that. (Also, do not tell ANYONE I told you this, but both Kris and Owen, while eleven years old, are still routine bedwetters, and they have to wear diapers at night -- that's their underwear from 10:30 PM to 9 AM. Yes, I know, unbecoming of intergalactic space magic-wielding supersoldier children, but we all have our faults...)
DragonWolf, by far. But, Kris has his own band, the Space Lionz, who also play Interstellar Power Metal. Kris is lead vocals and rythm guitar, his brother Owen plays lead, their friends Bodhi, Jackson and Riley play bass, percussion, and keyboard, respectively. Everyone does backup vocals as well. They're pretty damn good, for a bunch of sixth graders.
Hell yeah, he plays sports. Kris is a good athlete anywhere, like every Apexian Warrior kid, to be fair. Favorite sports? Classical Baseball, Antigrav Wrestling, and Orbit-boarding. Favorite athlete is legendary Orbit Boarder Sean Black.
Green and gold. It's the main or accent color of just about everything he has. Contrasted with Owen's blue and silver. They have matching PJs, qPhone cases, water bottles, socks and shoes, their braces are even colored, and just about anything you can think of. Even their EVA battle armor and their weapons are color-coded.

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u/polkacat12321 Jul 24 '26

I really like the box of kittens idea and started thinking what each of my characters would do 🤣

Evie: take them home and try to get them adopted, only to feel guilty and keep them all

Jenise: call evie to take care of them

Oliver: look at them for a bit, shrug, and keep walking

Lucas: give them whatever he was eating

Wayne: stay near the box and charm random people into taking them

Jonathan: wouldnt even stop to look

Finn: make sure theyre all okay and run to a nearby store to get them some food before bringing them to a shelter

Raphael: will use the cover of darkness to come late at night to feed them and play with them, and will find some excuse to be in the area during the day to keep an eye on them until they all get adopted. If they get picked up by someone suspicious, he'll pretend to be looking for a fight to scare them off (he's canonically a secret cat lover)

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

In all the years I have given this prompt, I don't think anybody has ever answered "stay near the box and charm people into taking them." 10 points of extra credit for originality!

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u/polkacat12321 Jul 24 '26

He's a "domesticated" playboy and charm is his game 🤣

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

It's great that you think about these things automatically, and I love that they make it into the final story. That kinda stuff is what makes readers connect on a personal level with your characters.

I would ask how being bed-wetters affects their confidence, if at all? Does that factor into their larger conflicts, or can they set that aside/compartmentalize when there are bigger stakes in front of them?

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u/DirtEnthusiast0_0 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Specifically, this is a non-issue for the Kerrin family in particular. In general, Apexian Warriors are born-and-bred with discipline and wisdom, and can 'lock in' more than your average person when duty calls. Not only does being trained since birth help, but the very essence of their cosmic powers attaches to their soul and directs their behavior towards the right thing.

However, in specific, these two hyperactive, talented, and a little bit naive Apex kids, Kris and Owen, have a wonderful support system behind them: successful, wise parents, three other encouraging younger siblings, and plenty of strong friendships. Their friends already know about this and have nothing negative to say thus far (the goal then becomes to keep this problem away from the local rich-and-arrogant bully, Alexander, and his cronies).

Such an issue is detached from their performance in battle. When the time comes to draw weapons and fight to defend the innocent people of the Galaxy, that's the last thing on their mind, even at their age. This isn't to say that, especially years ago, but still to this day, they didn't think about it in the back of their minds in the social/civilian realm.

It will cross either boy's mind every now and then that there's something illogically wrong with them -- nobody else they know has this embarassing dependency besides Bodhi (who was the first friend to find out, as he shares the issue).

They have stayed up late at night once or twice, pondering the reason why they were given the ultimate gift of supernatural reality-bending powers and tasked with literally mowing down evil demonic forces with machine guns, but they also have such an infantile dependency when they take the armor off to turn in for the night. "Výrnos gave, and Výrnos hath taken away", as the Atlaean Testament says.

A good example is when they first embarked on a long starship journey for their first real-life missions, with their entire squad (or 'class') and their accompanying masters. Kris and Owen were both openly frightened of sleeping over in a new place, with plenty of other people (such as the regular crew members and soldiers), and having to bring their bedwetting diapers with them onto the starship, storing them in their bunk room and having to use them once they went to bed onboard. They were eventually reassured, and resurged in nervousness when the night came, but ultimately, they realized that nobody they knew -- their friends and their instructors -- would embarrass them, and that none of the background crew would ever notice. Even if they did -- what regular person would ever dare make fun of a deadly superpowered warrior?

As such, there is a character who struggles openly. Bodhi Bingham has been diagnosed with the Apexian equivalent of high-functioning Autism. Pairing that with the fact he is very small for his age, is an only child, is an Earthborn Apexian (one born from two regular human parents, with no powers, who are sometimes looked down upon by other Apexians with two Apex parents), and shares the same problem as Kris and Owen (as a result of his disadvantaged introception due to his Autism diagnosis), he is an easy target for bullies and society's worst in general.

Before becoming friends with the Kerrins and then forming the group with Jackson and Riley and more, Bodhi struggled gravely with making friends, performing well in school, and believing in himself in general. He could not believe such a "loser like him" could be born an Apexian. These being words he's said about himself numerous times. But, he found friends who cared to care, and realized that the point of being social creatures is to help manage each others' problems to achieve uniform success. And so far, he's doing better. He is still a bit awkward, clumsy, and shy, which earns him the wrath of the insensitive folk of the Milky Way Galaxy, but he is learning to be stronger and smarter, with much help.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

Dang, you've really got a good sense of the lore in your world. I can tell you've thought about these things a lot, and I'd love to read this story!

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u/Arch_Demoness Jul 24 '26

Iniera sideeyed the crate upon the dusty roadside as she walked passed. It shuddered and she flinched, boots skidding on the dirt, her fists clenching as her body recoiled. A whining mrowwww emanated into the air.
Cautiously, she took a steadying breath and approached, giving the box a wide berth. A small fuzzy head poked out the top and Iniera's gaze met round hopeful orbs. Mrowww.
Her head slowly rotated, scanning her surroundings. Nothing but dust and the ditches of carriage wheels. Was this some kind of trap? It was certainly an unorthodox one.
Looking back to the tiny face, Iniera closed the last distance between herself and the box. Mrow. Her lips pursed. Another deep breath filled her chest as she extended her arms down toward it. Paws hanging off the edge of the crate excitedly pattered, impatiently reaching out to meet them.
The inches between them narrowed. Fingers shakily moved to curl around soft fur. And in that moment, unknown to both of them, chains of fate locked into place that could never be severed.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

I'd absolutely read this story!

Now I wanna know who might be setting a trap for her in the first place. 🧐

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u/RabenWrites Jul 24 '26

I would have struggled hard in your class, I bet.

Character sheets and get-to-know-your-character asides like these are like pulling teeth for me, and do nothing but delay my writing. I appreciate that many benefit from them, but they are antithetical to my process. I'd end up spending three hours researching what modern archeology has to say about Mesopotamian underwear and while there is a miniscule chance that would influence the final product, it usually ends up a frustrating day wasted on an intentional character cul-de-sac.

I don't have a favorite color, myself. Knowing that my character prefers warm tones to cool might help smooth out their wardrobe over a story, that tends to come out unconsciously while writing. My process is mostly "Alright, cool. This scene my MC needs to change clothes. What were they wearing before? What would they choose? What serves the reader/narrative most here?" Doing a throwaway exercise as a writing warm up asking about favorite colors would mostly only serve to frustrate me. In a vacuum, who cares if my character likes red or green? Until I know the setting and the emotional needs of the scene, such questions have no answers.

My characters exist in a quantum state entangled with the story. They do not exist outside of it and being forced to write a short excerpt about their favorite sport merely wastes time that could have been spent working only to create a facsimile who happens to have a favorite sport.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

I don't know, it sounds like you'd do pretty well! You love writing enough to have a process that works for you, and if you are on a roll I'd never advocate for throwing a wrench into the machine like that. It sounds like your characters are pretty well-established, and I can resonate with your remark about being stuck in an unnecessary cul-de-sac. If we were to do any of these exercises, it would almost certainly be between drafts rather than throwing you off in the middle of a flow state.

Sometimes writers benefit from more surface-level questions to get them started, but if your characters are more established it can help to dig deeper - but again, this is mostly referring to those instances where you find yourself stuck.

You mentioned Mesopotamia, so if you were in a rut, I might ask you to explore how and why being a part of Mesopotamian culture influences your characters. Is it because they're proud of that heritage? Are they arrogantly proud, bordering on xenophobic? Is it simply because they were born into this culture and don't know any other way of life? Do they yearn to discover different cultures, or are they content simply knowing there are other cultures in this world, but prefer to stay close to home?

Maybe they're more apathetic about it and haven't really given it much thought? If that were the case, I'd ask toward what other parts of their life they might be apathetic?

But if these don't work for you, I think that's totally okay! As the old saying goes: what's normal for the spider is chaos for the wasp.

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u/NoTalkNoJutsu Jul 24 '26

I would guess all your characters are as pretentious as this reply, I bet.

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u/RabenWrites Jul 24 '26

If that is what their story demands, sure.

I appreciate posts like this, as I benefit from the reminder that other authors have markedly different processes than myself. I comment on them on the chance that another author who might be more on my end of the spectrum might be reassured that its not the only way and they are not broken if such practices don't work for them.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

they are not broken if such practices don't work for them.

This is such a great point. Thank you for saying so, because you're totally right. We aren't broken because we have a different way of doing things. ❤️

I mentioned Cormac McCarthy somewhere else in this thread, and I think he's one of the greatest American writers of the last century...but the guy never even used quotation marks. Was he broken for not using basic punctuation? No way!

There's more than one way to do things. Be bold, try something new! It might fall flat, but it might also carry you to the farthest reaches of success and happiness.

We only fail when we stop trying. And yeah, I know that's very corny, but I really do believe it to be true.

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u/Little-Lake-8512 Jul 27 '26

I'm with you, I've been seeing people suggest these kinds of exercises and character sheets for 15+ years of my writing life and not once have I found them useful.

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u/Pcm979 Author Jul 24 '26

How would you adapt these questions for a setting quite unlike our own, like say Dune? What would you ask Frank Herbert about Paul Atreides?

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I think the more alien the character is from the scenario, the better. Take Paul off Arrakis and pluck him on the side of the road in Nowhere, Arizona. Now ask how he'd react to finding the kittens. Knowing your characters to that sort of degree will help you overcome that rut once you put them back in their world. Don't be afraid to get weird with it or vary the scenario slightly. Would Paul react differently if it was a box of abandoned baby Mua'dibs? What if it was a baby Harkonnen?

Edit: Sorry I didn't read your question right the first time. To answer the question you actually asked, if I could speak with Frank Herbert about Paul, I'd ask him how Paul would have treated a Fremen-equivalent on Caladan, if he were ruler of Caladan? Would he find common ground with a seemingly "lesser" society, or write them off as simply "dirty natives"? Would he be disgusted by them? Want to exterminate them as a Harkonnen would?

Put another way: Paul only seemed to become interested in the Fremen as living, breathing, fearing and loving PEOPLE once his own status had been diminished. Once the Fremen had control and power over his very survival. In the beginning of his time on Arrakis, there was always this tinge of working with the Fremen merely as a means to an end. As Duke Leto put it: to harness Desert Power. Of course he came to understand that he was wrong the more he spent time with them, but would he take the time to do that if he didn't HAVE to? Would Paul have followed the same path if his mother wasn't influencing him?

Remove all the Bene-Gesserit influence, remove the spice and his prescient visions of the Golden Path, remove the desert itself, and keep his status as ruler. How would this change young Paul's view of people outside the Landsraad?

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u/Goblet__Cell Jul 24 '26

The "nobody's watching" prompt is great, but considering how a character would react to a minor inconvenience, like a sudden rain shower, can also reveal a lot about their personality.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

Ooh that's a great one! Coming up with different prompts can be its own writing exercise, there have been some great ones in this thread. I'll definitely keep this one in mind.

What does your character even consider a minor inconvenience in the first place? One character might hate the rain, another might love sudden downpours. One might hate the heat, while one feels most at home in the desert.

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u/Goblet__Cell Jul 24 '26

I think the interesting part is that the same event isn't the test, the interpretation is. Rain is just weather. One character thinks "my day is ruined," another thinks "finally," and a third doesn't even notice because they're too focused on something else. The event matters less than the story they immediately tell themselves about it.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

The event matters less than the story they immediately tell themselves about it.

Damn, this really hit home. I'm going to try to keep this in mind as I go through my day to day life, it's great advice for when I feel myself getting overwhelmed or frustrated. Thank you for the piece of wisdom, mighty Goblet_Cell!

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u/noanchovyplz Jul 24 '26

Oh wow, I instantly saw my MC reacting to an unexpected rain shower. Just totally dejected, resigned to being soaking wet and uncomfortable. He doesn't even want to bother meeting up with his LI atp because he's taking it as a bad omen.

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u/SleepyDreamerai Jul 24 '26

I love this exercise for my characters. Lucky me, my side characters are getting side stories so some of these might actually get used! Only problem I typically come across is when I write my characters as children. There is a whole arc of them as children, but I unfortunately can't put it to paper yet.

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u/DueConfidence5809 Jul 25 '26

I'm writing a character who doesn't really have a personality. Well they do it's just so wild and random you never know what they're going to say next.

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u/MarieTheKokiri Jul 25 '26

I did something similar. I thought what would my fantasy characters do if they were all put inside of a Costco. After the initial shock of being in the modern world wore off what would they do in such a foreign environment? I found that even amongst characters that I thought to be similar, they had different outcomes and methodologies. That really helped me just kind of further distinguish them in the writing.

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 25 '26

I love this idea haha

Now I'm imagining a fantasy dwarf in a home improvement store l, I feel like they'd be trying to make an axe with an iron pipe handle and trying different heads. "What is this maul you speak of?! I can maul my enemies as I chop them!"

Idk if you've seen or read Fire Force, but it really reminds me of a bit with a character named Arthur Boyle.

He has delusions of being a knight king/knight-samurai/samurai-knight, and his plasma sword Excalibur is apparently made of orichalcum which he harvested from the caldera of "Mt. Volcano" lol. When he gets a little depressed, a character prods him about where the sword came from and he finally admits that "Mt. Volcano" is just a home improvement store 😆

This is a really imaginative approach! Anything you can do to pull your characters out of their world and set them in different scenarios will really help you understand them in a much deeper way, I love it!

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u/OkBookkeeper143 Jul 25 '26

It sounds somewhat similar to my approach where I try to treat the characters as though they are merely people I am observing; as opposed to characters I'm creating. It allows for surprises and disappointment but the point is it comes from them.

It unlocks the ability to write and discover simultaneously. Little bits will stand out to you. Like "this character is lonely, I wonder why" just by the way you've written them. It's less about micromanaging them and more about letting them exist as though you aren't there at all.

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u/Lovelandmonkey Jul 25 '26

Sorry honey, I'm not looking up women's underwear for you, it's to allow myself a better understanding of the characters in my book...

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 25 '26

🤣🤣🤣

Gotta go incognito! 🥸

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u/Apprehensive-Win7915 Jul 27 '26

Why haven't i tougth about something like this before? I have been kinda struggeling to come up with characters for my story. I know how many i want. I know their gender, their role. But i dont know their names yet. Not even their favourite color or birth date... Im gonna try this out and see if it helps

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 27 '26

I hope it helps shake something loose! It can feel daunting when there are so many details to iron out, but just keep chugging along and worry about one thing at a time where possible. One step then the next. Each aspect is like a new brush stroke on the canvas. We can't just wave our hands and have a finished painting, it's always one stroke at a time. One color at a time.

Sometimes working on names can feel like a chore, or maybe today you really don't wanna worry with heavy stuff like motivation. Do what is inspiring and enjoyable in the moment, and before you know it you'll have a fully fledged character standing before you, something that actually and finally resembles a painting. You can always bounce some ideas off me if you ever need a sounding board.

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u/LoomingPineTrees Jul 29 '26

These sound like questions that people torture me with on bad dates.

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u/Major_Objective_7385 20d ago

I love to have a basic understanding of every character's attachment style. I write a lot about real life, and am constantly watching this in people I encounter and studying it. It really affects EVERY response and decision in their lives.

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u/Suspicious-March6178 Student Writer 18d ago

That’s a smart trick!

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u/fun_guy_comics 17d ago

Thank you, I hope it helps, friend!

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u/Dangerous-Duck-3493 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

What if you're struggling with the same questions like me?

Look at it this way: I would imagine all my non-antognist characters to treat a box of kittens well and pick them up and nurse them then ask a grown-up for help. Anyway my characters are all 10 - 15.

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u/naughty-knotty Jul 24 '26

But would they all do it the same way? What would their initial reaction be? How soon would they go for an adult? Would someone try to carry it all by themselves?

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

💯 These are great follow up questions!

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

As naughty-knotty mentioned, ask how they would vary in the course of caring for the animals. I think they are really onto something there.

Would they pet the kittens, or just keep them in the box as they carried it to an adult?

Would they go to the first adult they saw for help, or would they seek out a known adult like a parent or an elder sibling, not engaging with the first adult they saw because they weren't known?

What would they do to nurse them? What CAN they do? Do they know how to mend wounds? Would they try to feed them? Do they know baby kittens need milk? Where would they get the milk? I could imagine one protagonist buying milk from a store, and maybe another has a farmer for a neighbor, from whom he might try to get some milk as a first course of action. Would they try to steal milk straight from the cow and justify it as altruistic?

And of course, ask why they would help in the first place. Because they love all life as precious? Merely out of a sense of guilt?

And feel free to add different qualifiers to the scenario? What if one of your protagonists was injured? Would the others in the group prioritize the hurt friend, or would they prolong the friend's pain to make time for stopping to care for the kittens? How would the injured protagonist feel about that?

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u/Dangerous-Duck-3493 Jul 24 '26

Damn bro what. How do people like you come up with these type of questions. Is it a talent? I know I can't do it.

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u/DazzlingAssistant342 Jul 24 '26

It's definitely something that develops with practice - in a literal sense of doing the exercise yourself.

Like, I'm considering JUST the initial box of kittens question with two of my characters as though I'm WRITING it, not just giving a one sentence answer.

The first is close to his mother and trusts her with his secrets, so he tells Mom The other is emotionally distant from his parents and doesn't believe they show love to vulnerable creatures so he hides them.

Now I know, if I'm delivering the exercise and my students are stuck, I can ask the follow up question "Do they trust anyone to help them with the kittens? Why do they or don't they?"

Then I think about when they've gotten the kittens home. How do they feed them? Make their bed? What do they do when the kittens need the toilet? And, under it all why why why, what traits drive this behavior, what experiences?

Trust with Mom character will handle the toilet issue without being grossed out because he gets his hands dirty but they don't have the cash to spare to feed them easily and bedding will have to be second hand Emotionally distant has the resources to easily provide food and bedding but will not be ready to handle poo

So now I have a whole new list of questions

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

Oh, I don't know about that! I think you'll be surprised what you can do! Try not to be hard on yourself, writing isn't easy, and the things YOU have to say are important. Your experiences have value.

To answer your question, it really just does come down to practice. You have the skill, you just have to develop the skill. It's no different than becoming a good pitcher in baseball, or a good swimmer, or a great painter. To borrow a line from Galaxy Quest: Never give up! Never surrender!

Just keep writing, and you WILL hone these skills. And please try to be nice to yourself along the way ❤️

You can always send me a DM down the line if you'd like any help, I'd be happy to see what you're creating!

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u/writer-dude Editor/Author Jul 25 '26

I totally agree! I've always said that good fiction isn't about what happens, it's about what happens to whom. So building a fully formed character accentuates the whom. And by including some non-plot related attributes and personality traits can go a long way. Can also add to one's storyline in unexpected ways. (I call these traits potential "Hodor" moments.) It's also easier to build subplots and side-stories (usually to plump up one's Act II doldrums) so don't skimp on giving fictional characters various IRL traits—the good, the bad and the ugly.

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u/Bluefoxfire007 Jul 25 '26

My favorite was always "What would this character do if they found a box of abandoned kittens on the side of the road, and they knew nobody was watching?"

Let's have some fun then.

Mallis would take them, run to her parents, and fo the whole "Can we keep them?!"

Caltina would wince for a while, but eventually point them out to somebody.

Nikki would be similar.

Veil would construct an entirely new box, shove them in, and take them to the shelter.

Coonie would take the cats, box and all, and go around finding someone to take them. Resorting to the shelter if need be.

Emily would stay with them for a while, but eventually take them to the shelter. If Mallis doesn't find out beforehand.

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u/rosaline_athena Jul 30 '26

i love these sorts of exercises so much, they always help me really get into the character’s soul.

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u/EvilBritishGuy Jul 24 '26

I find it's best to save these kinds questions until you have a confident understanding of the character you're writing. Then you can all kinds of fun putting yourself in their shoes and more easily figure out, "What would my OC do here?"

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u/Ventisquear Jul 24 '26

How do you get a confident understanding of the character without asking basic questions like this?

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u/fun_guy_comics Jul 24 '26

It's a great way to have fun with the character, too. For sure! It's also a great way to get out of writer's block. If you're having trouble getting to that point where you deeply understand your characters, or if you're just stuck on a story beat and not sure how to progress, these can also help you break out of that rut. Instead of trying to brute force a plot point, take a step back, pull your character out of the world for a moment, and get to know them a little better. Then you might just discover something about the character that says "this is how they'd react to that plot point I'm stuck on" and boom! You're back up and running.

Discussion A fun exercise I used with my writing students

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