With our last exercise, we created the opposite of our characters. A character that thrives on everything our main character doesn't, and one that brings some more clarity to what makes our character tick. We reverse our thinking for our character. Instead of going on and on about "My character is this, and my character is that", this exercise gave us a chance to think about what the character isn't.
Characters are complex things. They have lots of different attributes, skills, personality quirks, acquaintances, experiences, and so on. With a real person, there's a lifetime of these to wade through, and it can be a pretty daunting task and often stalls out at times. So if you ever get stuck while fleshing out a character, try taking some attributes you've established and think about what would be the complete opposite of those. Say for example your character loves to eat. Doesn't miss a meal, and runs with a generous six meal a day schedule. What's the opposite of that? Well, there's starvation. Either by having no access to food or by choice. Since our character eats by choice, let's run with the choice-driven option... anorexia. Now, we have an opposing factor, but there's more to it than that. Why would someone choose to go the route of anorexia? Self-esteem? Do they care about their self-image so much they'll do anything to maintain or improve a physical trait they feel is important? Fear? Are they afraid of losing social standing, a career, or the attention of others if they start putting on weight? Approval? Are they trying to fit in with their peers or doing it to appease family, friends, or maybe even that special someone?
With the opposing viewpoint, we crank the gears in the brain as we start thinking of the possibilities for that trait. Now, what if we start thinking about the character's love of eating again. Maybe we just added the trait to the character because he or she's big and thought it would fit the physical profile. But what if we start thinking about why they're eating all the time and dive a little deeper into their character? Self-esteem... maybe the character is a football player. Known as one of the big boys plowing over all the opposition. So, maybe he eats all the time to maintain his size. A size that keeps him on the field or gets him looks from college scouts. Fear... maybe the character's avoiding something. He could be a writer running to the fridge as a procrastination measure to hide his fears of writing ("Can't write on an empty stomach."). The character could be afraid of conversations. Maybe the character doesn't like the sound of his or her voice or always says something stupid and embarrassing. Or maybe the character is known throughout school as "the big guy." He could be a bully or a protector, but his size is what gets other people's attention, and he's afraid to lose that. By constantly eating something, the character can battle any of these fears while hiding behind good manners. Approval... maybe the character's just good at eating. Winner of a number of food eating contests. The character's stomach is the stuff of legends. Maybe his or her friends like the attention they get by pointing out what the character can do. They take pride in his or her accomplishments. Maybe it's something that makes the character's parents proud. Or if you want to venture to a more serious side... maybe the character's deceased father or brother was a champion eater. Won lots of contests and now, he or she wants to pick up the torch to honor that relative.
Notice how the questions brought up when thinking about anorexia could also be used for the excessive eating. They were questions that might have come up before and been used to expand the character, but maybe you just didn't think to ask the questions. It seemed like a trait that was a fit for the character, so you didn't put too much thought into it. But when you started looking at the opposites of the traits you already knew for the character, you might take notice of something like anorexia. Lots of people eat excessive amounts of food, but anorexia stands out a bit more because of news and rumors getting played up in the media. It's something that just might bring up those questions and get you thinking about eating and some of the emotions and feelings surrounding extremes of eating. In essence, you might be able to shift your perspective when you take a somewhat common attribute and flip it around to something a bit more thought-provoking.
You can see how the writers in the Dojo tackled the exercise of opposites here.
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Exercise #7
Well, June marks the one-year anniversary of Scryptic Studios, and as such, I decided to go with an anniversary-themed exercise. Anniversaries come in all varieties. The anniversary of the death of a loved one would evoke different emotions within a character than something like a wedding anniversary. Five years at a job might be important to someone focused on their career. A year free of drugs or alcohol would mean a lot to someone trying to get their life back on track. Almost every person has some kind of anniversary with an emotional attachment. Something that can reveal a lot about that character.
In four pages or less, your character (if you didn't create one for the first exercise, make up one to play around with for these exercises) will encounter an anniversary of some kind. An anniversary filled with joy, pride, happiness, sadness, or anger. It could be in remembrance of a long lost friend or relative. It could be celebrating something special in a character's life. Don't hold back... let the character's emotions spill across the pages, and have fun!
Deadline(for comments): Friday, June 10th at 6pm (central)
Deadline: Monday, June 13th at Noon (central)
Please post your questions, comments, and entries in the appropriate threads in the Scryptic Dojo forum.
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Jeffery Stevenson is one of the Scryptic Studios co-founders. He once booby-trapped his dorm room because someone kept taking his Mountain Dew (never mess with a caffeine addict's primary source of sustenance). Unfortunately, he forgot about the trap when he brought a date back to his room that night. It gave him another funny story to add to his writings. Along with those stories, he also scripts (and lays down the word balloons) a weekly mythology webcomic. And he works on this movie monster reality-spoofing one, too. Check his member page here at Scryptic for more details.
