Thursday, December 27, 2012

Improving Writing Skills

Writing Tips and Exercises

My creative writing instructor gave me an exercise that I found very helpful.  When writing a story, its important that your characters stay "in character."  In real life, your Aunt Mary may be afraid of snakes.  You know how she will react when having a snake encounter  When writing a fictional story, your characters should be the same - they need to stay true to the characteristics they've been given.

The exercise:

Draw a circle and write the character's name inside it.
Draw lines shooting off from the circle.  On these lines, write down the characters attributes - ie: brave, strong, stubborn, petty.

This exercise can help when facing the dilemma - "What would my character do?  How would he/she react to a situation?"

-DS McKnight

Wednesday, December 12, 2012