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Q&A How do I find flaws in a character I'm building?

What I do as I'm discovering my characters is to just write them into scene after scene. Don't worry about whether the scene has anything to do with your story. Put him in an argument with his wife...

posted 9y ago by Ken Mohnkern‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:52:10Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/20124
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Ken Mohnkern‭ · 2019-12-08T04:52:10Z (about 5 years ago)
What I do as I'm discovering my characters is to just write them into scene after scene. Don't worry about whether the scene has anything to do with your story. Put him in an argument with his wife. Sit him next to a drunk at the bar. Put a pebble in his shoe. Have the neighbor knock on his door at dinnertime. Just put him in a bunch of scenarios and write them. He'll reveal himself to you.

Then, because this is just discovery, we pitch all those scenes and get to work on the real story with a new understanding of the character. (This discovery phase could even change some foundational elements of your story.)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-12-17T16:23:41Z (about 9 years ago)
Original score: 6