forum Does Anyone Have Any Good Character Building Writing Prompts?
Started by Lissy
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Lissy

What I mean is, do you have any writing prompts that I can insert my own characters into to build their overall character. Also, I'm open to any other character building exercises similar to this. Thanks in advance!

@FossilJasper

The simplest one is to just have them go on a journey together where they learn more about each other as time goes on. I find that prompts that involve escaping some sort of place build character the most because your characters have to logically think and use their own skills in order to make it out. Furthermore, interactions between two or more characters can really help with developing personality and how a character behaves around friends or enemies. It's hard to express this in writing, but having your character interact with an object can help as well by showing if they're laid back (for example, leaned heavily against a wall with a cup loosely in one hand), shy or nervous (straight back against the wall and holding the cup with two hands whilst fidgeting with it), etc.

@M.W.Poel

Okay, I like to just make up a quick story about the same characters but in different settings. for example, high fantasy-medieval characters are suddenly used in a modern zombie apocalypse story. How would each of them react? what would be their priority, who would band together with whom.
But I'm guessing you're actually looking for a list type deal?

  1. for medieval fantasy characters: place them in a modern-day zombie apocalypse without magic and without changing their original personality at the start.
  2. write down 5 secrets these characters have and 5 secrets that are kept from them (can also go with less, I just always like to aim for 5 because I like the number). this is mostly to help you figure out the things/people they prioritize and their values.
  3. write out their relations to other characters on sticky notes and I don't mean like sister or archnemesis we have notebook for that. write out their actual opinion and view on that character. This will also help define character B more through character A's eyes.

@Darkblossom group

Play around in character chats and rps. Seriously, that’s how I develop new characters. Sometimes a character’s personality can change and become much more solidified or interesting when you actually just write with them.

Bean

Have an aspect to the character that can be seen as good but is a horriable thing in some situations.

@JuniperJoan

My characters are usually in fight scenes or in tense negotiation with each other, so one thing I've done is write them all having fun at, you know, a festival or something. Really, take whatever situations they're normally in and write them into the reverse and you can learn a lot about them. And putting them in AUs works too… High School, Coffee Shop, etc.

Deleted user

Not really writing prompts but we have lists of questions that we use to for the gritty details for our MC's. Let me know if you're interested and I can post a blank copy