In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

-Nick in the opening passage of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

In a character-based approach to writing fiction, the character is "discovered" or "known" as much as possible before the short story, novel or sceenplay ever begins. In this apporoach, the plot may actually be found while discovering or knowing the character through character development exercises (some of which are listed below). The trick then becomes restraining oneself from jumping into the plot before the character is well fleshed-out in the writer's mind. Knowing your character well before getting sucked into a plot creates the magical situation Faulkener describes in the following quotation.

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does. -William Faulkner

Some Excercises for Developing a Character Devoid of Plot

Acquire applications, such as job and school applications, and fill them out for your character. Tip: choose applications that will force you to consider jobs at different points in your character's life (e.g., summer job application, college application, professional job application). Some sample PDF applications are loacted here.

Create a Facebook or MySpace page profile for your character (don't make a live one, as that is generally prohibited by social networking sites).

Write a recommendation for your character for a specific job, school or internship.

Create a resume or CV for your character.

* * *

Homework: Do at least one of the exercises listed above, then go back and revise your character sketch. Also, using some of the suggested reading as a model, create a one sentence to one paragraph physical description of your character.

Suggested Reading for Nex Week: "Hands" by Sherwood Anderson; "Some are Born to Sweet Delight" by Nadime Gordimer; "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett; "The Dead" by James Joyce; "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty

Return to Course Homepage