Day 15

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For the first 5 minutes you're going to write a list of between 5 and 10 characters who fascinate you, or who have captured your imagination. You don't even have to like them, they just need to have stuck in your mind. And for each character, write down a quick sentence or two about what it is about them that you love/hate/obsess over. These characters don't actually need to be fictional. Include anyone who floats your metaphorical sailing vessel.

Pick a character you're already working with or someone entirely new, and write a short paragraph describing your them in a way no one else could be described. Here are some things you might wanna think about in order to get a deeper look at who they are:

  •     An external provocation (someone else, something else) and your character's reaction

  •     An internal provocation (a memory, a pain) and subsequent reaction

  •     A prop and what they do with it

  •     How other people react to them

  •     How they react to other people

  •     The way they interact with their environment

  •     Their thought process at any one time

  •     A comparison

    Exercise 1:

  • Dorothea Brooke - the finest person

  • Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall) - so different from how I imagined him, such good rationales for his later actions

  • Bertie Wooster - delightfully funny, kind but dumb.

  • Psmith - a delight, gets shit done

  • Granny Weatherwax - hard wisdom

  • Sam Vimes - soft cunning

  • Josee (Those Without Shadows) - so inspiring, self-aware but very flawed. I was delighted to read an intelligent young woman who has making terrible choices and knew she was doing so

  • Lyra Bellaqua - a fucking hero

  • Red Riding Hood (Revolting Rhymes) - ‘she gives a smile, her eyelid flickers, she pulls a pistol from her knickers.’ Need I say more?

  • Death (The Sandman) - I hope to meet her one day

Exercise 2

The hero reached up and plucked a single rose from the bush and smelled it. They smiled and gently offered it to the girl who stepped back, disgust on her face. The hero felt confused and glanced at the rose. They recoiled to see it bristling with caterpillars, the petals tattered and torn by their hunger. The hero dropped the rose and strode away. 

Stupid stupid stupid. Nothing ever went right. Even a kind gesture could be corrupted, everything failed. Everything. And now, here they were lost in the wood with a half-wit, a princess and surprising assortment of woodland creatures that seemed to follow her wherever she went. The hero was grateful that the laundry was getting done and all their shirts were beautifully mended and the creatures were perpetually filling the princess’ apron with assorted berries and nuts but it was a little disconcerting to wake in the night to the anguished shrieks of various rodents as they rolled over. Also, taking care of a princess in distress was definitely excellent hero-ing, they were just the person for the job but they were just a little concerned that they hadn’t had much experience heroing before now and helping a princess reclaim her kingdom from an evil wizard was… well… mythic. The hero had hoped they’d have a chance to work up to mythic; maybe start slowly with rescuing a wench from drowning or catching a runaway carriage, that kind of thing. Facing down an arch-nemesis felt like it should require training. The hero sighed and shook their head. They turned to the princess. “Sorry, I just thought it would be nice.”

The princess smiled “It was nice, I like caterpillars. Oh, look, they’re spinning me a pair of tights. So thoughtful, the invertebrates.” 

The hero looked at her askance “Did you even need rescuing? It looks like you could manage here just fine - you’ve got all the food and water you could possibly need and apparently the creatures are now making clothes for you. I’m sure if you asked nicely they’d fashion you some sort of yurt. Hell, in a couple of months you could be running your own business.”

The princess smiled harder. “Well, I did live in the woods until my 14th birthday when the prince turned up, so I am pretty used to it, but I would happily trade some of my freedom for some walls and a feather bed.” She gasped as a clatter of blue tits made their feelings on this known. “Im sorry, Im sorry - I wouldn’t stuff a mattress myself, but if it’s already stuffed then surely there’s no harm in using it?’ The blue tits turned their backs and jettisoned their feelings on this matter all down the front of the princess’ dress. The hero suppressed a snigger.