Unblocker #3

If you have two characters in a story that feel dull and lifeless, this Unblocker exercise is for you. (If you DON’T, you can still use this, in a modified form, to get a story off the ground…see the not at the end.)

Unblocker #3: Have one character in your fictional world write a letter to another character. This is one of those “dear boss I hate you” letters that you never mail, so the writing character can say things she might never really say out loud; let your character have no filter, no internal censor. Let the character’s real feelings come out: hateful, desperate, longing…

Typically, this exercise is to develop “background” of a character, it is an exercise to help the writer understand the character and it doesn’t become a part of the actual story, but I did this once and it turned into a self-contained story, in epistolary form, and it was (much to my surprise) a big hit with my writing group. So, if you don’t have two current characters that you need to wake up, you CAN use this as a jumping off point for two brand new and uncharted fictional folks who’ve come wandering into your creative space.

#letter #unblocker #character #development #epistolary #characterdevelopment