Emergence

Another character writing exercise

Choose a character from a project you are struggling to develop or one with whom you are currently obsessed. Choose one trait for that character that is central to their personality. Now write an “origin scene” for that character trait, a specific moment from deep in their past where that trait either was showcased or when it emerged as dominant. (Struggling? Try the same exercise for your own personality and you are likely to find the “texture” and nature of this sort of pivotal or defining moment, helping to provide you more tools for doing so with a fictional being.) Try and compose a whole scene, no matter how short, one that features a “mini” beginning, middle, and end

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