First, you may want to look at David’s fantastic PowerPoint presentation, which contains tons of useful info, tips, and tricks: https://youtu.be/h3iO0fLfTbs.
Writing Warm-Up
What was the last long conversation you had?
Can you remember any of exact sentences you spoke?
Can you remember any of the exact sentences that were spoken to you?
Write those down. Try for at least three. Don’t worry if you’re not getting them word for word.
Why do you think these sentences are memorable to you?
What Is a Character, Really?
Characters need agendas (wants)
Characters are revealed by what they say and what others say about them (they are not what the writer says about them)
But characters who talk about themselves are sometimes lying.
Characters Agendas
For our first exercise, let’s consider this idea that characters who talk about themselves are sometimes not telling the truth.
What are some situations where a person would speak about themselves but not be entirely truthful
(Write down as many as you can - 5 mins)
What reason would someone have to talk about themselves and embellish facts?
What purpose would the tactic of lying serve?
Note that this doesn’t need to be harmful. i.e. are there justified instances of characters withholding truth?
Prompt #1: Chose one of the scenarios you’ve just come up with and using dialogue only, have your character tell an untruthful story about themselves which serves their agenda.
Prompt #2: Tell the Truth with Dialogue
Now take that exact same character and have them confess that the story they have told is not the truth.
What do they say?
Why are they admitting the lie?
How do they feel about ‘coming clean’ here?
Don’t stop. Don’t censor. Remember, you can only use speech here.
10-15 minutes.