You also know your characters’ pet peeves, the hobbies that they hate, the people that would annoy them the most, and their least favorite activities. Getting even more specific, you know how the things that they like and dislike blend together. How there are certain hobbies or people that your character thinks they dislike but, should they give them a fair chance, they may actually enjoy themselves. The opposite can be true as well, having a character who loves a certain hobby but then, due to overindulgence or other factors, it can become something they despise.

This is where our writing prompt of the day comes in: opposite day. This exercise involves putting your character in situations where they would never normally find themselves in of their own choice. So if your character hates carnivals, write a scene where they’re forced to go to a local carnival. It doesn’t even have to be something that they hate either, it can simply be something they’d never normally do. If you’ve never thought your character would ever be inclined to try pottery, for example, write a scene where they’re taking a pottery class.

Brainstorming the scene or scenes you write for the exercise will allow you to chart out the different habits and nuances of your character. In addition, writing the scene itself will allow you to not only practice showing (rather than telling) the reader about the specifics of character-building, but may also allow you to learn new things about your characters.

Putting your character in scenes they’d never normally find themselves in will allow you to gain new insights about them. As any writer will know, you can plot and outline all you want but often the characters will run away with the plot themselves. So, oftentimes, we won’t truly know how a certain character will react in a situation until they’re actually in it.

Writing Prompt: Pick a specific character from your manuscript (or a character you’re working on) and put them in a scene or scenes in which they’d never normally find themselves. This could mean a setting or circumstance that they would dislike or one that is simply very unlike them normally. How do they react to being in this situation? Why do they react this way? Is their reaction different or the same as what they’d expect of themselves? If it is different, why is that?

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Writer’s Block

If you’re just starting out with novel writing or you’re going through a particularly bad period of writer’s block, writing some fanfiction can be a great way to help your writing. You’re already writing within a pre-existing world with characters that have already been developed for you, so it gives you the chance to experiment and have fun. You don’t have to do all of this work into exposition and character-building, instead you can just jump right in and write a scene with a few of your favorite characters. Or write out a story that was mentioned as a character’s backstory, but that we never got to see within the events of the story. Writing in this uninhibited way can be a great way to regain some confidence in your prose while having some fun with your writing.

Characterization

Another benefit of doing a fan fiction writing exercise is that it allows you to practice characterization without having to build characters from the ground up. You may think it will be easy to write characters that already exist, but there’s actually a challenge in living up to the original source material. Recreating each character’s unique voice, thoughts, mannerisms, etc. so that they match the character that they’re based on is a challenge in and of itself. And, because you won’t need to actually create the characters, you can simply focus on the challenge of capturing their essence in your writing. This is incredibly useful since this is a skill set you need when you write your own characters as well.

The Rules

When it comes to fanfiction, you’re writing again within a world that already exists. This presents the unique opportunity for a writer to practice adhering to the ‘rules’ of a certain world without having to develop the concepts themselves. Every world that people write within has a certain set of rules or things that are possible vs. impossible. Writing fanfiction, utilizing a world with a set of rules that already exist, allows you to work on making sure the rules stay consistent and present within the story. Again, this is an important skill set to have when you develop your own world with its own rules, so this provides a unique opportunity to practice this in your writing.

Writing Prompts: 

a) Choose a movie with a rich world and/or set of characters. Write a scene that was mentioned in the movie, but never actually shown.

b) Choose one of your favorite television shows. Write a story or scene from the point of view of one of the side characters. Have the scene act as an explanation for a choice that the character made within the show.

c) Choose one of your favorite novels. Write a story or scene from the point of view of the antagonist of the story. Make sure to keep the characterization consistent and that the scene ties into the events of the novel in some way.

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