Adding a new responsibility to the lives of your characters can show your readers how they’d handle specific situations. It can also help readers understand your character motivations better and allow you to practice a small character arc.

1) What kind of responsibility?

Start by thinking of what type of responsibility you want to inflict upon your character. Think about who they are and what would most force them out of their comfort zone or force them to grow. For example, let’s say you have a character who hates reading. Having this character find out that their grandmother left them her little indie book shop will force the character completely out of their comfort zone. They’ll be pushed into a world filled with people they have nothing in common with whose hobby they view as rubbish. This can create very interesting confrontations and character development.

2) How do they feel about it?

How does your character feel about the responsibility that has been thrust upon them? For example, let’s take the babysitting boss’s kids example. In this instance, your character could feel overly confident about their ability to handle their new babysitting duties. This will wind up leaving them surprised when the kids are much more difficult to handle than they’d originally anticipated. On the other hand, your character could have very little faith in their ability to care for children over several days. This could leave them nervous and anxious leading up to the event.

3) What are the stakes?

In order for the event to have weight, it must have something at stake. So, for example, if your character inherits the book shop- they’re also in charge of caring for their grandmother’s legacy. In the babysitting example, the character obviously wants to remain or gain good standing with their boss. If your character finds a stray bird on the brink of death, the stakes are obviously life or death for the animal in question. They could be given a new job or even a long-lost child, in each case the character must have something to gain and lose from the outcome of the new responsibility.

4) How do they handle it & why?

How does your character handle the situation? Do they rise to the occasion or fall short? Do they handle it with patience or anger/resentment? Do they find some joy in a situation they thought was bleak initially? Or do they end up hating a responsibility they were excited about in the beginning? Think about how someone with their personality would handle the situation you’ve created and why.

5) What do they learn from it?

How does your character grow or change from the added responsibility? Do they, eventually, learn to appreciate what they’ve been given? Do they become more responsible and decide to make some big life changes? Or does it drive them further away from something they were already averse to?

Writing Prompt:

Take a character from your book and choose a period in their life when they were given an unexpected responsibility. What are the stakes involved? How do they handle the new responsibility? How do they grow and change from this instance? Make sure you answer all of the questions in the scenes you write and understand how this occurrence was important to their personal growth.

The post Writing Prompt: Responsibility appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Regardless of whether you view them in a positive or negative light, there’s no denying that New Year’s resolutions say a lot about who we are. For example, you’ve likely made some kind of writing-related resolution, am I write? Whether it be to finally finish a book you’ve been working on or to be more active with your writing, this resolution shows that writing is important to you. And whether or not you stick to it also tells us a lot about you- whether you’re more disciplined/organized or more spontaneous/disorganized (we’re not judging… well, maybe a little).

But we’re not here to talk about your resolutions, we’re here to talk about your character’s! New Year’s resolutions are a great way to reveal character. Start by thinking of a character you’ve written or are in the process of writing- whether they be from a book you’re working on or a short story idea you have. What would this character’s New Year’s resolution be? As you know, what drives character action is their desires or what they want, how could this be boiled down into a resolution?

Next, create obstacles for your character. Let’s say your character resolved to ‘be open to romance’ or something along those lines, let’s say their first date since making the resolution is the complete antithesis of everything they want in a romantic partner. They chew with their mouth open, their favorite band is Drake, they’re unemployed- everything that could go wrong, will go wrong. Will your protagonist stick it out through the date? Will they go on a second date to try to remain open? Think of a few obstacles that could happen within the first few months of the year to test your protagonist’s resolve.

Finally, consider your protagonist- this character you already know or are just beginning to know. What reveals character the most is their choices throughout a story. Will your protagonist make the right choices at every turn? Will they make some right and some wrong- if so, why? Will they end up sticking to their resolution or giving up? And be honest about them too, we won’t like them any less for giving up if that makes more sense for their character.

Writing Prompt: Now that you have a general outline, let these scenes play out. Write the scenes necessary to show us your protagonist’s resolution playing out, how they handle each obstacle, and finally whether or not they choose to give up or stick it out. This exercise will not only be a fun way to flex your writing muscles, but also a great exercise in the different ways that character actions and choices can reveal things about who they are.

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