Dear Friends of iggi!

I have decided to start a tradition at our DIY MFA Facebook Page. It’s an iggilicious Caption Contest and I invite you all to join.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. I’ll post an iggi picture on the WALL on Thursday.
2. In the comments for that picture, you all can post captions of what you think iggi is saying.  You have until Sunday night.
3. Monday I’ll post a poll with my 3 favorite captions–the “finalists.” I may also include a caption of my own.
4. You guys vote for your favorite by Wednesday night.
5. Thursday, I post the finished iggi-comic with the winning caption.  I’ll also post a new iggi and the contest will start again.

My plan is for this to be a weekly meme, with a new iggi every Thursday on the Facebook page.  Eventually, I also plan to use my favorites of the iggi+caption combos in designs for various iggilicious writerly products (journals, mousepads, stickers, mugs, etc.) There is no tangible prize for this contest.  Winner gets bragging rights, plus there’s a chance they’ll get to see their words on an iggilicious product!

AND it’ll be oodles of fun and a great way to get to know other DIY MFA people.  The contest is going on right now so come join the fun and if you haven’t already, come visit our Facebook community.

Now that you’ve gotten to know your characters a bit more, you’ll need an easy way to keep track of all this new information.  After all, if you’re writing on-the-go, you can’t exactly tote around stacks of pages with character dossiers.  This is where the Acrostic Bio-in-a-Nutshell comes in.  This technique forces you to choose the most important details of your character and organizes it in a compact way.

First a word on acrostics.  I got the idea for this exercise from acrostic poems written by Lewis Carroll, in which the first letter of each line spells the name of the person to whom the poem is dedicated.  It occurred to me that you could use the same technique to organize information in a character dossier, using the character’s name as the basic structure.  Here follows an example of a character bio for one of the character’s I’ve worked with for a story that is now in press.

Lucy Marie Watson

Loyal to her friends
Unaware her best friend (Jake) has a crush on her
Crush on Ralph (leader of her group of friends)
Young (age 11, 6th grade)


Moral compass of the group
Always wears hair in a pony tail
Reliable
Incredibly close to her dad
Efficient (plans ahead)


Willing to take risks and break rules if it’s for a good reason
Adventurous
Two sisters: Danielle (older) and Caroline (younger)
Smart (smartest kid in her group, though the boys would never admit it)
Obedient (usually) so when she breaks rules, she feels guilty
No idea she what to do about her crush (not even aware she has one)

Notice how most of the information is focused on the interpersonal relationships (not a lot of appearance or demographic detail).  For Lucy the relationships were the most important part of her character development so the acrostic bio reflects that.  If your character has a unique appearance or a job that is central to his/her character, then those things are likely to be the ones that pop up on the acrostic.

I like to write my acrostic bio-in-a-nutshell on an index card.  That way I can carry it with me in my notebook and have it right at my fingertips when I need it.

Homework: Choose one of your characters (preferably one you’ve worked with this week) and write an acrostic bio that reflects who that character is at their core.

Then tell me, how has your study of character gone this week?  Discover something new about a character or two?  Anything surprise you?

Another technique I use when I need to get to know my characters is the Character Interview.  In this case, I ask a character various questions and then answer them in the voice of the character.  I find this exercise useful even when my novel or short story is written from different point of view (i.e. not that character’s POV in first person).  Even if I only use the character’s voice in dialogue and not in narration, it’s helpful to hear these questions answered from the character’s own perspective.

Some questions I like to ask are:

• What was your scariest moment?
• What was your happiest moment?
• What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?
• What is your biggest regret?
• Who do you love most in the world?
• What is your most prized possession?
• Do you have a nemesis? Who?
• Who was your first love?
• Where is your favorite place?
• Who or what makes you feel safe?
• Who makes you jealous?
• Who or what makes you feel inadequate?
• What is your theme song?
• What is your signature color?
• What is your favorite season?
• What is your catch-phrase?
• What is your pet peeve?
• List your character’s ten favorite things (Example: raindrops on roses, etc.)

For more interview question ideas, check out these Character Questionnaires from Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

Homework: Answer all these questions quickly in your character’s voice and point of view.  Now go back and choose three answers, and follow-up like you would if you were a reporter doing an interview.  Don’t let your character get away with easy answers.  Dig deep.  Ask who, what, when, where, why and how.  Whenever your character starts to shy away from answering, press him or her further.  Keep asking: “tell me more about that” until you get to the juicy information.

Now I’d like to know: what’s the most surprising thing you learned about your character?  Feel free to dish in the comments.

Remember that game 20 Questions, where you had to guess what the person was thinking of only by asking yes/no questions?  This exercise uses a similar technique to help you develop a new character or get to know an existing character better.

There are two ways you can use 20 Questions to create or develop a character.

Option A: Take a character you’ve been working with, perhaps one from your current work-in-progress (WIP).  Answer these twenty questions as quickly as possible about your character.  Then write a short scene with that character, using this new-found knowledge.

Option B: (my personal favorite) Use a coin-toss to select one option from each pair.  That’s your character.  Now write.

The 20 Questions are:

1. Male / Female
2. Old soul / Young at heart
3. Left brain / Right brain
4. Glass half-empty / Glass half-full
5. City / Country
6. Big spender / Penny pincher
7. Loves water / Can’t swim
8. Glasses / Tattoo
9. Dogs / Cats
10. Hybrid car / SUV
11. Bites nails / Always manicured
12. Chocolate syrup / Hot sauce
13. Coffee / Tea
14. Overgrown garden / Plastic plants
15. Always tells the truth / Lies when necessary
16. Organic food / Fast food
17. Straight hair / Curly hair
18. Soft-spoken / Loudmouth
19. PBS / Reality TV
20. Motto: “Do or die” / “Look before you leap”

This exercise is based on an exercise from the Write Brain Workbook by Bonnie Neubauer.

Homework: Use this technique for one of your existing characters or create a new one.  Now write a short scene with that character, where at least three of these details are revealed.  This can be something completely new or an extension of a piece you’re already writing.