That character profile trick I ignored for 6 months finally saved my novel

I kept hitting walls on chapter 4 for 3 months, then tried writing a fake job interview for my main character and suddenly the whole plot clicked. Has anyone else used a weird specific exercise to break through a block?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia84328d ago

That interview trick sounds wild but I get why it works. @dixon.willow is right about forcing justification of choices. I used to think all those character exercises were a waste of time, but one that changed my mind was writing a fake letter from my character to a childhood friend. It made me realize why my protagonist never trusted authority figures and suddenly the whole conflict with the council made sense.

dixon.willow28d ago

Wait, a fake job interview? That's wild but actually brilliant. The job interview answers would force you to justify all their backstory choices.