Join us on Thursday, October 12th, for a workshop conducted by the KWG’s very own psychotherapist, the Notorious Doctor Payne. Bring the characters you are working with in your writing and have them spend some time on the good doctor’s couch. In the process, you will learn how to make your characters more believable, and come to understand some of the reasons they’re behaving like they are.
The Doctor has asked that you fill out the questions below for each character you’d like to analyze (and no insurance cards are required!)
It would help me to analyze your story’s character and you to know her/him better if we look at his/her feelings, thinking, attitudes, and fears.
The questions below give some suggestions for bringing out those characteristics. Not all are important, but some are. Write your statements on this questionnaire, and I’ll use your observations to reveal more about your character.
1) What complaints does your character make?
2) What is your character worried/anxious about?
3) Has your character had any significant traumas (e.g. hospitalization, imprisonment, time in a mental institution, live with a writer.)
4) Experienced any significant loss?
5) What thing/person is he/she attracted to?
6) Is she/he empathic or more self-absorbed?
7) What does your character want?
8) Does your character argue for/against any particular political view or religion?
9) Any conflicts, crises, challenges, internal or external?
10) What is your character’s gender, age; who does he/she live with?
11) What do you question or not understand about your character?
