► Exercise: Week Three
This week's challenge is a little bit different. Instead of focusing on prose, per se, we're focusing on characterization, which is just as important. Whether you're writing fanfiction or original fiction, one of the most important things is to establish and maintain a character's personality. Why do they do what they do? What motivates them? Who are they? What are the aspects that define them and set them apart from other characters? Is it in character for Suzie-Anne Sunshine to suddenly turn around and start sniping at people or become a Debbie Downer? Or, to put it in terms we can all relate to, is Spock very likely to wake up one morning and start acting like McCoy? No. Not unless there's some space pollen shenanigans of some sort going on. Characterization is something everyone works at, in everything we do, however actively we think about it or not.
Alternate Universes are a great place to make or break understanding of characterization. In this Brave New World that they've been raised in since birth, how do we preserve who the character is? We establish similar milestone events, sometimes, to give them some sort of common ground, or we hypothesize about how different events could have affected a character. One of the most common issues with AUs, and the one that makes them so unpopular with some people, is that characterization is often sacrificed for the sake of the new universe. This week, we challenge you to write an AU fic of some sort, putting extra care in preserving the characterization of the characters you endeavor to transplant, so to speak, into these innovative, different places. Practice characterization by removing your characters from the universe from which they originate and place them in a new universe without losing the fundamentals that make that character who they are.
Challenge: Write in an Alternate Universe.
Alternate Universes are a great place to make or break understanding of characterization. In this Brave New World that they've been raised in since birth, how do we preserve who the character is? We establish similar milestone events, sometimes, to give them some sort of common ground, or we hypothesize about how different events could have affected a character. One of the most common issues with AUs, and the one that makes them so unpopular with some people, is that characterization is often sacrificed for the sake of the new universe. This week, we challenge you to write an AU fic of some sort, putting extra care in preserving the characterization of the characters you endeavor to transplant, so to speak, into these innovative, different places. Practice characterization by removing your characters from the universe from which they originate and place them in a new universe without losing the fundamentals that make that character who they are.
Challenge: Write in an Alternate Universe.