In a recent news post, Holly Lisle shared some excellent advice on characterization.  It involves getting into your character’s viewpoint through playacting.

Be an actor? That’s a WRITING TIP?!

Yeah. Seriously. You have to get inside the skins of your characters while you’re writing them. You have to think in their heads, have to hear their voices in your ears, have to know what they’ll say when something goes right or when something goes wrong.

Part of making them real for your readers is first making them real for you.

So how do you do this?

First, find someplace private. (WARNING: Your family and friends are going to think you’re off your rocker if they catch you at this, so “someplace private” might include either a locking door or a really big corn field with high corn.

Next, you close your eyes and see your character.

Three-hundred pound chess master? Wrap his weight around you and feel it settle onto your bones. Feel the way his belt cuts into your stomach, the way his breathing makes your lungs feel a little tight and compressed.

Six-year-old girl? Watch her skip, fidget, twist her hair, scuff the sole of her shoe into the dirt, and make yourself that short, that fragile, that certain you know everything and that terrified of everything your gut knows you don’t know.

Master swordsman preparing to fight to the death? Feel the weight of your sword in your hand (real ones are surprisingly heavy), the way the hilt bites your palm for traction, the shift of your spine as you move into position, the way your shoulders and hips flex as you step forward. Know you have to live, that the man facing you has to die. Prepare yourself to make the thrust that will end him.

Finally, walk in your character’s shoes.

You’ve readied your mind with your character’s shape, movement, mannerisms. Now open your eyes as your character. Speak in this other voice, ask yourself questions and answer them not as you would answer them, but as your character would. Walk around the room in character. Swing your sword, skip your rope, settle heavily into the chair in front of the chessboard.

In your character’s skin, you’ll make discoveries about him or her that you’ll never make sitting at your desk.

Write with joy,

Holly

Holly Lisle has many other tips and exercises on characterization.  You can find them though either of the badges at the bottom of the lefthand sidebar on this page, one badge for the big “How to Think Sideways” writing course and another for the HollyShop full of assorted books and other materials for writers.