A Note from Krow:

In an effort to bring you original content that will be helpful to your development as a writer / artist, I’ll be reaching out to others to share tips and tricks that help them do their thing. Michael Crane is a good friend of mine that has helped me out with my development as a writer on a number of occasions, he’s a published author with a degree in fiction and a book currently on sale @ Amazon: Falling Apart: A Short Story Collection

CHARACTER JOURNAL

Ever hit a rut where you’re not writing enough fiction? Maybe you’ve found yourself finally getting into the habit of journaling. For me, I used to loathe journaling because I couldn’t stand to write about myself. I live a very ordinary life. Nothing too terribly exciting happens to me, and the last thing I would want to do is babble on about some boring and meaningless crap that isn’t going to mean anything to anyone. Recently, I finally got myself over that hump and I was journaling—huge thanks to reading Kevin Smith’s diary that he published some time ago. It made me realize that my entries didn’t have to be exciting. I was never going to publish them. Once I saw journaling in a new light, I was constantly hanging out at a Borders or Barnes and Nobel, and I’d sit there with my coffee, iPod and journal. I was writing again and it finally felt like I was getting something done.

There was one problem. I was doing more journaling than writing fiction.

I was having a terrible time trying to think of new story concepts, themes and so on. It was depressing the hell out of me that I couldn’t write any fiction. I was happy that I was at least writing, but that writing wasn’t going into what I love doing.

So, I had a revelation one night: Character Journal.

It’s a simple idea, and I’m sure it’s been done before. I went out and bought a new journal. This would be my “Character Journal.” The idea behind it was that I would write entries in the journal, whether they ended up being real or imagined, but they couldn’t be written in my voice. Each entry would be written by a different character.

And here’s a rule: You are only allowed to write the character’s name on top of each entry. You cannot explain who they are, how old they are or anything like that. That all must come through the writing itself, which makes sense if you think about it. When you pick up a book, chances are you’re not going to find out the character’s entire life story in the first few lines, paragraphs or even chapters. We learn about a character through their actions and what they say.

How keeping a “Character Journal” is going to help you out:

a) You’re writing fiction again!

b) It helps you develop a sense of “voice.” No two people have the same speech pattern or habits.

c) You never know when one of these entries may end up leading to a full length story, or an idea for a story. Also, you need not worry if the entry doesn’t end up going anywhere. Many times in real life when you write a journal entry, half the time it ends up just becoming some sort of babble that may not end up going anywhere. These are supposed to be legit journal entries even though they are written by imaginary characters, so it’s allowed.

If you’ve hit one of these ruts like I have and would like to tackle some fiction, I highly recommend that you start a “Character Journal.” It should be separate from your personal journal. Just write a name of a potential character and see where he/she ends up taking you. Chances are you will be surprised. Most importantly, you will be WRITING.