Creativity can be a curse. The perfect ideas come at the worst time. Like while showering, and the closest place to capture the brilliance is in the next room. The common solution suggests writing whatever ideas stay in the mind when the opportunity to commit them to paper arises. This may be an effective technique for some people.  An image is the best one can hope to retain. Rather than deal with the frustration of struggling to remember everything, try these techniques to help one of the other stories wait for their chance on the page.

Model Telling

Model tellings are a technique to introduce a typical day in a character’s life or a place.

Bahari starts every morning the same way. She stretches her slender, dark brown arms wide as if greeting the sun that shines into her large bedroom. Bahari removes her purple silk sleep mask which matches the silk bonnet she dons every night to protect her light brown braids. Then, she takes a shower and fills her entire bathroom with steam.  She grabs her soft pink robe with a rhinestone studded B on the front.  

Next, Bahari stands in front of her large walk-in closet and combs through it until she settles on a sleeveless baby blue shirt with silver denim Capris and Gucci sandals to match.  She uses the golden elevator hidden next to her massive closet to reach her spotless stainless steel kitchen. Bahari is familiar with the sound of the good-natured hum of her family’s butler, Jeeves, filling the room as he prepares her spinach and egg white omelet.

Today, the young woman encounters silence and a note on the gleaming marble countertop.

Authors end model tellings by breaking the normal pattern. The disruption, for the example above, shows Bahari has no one to prepare her breakfast one particular morning. Starting a story in this way helps set up the main character and introduces the “problem” of the story.

Interview the Protagonist

Character profiles are a common practice for writers who want to have well-rounded characters. “ The Ultimate Character Questionnaire,” written by Hannah Bauman, is a good one to use for this exercise.  Instead of answering the questions as the all-knowing creator, try treating it like an evaluation for school or a therapist. Respond using the speech the person uses every day. It’s a great tool for writing distinct voices. Also, an interview provides more insight into a person’s attitude toward the topic.

For example, describe your family. Bahari from the model telling section responds to the question as follows:

My parents are ambassadors for the Queen of Eris. They travel a lot for work across the galaxies. I’m an only child. Jeeves and the staff always care for me, so in a way I have over a hundred parents in addition to the usual two. I never get away with anything.

By responding to the answer as Bahari. The answer reveals more about the relationship dynamics in her home instead of a simple two-parent, one-child explanation.

Do An Activity With A Character

Okay, this sounds strange. What does the character enjoy? Bahari, from the previous examples, loves to shop. Shopping with Bahari includes going to her favorite stores and placing the items she would purchase in the cart. Paying for the cart isn’t necessary.

It reveals her demeanor while shopping. Does she take her time in each store? When does she go? Every season? Year? What is her attitude towards spending money? Frugal? Extravagant?

Another example is one of the people in your story being a hockey fan. Who are their favorite teams? What is their level of devotion? Are they the type to play in a fantasy league? Memorize team stats each season? Own a personalized jersey or several types of team merchandise? Argue with the referee from the comfort of their couch? Learning about someone’s passions provides context about a person.

In conclusion, inspiration likes to strike during inopportune situations. These three exercises may save hours of angrily staring at a blank page while trying to recreate the latest inopportune epiphany. Model telling can help figure out a typical day and the main issue in a story. Treating sketches as interviews provides more insight into a character beyond basic facts.   Exploring a character’s passion with them, one sees them in their element and at their most comfortable. These exercises help breathe life into the story and make characters more relatable.

Editor: Claudia Cramer