Check in With Your Character's Mental State with This #WritingPrompt

If you’re entering into the last week of National Novel Writing Month 2020, you might be feeling like your fingers are about to fall off.

Same statement could be true if you’re writing a book in any type of sprint fashion.

Whether your story is coming to a close or not, we’re going to kick off the final week of NaNo by revisiting the first prompt:

Character journals.

The first journal had us checking in with the character at the beginning of the story. 

Potentially before they even knew anything that was about to happen to them.

So check in again with them now.

Write out a journal entry in their perspective to see how they’re feeling.

How has this journey changed or shaped them?

Is there anything they would change, if they could?

Do they have any predictions as to what might happen to them before the end?

Spend some time as inside of your character’s mind as possible, then get write on in to your daily session.

See you tomorrow!

My Response

From Vaeda

Everything has been… crazy, to say the least. There’s so many thoughts and memories flooding through my head, but I seem unable to focus on any of them. Even the memories I do remember seem blurred and confusing. I know there’s a power and a strength in me, and I’m grateful that it’s coming more full circle. I know I am standing on the edge of success in my journey.

As hard as it’s been, there’s so much about it that I appreciate, in a weird way. This challenge has forced me to look inward. It has made me realize there is more to myself than even I knew, and I cannot be angry about that. Anytime I doubted myself, I faced myself. Anytime I faced myself, I found that I came out the other side even stronger than I’d expected.

The end is near, but I do not know what that means. Although part of me welcomes to the idea of death, another part urges me to keep fighting forward. I know I must at least find succession saving the others. Their lives are worth more than mine, and I can’t forget about that. The moment they’re free, this whole fight becomes worth it.

#GetWriteOnIn to Character Development with this Character Journaling #WritingPrompt

Sometimes starting your writing session is the hardest part.

Whether you're at for the actual start of your book, or if you’re just having a hard time starting out today, try out some character journaling.

If you’re starting fresh, what’s your point of view character’s life like before it’s about to change?

Do they know what’s about to happen?

What do they normally care about, and how might the upcoming events change or influence them?

Just three paragraphs here, five sentences per paragraph should do.

Feel free to go wild and do as much as you would like, even if this counts for your daily 1,667 word goal.

I did it once where I alternated characters daily for about a week and color-coded who was up.

Have fun with this, don’t stress yourself out, and get write on in.

My Response

Vaeda

Sometimes I don’t remember what it was like to be a child. Various memories drift in and out of my mind at random, but I struggle to grab hold of any memory and make it tangible. When I close my eyes and try to think of the path that has led me to my present, I feel nothing. There are times when I wonder if that darkness is a part of me, keeping me in balance. There are others when I feel like it defines me and controls my life.

I long to reconnect with that part of myself. The freedom of childhood, always taken for granted, never to return or repeat. I wonder about the mistakes I’ve made, bitter pangs of agony and torment that annihilate my insides as I try to piece together their happenings. Why have I always kept myself so distant from my own identity? Why was I always so scared to simply… step into the light?

It’s hard to explain where I feel the makings of truth. There are layers within me, parts of myself I have yet to access that will accelerate my very being. How am I meant to feel about that? How am I supposed to be strong, rise to the occasion, when nobody cares? What can I do to make a difference when nobody is even here to listen?

Read the first chapter of The Fight to Save the Future here.