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One of my favorite exercises of all time I call "bucket of words." I am 100% positive there are other iterations of it with better names, but here's how you do it:
Write a character taking an action.
Add 1 object description
Add 1 setting description
Add internal feeling (does not need to be related to action)
Add physical manifestation of feeling (ie sweating, shaking, smiling, etc)
Add setting atmosphere (this MUST be impacted by internal feeling so if your character is scared, atmosphere must be threatening vibes)
Add internal monologue, at least one sentence
Add 1 setting or object description (your choice)
Complete with sentence fragment, ideally either the completion of initial action or a repetition of action sentence.
((Important to note that these do not need to all be separate sentences))
🧠 FREE WRITING LESSON -- THE MOST POWERFUL CHARACTER DEPTH TRICK YOU’LL EVER READ.
Let’s say your character sucks.
She’s flat. Predictable. “Strong” in all the wrong ways.
Let’s call her Nicolle. Or Carol. Or whatever name Hollywood gave her.
She’s a superhero. She’s got powers. She’s got sarcasm.
She takes no shit. She leads the squad. She’s admired by everyone -- and loved by no one.
You’ve seen this character before.
Now watch what happens when you give her one secret she doesn’t brag about.
Nicolle has two sons.
She’s raising them alone -- to become men like her late father:
A man who sacrificed everything to raise her after her mother disappeared, broke, or gave up.
The world sees Nicolle as the apex of visual empowerment.
But the world doesn’t see:
The arguments with her boys’ father -- about what being a real dad means.
The prayers whispered in the dark over a fevered forehead.
The way she ghosted the only man she maybe wanted, not because she’s flaky -- but because she doesn’t know if wanting love makes her a bad mother.
The nights she tucks her boys in, then collapses into her bed, staring at the ceiling, heart full of ache, because she gave the world her strength but kept no one to hold hers.
They don’t see the days her sons cry after watching her get slammed through buildings on TV.
Held by the throat.
Left for dead.
Motionless for seconds too long.
Until she rises -- because she has to.
They don’t see the breakdowns.
They don’t see her flinch.
They assume she doesn’t feel fear.
But the truth?
She feels it every single time.
She’s not fearless. She’s never been.
But fear is a luxury she doesn’t have.
That’s a luxury for men.
She is a god.
And she will make any threat scream that truth -- as she crushes it beneath her bleeding hands.
Because when demons invade, tyrants rise, and monsters descend,
She suits up.
Not for hashtags.
Not for feminism.
Not for attention.
She suits up because the idea of her sons growing up in a world she could’ve fought for and didn’t --
is more terrifying than death itself.
And she will not let the universe teach her boys that their mother ever cowered.
🔺 THE TRIFECTA THAT MAKES ANY SUPERHERO NEXT-LEVEL:
Intimacy. Contradiction. Duty.
Intimacy gives them a soul -- something they protect more than their own body.
Contradiction gives them depth -- because perfection is forgettable, but conflict creates memory.
Duty gives them immortality -- because we remember those who bled for more than applause.
Give a character that trifecta -- and suddenly:
She’s not annoying. She’s haunting.
She’s not fanfiction. She’s canon.
She’s not shallow. She’s legend.
✍️ That’s how you fix a weak character.
You don’t soften her.
You give her something to fight that fists can’t touch.
And suddenly?
She’s not a girlboss.
She’s the last myth your enemies ever tell themselves before they die.
Child's Writing Exercises and Doodles, from Egypt, c. 1000-1200 CE: this was made by a child who was practicing Hebrew, creating doodles and scribbles on the page as they worked
This writing fragment is nearly 1,000 years old, and it was made by a child who lived in Egypt during the Middle Ages. Several letters of the Hebrew alphabet are written on the page, probably as part of a writing exercise, but the child apparently got a little bored/distracted, as they also left a drawing of a camel (or possibly a person), a doodle that resembles a menorah, and an assortment of other scribbles on the page.
This is the work of a Jewish child from Fustat (Old Cairo), and it was preserved in the collection known as the Cairo Genizah Manuscripts. As the University of Cambridge Library explains:
For a thousand years, the Jewish community of Fustat placed their worn-out books and other writings in a storeroom (genizah) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue ... According to rabbinic law, once a holy book can no longer be used (because it is too old, or because its text is no longer relevant) it cannot be destroyed or casually discarded: texts containing the name of God should be buried or, if burial is not possible, placed in a genizah.
At least from the early 11th century, the Jews of Fustat ... reverently placed their old texts in the Genizah. Remarkably, however, they placed not only the expected religious works, such as Bibles, prayer books and compendia of Jewish law, but also what we would regard as secular works and everyday documents: shopping lists, marriage contracts, divorce deeds, pages from Arabic fables, works of Sufi and Shi'ite philosophy, medical books, magical amulets, business letters and accounts, and hundreds of letters: examples of practically every kind of written text produced by the Jewish communities of the Near East can now be found in the Genizah Collection, and it presents an unparalleled insight into the medieval Jewish world.
Sources & More Info:
Cambridge Digital Library: Writing Exercises with Child's Drawings
Cambridge Digital Library: More About the Cairo Genizah Manuscripts
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12 Writing Exercises to help develop your character and their voice.
Editors note - There's a lot of boring writers drivel. So, to spare you from the headache if you're not interested, your characters individual voices and personalities are important for engaging stories and interesting plots. You can skip down to the end for the exercises.
Think about the people you know, the people you love. What's one thing they have in common, besides the obvious? They're all uniquely different. Everyone in the world is different in some way, even in media. Books and movies all have unique sounding characters that are different from each other. In Harry Potter, for example, All of the characters have their own voice, even the Weasley twins are different in their own ways.
Complex and unique characters that sound different, interact and speak differently, make for engaging books and dynamics.
I don't know anybody who would want to read a 50,000 word novel about two boring characters, who're exactly alike, and talk in the same monotonous tone. You can have a character who is "boring." who speaks monotonously and still have an interesting novel that people would read.
Having different characters who come together to create funny, interesting, or weird dynamics makes for a readable piece. Take your monotonous character, by themselves, they're kind of boring. They're not engaging to follow. But, introducing different characters to come and interact with your "boring" character, creates funny and memorable dynamics.
Think the anime Saiki K, or Veronica Sawyer from Heathers. If you took only those two characters, and stripped away all of the background characters, they wouldn't make for very interesting stories. Saiki would be happy, living his days in peace and quiet. Veronica would just be a normal edgy high school girl. But if you bring the side characters back, you bring the story and their conflicts back. Saiki goes back to being annoyed by his weird and goofy friends, wishing for peace and quiet. Veronica goes back to being tormented by JD and the group dynamic in the Heathers clique.
These stories utilize background characters to create conflict in their main characters' lives, and makes fun and interesting stories and dynamics with them.
Without further ado, here are 12 exercises to help you develop your characters, and get you thinking.
Ask your character what they want, and have them monologue about it.
Think about who, in your life, does your character remind you of.
Ask yourself, What does my character want, and what does my character need? How do they conflict with each other, and how does this affect my story?
A good exercise to help you write characters interacting, and practice dialogue is to do the ABCD exercise.
The ABCD exercise is writing a full page, or 500 words, of dialogue between two characters, character a and character b, talking about what they think character c thinks of character d. Then, write another page depicting how character c actually interacts with character d.
Write journal entries from the pov of your character.
Think about your character's habits, nervous tics, or tells, and write out a page where they do those things.
Think about something your character holds dear to them, and give the item a backstory.
Think about how your character interacts with other characters, and write a page for each interaction.
Think about a belief or opinion your character has, and write a page of dialogue, where your character is explaining their belief, and why they believe in it, to another character.
Write a page about your character reminiscing, or talking, about a cherished memory from their past, or childhood.
Write a page of dialogue about character a telling character c about character b, whom c has never met before, what kind of things do they say? What do they think of b? Then write another page from character c’s point of view, what are they thinking? How do their thoughts of b change? What do they think of character a? How do they imagine character a and b’s relationship?
Write a page about a character being forced into a situation with their greatest fear. Then, if you want to go a step further, write a page of the same thing, but introduce another character that the first holds dear to them, or wants to protect.
