Young Writers Society

if you act like your character for a week, will you become a better writer or just a diffrent person

Er, I wouldn't recommend acting like your character for just a week...

A lot of writers do pretend to be their characters, usually when they're writing. A lot of writers also have their characters living in their heads and hold conversations with them and whatnot. Goodness knows, I've gotten into verbal one-sided arguments with my characters... haha. I'm totally not crazy. >.>

It doesn't necessarily make you a better writer -- only practise can do that. It really just helps your characters become more realistic, which is indeed helpful.

But I don't recommend doing it all the time, nor for just one week. You don't get a whole person in one week. Do it when you're writing, and let your characters kind of have free reign in your mind. Remember, it's their story, not yours.

-:pirate3:

That seems like a waste of a week, personally. And a little bit on the odd side.

I would suggest just writing out random conversations between characters on a blank word document. Think of a topic and have your characters banter on. That'll help you learn more about your characters, and it seems less time-consuming.

As a writer you are naturally an actor. I mean, it's the whole putting yourself in another's consciousness kind of thing.

I completely agree, it makes the character so much more realistic, which is what *most* authors are aiming for. Just. . . keep your sanity. The whole 'one week' thing might not be as good of an idea as it sounds - just practical. Maybe say something your character would when you are in a discussion with your friends, because then you will see how someone besides yourself will take the comment.

If I pretended to be some of my characters (one in particular), I'd either be:

-In prison. Forever.
-Dead. From lethal injection. After being in prison.
-Under investigation. Soon to be in prison.
-Still out there killing people. Not in prison.

So...yeah...pretend to be them...in your head...

I'm gonna agree with Kang227. Actually acting as my characters might not land me in jail or dead or make me violent, but they're not very nice people and I might lose some friends.

I do, however, often think about how they'd react to certain situations as I come to them. (I recently wrote a skit that started with two characters yelling about where the PopTarts went ... I started drafting it while, you guessed it, looking for the PopTarts.)

Do you role play at all? I think it's a great way to a) practice writing and b) get into your characters' heads (and waste oodles of time).

If I acted like some of my characters I'd lose all my friends, be in jail, and grounded.

What I do is, when walking my dog or riding my back, I speak the story. I don't add all the detail but I think about the setting and that way I get the characters planned out WITHOUT hurting anybody. Beside myself because I tend to run into trees, or my dog, or one of those random buildings that really shouldn't be close to the road.

Interesting question! I think it's my characters who act like me. They all start off based on me, then things sort of evolve from there. All the good guys have a bit of me in them-one's lazy and phlegmatic, one's good at languages, one's sensitive, one's strange. There's another one who's not much like me though.

wow...the other week I tried to go nonstop as my character, Zeria. Mainly because she's the narrator, so I sort of have to get the feel for being (writing as) her...

It didn't work out too well because she was way too nice, respectful, ect. for me to keep up.

That eventually showed in my writing when she started to get sarcastic (like me)

So, I tried...and failed...

unsterblichkeit36 wrote:if you act like your character for a week, will you become a better writer or just a diffrent person

You will drive yourself crazy and end up in a mental hospital.

*nods*

I don't advise it.

I act out my characters occasionally, including physical mannerisms, but only for a few hours--max.

Anything more and I'd have to sign myself into a mental institution, mostly because I get... really into it. When I act out my character, I, literally, become them--on a certain level. (If I didn't stutter so much, I feel that I would be a very good actor.)

I wouldn't mind being a few of my characters, but the villains... I leave that for when no one's around at the house.

Oh, let's see... For Bound for Glory, uh hem...

*Dead
*Arrested
*Hung
*Sent to the Stocks
*Stand before a firing squad
*Flogged

... No, I wouldn't advise anyone to act their character for a day, let alone an entire week, especially if your novel is set in the mid 1700's like mine, lol!

I wouldn't advise it...maybe, something a lot like it. You can go about your day, (AS YOURSELF) but when you do some stuff, imagine what your character would do. Like, when we wake up, some of us leap out of bed, and some of us oversleep. When you wake up, imagine what your character would do. Hope it works!

I pretend to be my characters in my mind... Like I imagine being my character in a scene of my story, what they would be thinking, how they would react etc. I have to make sure I understand why they are the way they are and what they believe in..

If I pretended to be one of my characters IRL I'd probably end up getting sent to a mental hospital. =)

Unless you had a character like Elsie Dinsmore, chances are you won't be a better person by acting like him.
I do act my charries out sometimes. Usually at night in my room so I don't freak out my family .