Here is an exercise that seeks to draw out a character’s inner landscape via their external, so they become a product of place, just as we all are.
Have you ever looked at one of your characters, peered at them between the words on the page, a bit like a kid at a fence, and found they aren’t quite real yet?
We’ve all had it, but to some extent it’s a bit like looking at the tomato plants you’ve grown from seed and, after four weeks of healthy growth, calling it a ‘problem’ that there are no tomatoes yet. They’ll get there in their own time, of course, you just have to maintain the right conditions.
It’s the same with your characters, they need the warmth of your continued attention, patience and some kind of nourishment. Many exercises suggest profiling – the interrogation of your character using a series of questions that look at, say, personality, past, likes and dislikes, ambitions etc. This can be very useful, and it works because it makes you look inwards – into the character – to get a sense of what you might call their internal landscape.
But we can also turn that on its head and instead look outward. In Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway says ‘…just as character and plot are interlinked, so character itself is a product of place and culture.’ This exercise seeks to explore those links. It might have particular appeal to writers whose minds work visually. (Or who like crayons.)
A creative map I drew for 'Nailing Cats to Trees,' a short story I'm working on. I used 'bubbles' to represent the three most significant places to the character and explored how they connected. I learnt some new things about interconnection within the piece, and it also helped me locate the 'fuzzy' areas.
The Map:
Get yourself a sheet of paper and your writing/drawing implement of choice. For me it’s the good old-fashioned pencil.
Draw a map of your character’s significant geography. It could cover an area the size of a single room, a city, a country, whatever you want. It can adhere to spacial rules when you want it to or break them. For example, Canada can be just down the road from the chipshop on Yorkshire Street. But start to explore why – what is it about the chip shop that, for this character, is a gateway to Canada, what is the connection? Of course, we’re not talking teleportation here, but a connection in the character’s mind that is there for a reason.
Generally speaking, the typical things marked on maps can be avoided – you don’t need to mark in churches, street names, post offices etc, unless they have significance to your character. Items marked on the map can be as literal or as abstract as you like, for example, ‘Beanie’s Mirror,’ ‘The Forgetting,’ ‘Important Lesson,’ ‘Daisy Chain.’ You can add little pictures to the points of interest in if you like too.
Some features you might want to add to your map:
1) A place named after a specific memory that appears trivial, but perhaps isn’t. (e.g. ‘The Goldfish Bowl’ – what could that be about?
2) Somewhere that is cordoned off – where your character used to go, but no longer does.
3) Somewhere significant that is currently blank, because your character hasn’t been there, but knows exists.
4) Routes – get a real sense of where this character goes over the course of a day, a week a year etc… any patterns or surprises there?
The Next Step:
To take this exercise further have a go at visualising the map through your character’s eyes. We’re talking about a full, 3-D landscape here, that you could walk through in your mind BUT it’s not going to be a purely neutral place – as much as the landscape exists in its own right, it is also shaped through the perception of your character.
So, either in words or just in your mind, call up a location from your map and try to see it in rich detail, both physical and emotional. How does your character feel to be there? What do they notice? What do you notice? Notice that the two of you notice different things.
Move on to another location and maybe a third…
For those looking for a serious mental workout, travel from one location to the next, trying to hold the physical presence constantly, the sights, the sounds, the turning from one street to a next. You are in their world, in the space they inhabit and you might begin to feel a change when you picture your character, because when you picture them, you will see them in a certain place, living in and reacting to a particular environment that has history for them, or expectations, or just makes them feel one of the million everyday emotions that we all feel. Do they start to seem a little more real to you? What can you do with this new knowledge?
Asides:
There is a fascinating article here about a creative map used in the album art for Tori Amos’s Scarlet’s Walk. (You can decide for yourself whether and how you want to access the map itself which you’ll see was the cause of much ‘to do’!)
Mollie Baxter 2010
You are welcome to use these exercises in your writing group or class. I just ask that you acknowledge the source i.e. verbally and on the handout if you use one. I’d also love it if you would let me know how it went!
Do feel free to post any responses or extracts of writing that you have written, but bear in mind that I am unable to give any feedback in this forum. Please see details on my freelance teaching or one-to-one mentoring. Thanks for reading!
Tags: Janet Burroway, maps, Nailing Cats to Trees, Tori Amos, Wordsparks! Free writing exercises.