Writing Exercise we did at the kick-off.

If you missed the kick-off, grab a couple of friends and try the following writing exercise. If you did this at the kick-off, have you added anything to your outline as a result?

Character quirks - Each person writes down a one line summary of a character on a card. It doesn't have to be the main character for your novel, but it should be someone in the novel.
Pass the card to your right. Add a character quirk can be the way she talks, something he carries, a hidden passion, favorite food, what her father thinks of her, best friend is a... These quirks don't have to be consistent, but they can be.
Once done, pass the card to your right. When you get your own card back, read them out loud, maybe brainstorm about things you can use for your novel.

Feel free to share anything especially amusing or useful that came out of it.

This was so much fun yesterday. Our table had some amazing laughs. I highly recommend this exercise to everyone! Sometimes, you get little gems that fit -just so- with what you already have. :)

This was a great exercise. My group really liked it and several commented they planned to incorporate the character twist or plot twist into their novel.

Thanks, Katherine, for an excellent idea.

TRRDEDEAN wrote:
This was a great exercise. My group really liked it and several commented they planned to incorporate the character twist or plot twist into their novel.

Thanks, Katherine, for an excellent idea.

You're welcome. I think your icebreaker really helped by getting new people used to talking with other people.

I added to my outline a woman who goes around with a sharpie to doctor's offices and gets rid of any words she considers to be smutty in the magazines in the waiting area. (I added it to a sketch that my characters do, rather than making it an actual character trait for one of my characters, but it still tickles me and I'm pretty sure I'll get a few hundred words out of it.) I know I wouldn't have thought of that quirk on my own.