{"id":506,"date":"2012-10-12T09:16:13","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T14:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/?p=506"},"modified":"2013-01-27T10:52:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T15:52:15","slug":"character-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/12\/character-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Debates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bet you\u2019ll never guess where I got this idea from. Oh, so you knew it was from the debate fever over the Presidential election? Darn it, caught me. It\u2019s a good lesson to be learned, though. Debates show someone\u2019s true colors and it reveals their inner character. And I realized what a great exercise this would be for anyone stuck on understanding a challenging character or one they\u2019ve just recently begun to write.<\/p>\n<p>You could have two kinds of debates:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You versus the character<\/li>\n<li>The character in question versus another character (new or old)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the case of you versus the character, it might helpful just to discover what little tics you\u2019ve attributed to this new person from yourself or to see where you\u2019d really clash and what might be difficult to write in the future. As for character v character, this could be useful to flesh out details of what makes the character unique and to show how is s\/he compelling.<\/p>\n<p>I did this very exercise just the other day. Now, I\u2019m a bit unorthodox when it comes<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/debate.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-508\" title=\"debate\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/debate.png?resize=150%2C150\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/debate.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/debate.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/debate.png?zoom=3&amp;resize=150%2C150 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a> to working out dialogue for characters. I\u2019ve said it before, but I\u2019ll admit it again, I talk aloud to myself like I\u2019m in some really sad one act play that no one came to see. It helps me get a grasp on the character and bring them to life. So I didn\u2019t record my character debate, but I used both versions to try and understand a new character better. And it worked. I got into her head and was able to expand my knowledge on her likes and dislikes, her personality, behavior, strength and weaknesses. I\u2019m telling you, it works.<\/p>\n<p>What you\u2019ll need is a medium for the debate. I\u2019ll assume most people will want to write it out, so give each person involved a column and go to town on the issues. Log what each individual would feel or say in response to the topics you\u2019ve chosen that play into your narrative. By the end of the debate, which can really be however long you want or need, I\u2019m betting you\u2019ll know the ins and outs of the character that started off a bit foreign to you. And maybe also, a little bit more about yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bet you\u2019ll never guess where I got this idea from. Oh, so you knew it was from the debate fever over the Presidential election? Darn it, caught me. It\u2019s a good lesson to be learned, though. Debates show someone\u2019s true colors and it reveals their inner character. And I realized what a great exercise this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41,30,35,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-characters","category-dialogue","category-discovery","category-writing-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-8a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}