11 insightful character creation exercises you should try before NaNoWriMo

Planning on participating in National Novel Writing Month?

I'm in my eleventh (!) planning period for NaNo, and I've found that even for a mostly-pantser like me, getting to know my characters ahead of time helps my novel to gain momentum from the very first day.

But how should we get to know these mysterious beings? There are plenty of character inventory sheets out there, and those can definitely be effective; if they work for you, go for it!

Personally, I find my muse prefers to allow me to glance at characters out of the corner of my eye, rather than generate their demographic profiles. Exercises like the ones below have helped me get a sense for my story-people without making my muse feel over-exposed:

1. Write morning pages as the character
2. Put your character’s ipod on shuffle and write the stream-of-consciousness that results.
3. What’s in your character’s scrapbook/pinterest account/junk drawer?
4. What’s your character’s Every Day Carry?
5. Describe your character’s bedroom.
6. What kind of junk mail/google ads does your character get?
7. Write about the best holiday/birthday gift your character ever got: the giver, the gift, the reasons it was special, and the whereabouts of the item during your story.
8. What would your character change about his or her body or personality or upbringing, and Why?
9. Your character has a new electronic device; describe the device, and how the character sets up the device and what apps or programs he or she installs on it.
10. Map your character’s relationships. Go beyond the family tree to friends, enemies, coworkers, exes, people the character has impacted or people that have impacted the character.
11. Write about a time your character told a lie. Hat tip to author and teacher Roberta Allen for this one!