Shoutout to the prompt that made me scrap my first 3 pages

I was browsing prompts last month and found one about a character who only speaks in questions. I thought it was a fun idea but after writing 3 pages, I realized my main character sounded like a robot asking 'What do you mean?' over and over. Has anyone else had a simple prompt completely reshape how they approach their main character's voice?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithrodriguez12d ago

Ha! I once wrote a character whose only personality trait was sarcasm. Realized I was just writing myself.

sam_harris6812d ago

The real trick is when you try to write a character who is the opposite of you and end up just making them a cardboard cutout. Like I tried to write a super optimistic, glass half full type once. They were so annoying and fake that I had to delete the whole chapter. You can't fake it. The best characters are the ones where you accidentally let your own bad habits slip in, even when you're trying not to. That's where the real writing happens.