Begin building a sensory journal for your main characters to give you
fuel throughout the series. Tie it to the personal memories—both trauma and
joy—and fix the location whenever relevant. Focus the emotional description.
Next to each category list the senses incorporated and how the senses
responded.
Journal entries for your protagonist’s:
- saddest day
- happiest day
- scariest
- challenging
- hopeful
- joyous
- disappointing
- despairing
- successful
Another way to develop a sensory language, and assist in character or
physical location, is to keep a family journal. It’s an extension of the
reflective journal, but this focus is on relationships, memories and
communication. Look for threads where past history can connect with present
history in your story world. The exercises can be interspersed between all
three angles. And the key here is once again to connect the emotional, sensory
layers that result. Consider writing it up for yourself first; next connect to
a character, and then to her situation. Take some of your episodes as seeds and
grow them into the opposite outcome.
For example, in one workshop a student mentioned that that she had “a heroine who goes back to the house she lived
in, one that holds bad memories and one she accidentally burned down. It's
still in ashes. What she doesn't know is that one person was killed there
and one was badly burned and disfigured. The house will play a crucial
role in the story.”
Share: Did you choose a secret trauma or a
secret joy? Why does your character need to keep it a secret?
Read deep, marcy
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