Smoke

Smoke: A Writing Exercise

This writing exercise is derived from a popular turn-of-the-century party game. Throw it in your character creation file for those times you feel stifled by your usual method.

In the game, you pick a famous person. You say, “if I were smoke in this person's pipe, what kind of smoke would I be?”

In our version, substitute your fictional character for the famous person. It's fun, and breaks you out of your normal mindset.

Try these:

1) If your character was a credit card in a wallet, what kind of credit card would he be?

2) If your character was a kid's bicycle, what kind of bicycle would she be?

3) If he was a house, what kind?

4) If she was a summer cabin, where would she be?

5) If your characters were songs, what songs would they be?

Using this method, create three characters as quickly as you can. Do sketches. Leave stuff blank. It's okay. If you ask yourself why and you're one of those people who needs an answer right away, then answer your question right away – with the first thing that pops into your head. Don't give yourself time to question. Just write it down.

When your three characters are done, close your notebook and put it away. Wait three days before looking at your character sketches again. Then go back and see what they say to you.

Have fun. Play. The holiday season's coming up, so everyone's allowed to play a few games. Playing is still writing, and if playing turns into good writing, so much the better.

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