Thursday, August 12, 2010

A tip for getting inside your MC's head

Meet my MC, Derek.


Okay, so it's not really my main character.  This is an actor.

Why would I post a picture of him when I said I was introducing you to my main character and telling you how I get inside his head?

Because this is how I do it:

1- Pick an actor who would be great at portraying my MC in the movie version.  (It started with choosing him because he was a physical match for my MC.)

2- Imagine said actor (it helps if you have seen the actor's work a lot so you're familiar with their intonations and inflections) saying the lines of dialogue or acting out the scene you're writing.

3- Fix anything that makes you react in all the wrong ways.

There you have it!  This worked really well with Lodestar for me.  There was a scene that I wrote which I instantly broke out into hysterics over upon imagining him saying one line.  All it took was changing one little line of dialogue and I found the scene to be more in character.  And that change was prompted by the small and simple act of imagining the scene like it played on a movie screen.

7 comments:

  1. That's the reason you posted the picture? Because really, I just thought you posted a pic of Chris Pine because, well Chris Pine = UBER-HOT! ;)

    Thanks for this morning's eye candy

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  2. ooo, he's dreamy. I've heard of writers doing this, but never have done it myself. I guess my characters are more normal looking people. Hey, maybe I'll pull out my old yearbook or something.

    ps..hope culinary school is going well!! are you settled in?

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  3. I love that you do that! What a great idea. I think it would really help get into my mc's head. =) Thanks!

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  4. Anything we can think of, such as this great idea of yours, to get into the MC's head is great. I'd never thought of doing this. Glad it worked for you. I think it could work for anyone!
    Ann

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  5. Yep, I do that too. I also make playlists for them.
    Jen Daiker over at unedited makes character collages that are pretty great.

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  6. I like this idea! I actually do something similar, but not with actors. I go to modeling websites and look at the hundreds of photos there (and not all of the pictures look like typical "gorgeous" models, which is good.) Once I can look at a physical representation of the characters I have in my head, it helps them become more real.

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  7. This actor was a great choice to post a picture of - I would love to get inside his head. Thank you for the tips. My male MC is based off of Eric Bana

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