February 16, 2021-Think of a character from your favourite book; why do you like them so much? Is it their sense of humour, their bravery, their quick wit? We often create characters who have some form trait that we lack or that we wish we had. It’s fun to escape into new worlds that have hidden dangers lurking around every corner, or challenges that we can relate to in our actual lives. Books take us to places and allow us to experience things that we may never get to experience in reality-that’s one of the reason why romance and mystery novels are such a strong genre that sell well.
For today’s exercise, as we continue to examine breaking out of our comfort zones, I would like you to do the following:
- Write down your favourite character from a book. It can be anyone or anything you want. Let’s use the character from one of my favourite books, The Alchemist, as an example. Santiago the Shepherd boy is the character who spoke to me the deepest.
- Write down all of their best attributes. Using the example above of Santiago, his best attributes include, bravery, not taking no for an answer, listening to his gut instinct, his love of adventure and the unknown, his love of travel, his unwillingness to settle, his determination and perseverance no matter what faced him, his work ethic, his self-belief, his positive attitude.
- List the attributes that you wish you had more of. I wish I had more of Santiago’s trust in his gut instinct and his positive attitude.
- Get to work. Do the things that you need to do. This week, I will work on listening to my inner voice and choose based on what it tells me, and I will remain positive in the face of adversity.
It’s impossible to write a book without leaving a piece of ourselves behind. Books and characters change us even if we’re the ones writing them. What character traits inspire you? What do you wish you had more of? Less of? Get to work this week on embracing bravery and breaking out of your comfort zone. You can piggy back this exercise with the blog post that talks about employing alter egos. Happy Writing!