Step Out of Your Story. Kim Schneiderman

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СКАЧАТЬ you’ve given yourself permission to embark on a journey of self-discovery, where do you start? Obviously, with the hero of your story (you).

      When novelists first imagine and start to develop the main characters for their stories, they use a writing technique known as a character sketch. As you take hold of the authorship reins of your own narrative, I invite you to travel this time-tested path. In many ways, a character sketch is like taking the scenic route to your eventual story, one that leads you through new landscapes toward broader vistas. Only in this case, you are going to assume the role of both author and protagonist, using this proven storytelling device to get a richer understanding of your main character.

      A character sketch is a technique that helps authors flesh out the personalities and interior world of the protagonist before embarking on a novel. It involves answering a series of imaginative questions that paint a holographic picture of how the protagonist might evolve over the course of the plotline. The character sketch presumes that the protagonist is the soul of every narrative and the engine that runs the story. By using this device to penetrate the hearts and minds of the protagonists they create, authors can help ensure that their heroes remain true to character, so to speak, in the actions they take and the choices they make.

      So, too, you are the engine of your personal narrative. The more you understand about who you are, what you’re made of, and what’s driving you, the better equipped you’ll be to navigate the twists in your plotline, steer your life narrative in a positive new direction, and avoid veering off course.

      The character sketch is a perfect first step toward rewriting your story because it offers a well-groomed trailhead into our protagonist’s journey with questions that can dependably lead you in constructive directions. Toward this end, the character sketch will become the basis for your story’s exposition, the first building block of your reconstructed narrative. As the first element in the story arc, the exposition sets the stage for the plot, presenting important descriptive and background information that gives the reader a window into the protagonist’s personality. This is important because the more you understand who you are as an ever-evolving protagonist, the more you can see where your story is heading and how you want to direct it.

      Similarly, writing a character sketch will help you develop a richer appreciation for yourself as a character, laying a solid foundation for deeper explorations in your unfolding storyline later in this book. After all, personal transformation begins with self-awareness. You need to have a good grasp of the raw materials you’re working with — your strengths, needs, desires, quirks, habits, and even your shortcomings — before you can shape your life into a work of art that reflects your purest and most imaginative vision.

      Celebrated author and writing guru Anne Lamott describes the character sketch process as exploring the protagonist’s “emotional acreage.” In her bestselling book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Lamott explains that “each of your characters has an emotional acre that they tend, or don’t tend, in certain specific ways. One of the things you want to discover as you start out is what each person’s acre looks like. What is the person growing, and what sort of shape is the land in?…The point is that you need to find out as much as possible about the interior life of the people you are working with.”¹¹

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