Speed-Dating with My Characters

Ok, don’t think I’m weird. I’m going speed-dating with my characters.

 

I blame my boyfriend.

“How’s the writing going, honey?”

“So-so. I have the outline all done, but the characters aren’t talking to me yet.”

At this point, a normal boyfriend would question my sanity. But I don’t have an ordinary boyfriend. I have an extraordinary one.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I can’t hear their voices. So I can’t just throw them into the scene because I don’t know what they’ll say, how they’ll react. I’ve never had this before. I need to bond with them, get to know them before I take them out on the town, you know?”

“You could go speed dating.”

He was joking. But my brain said, “Yeah! I could!”

If you aren’t familiar with speed dating, it’s a modern matchmaking phenomenon. Large gatherings of speed daters are paired up into couples. You have 3-10 minutes to ask each other questions. At the end of the time a bell rings and you change partners. You have a minute between rounds to grade each other and make notes. At the end of the evening, you exchange contact info if you like.

I have never been speed dating, but some of my friends have. It sounds fascinating. You must make the most of your time. And if you don’t hit it off, you move along, no harm, no foul.

After cruising a few too many speed dating sites tonight (most of them British, don’t ask me why, except maybe dating in a British accent is always attractive), I have come up with the following speed dating plan:

I google “speed dating questions” and print off the lists from a few sites.


I cut the questions into separate strips and place them in a jar.


I find a willing victim to play the part of my “date.”


I make nametags for all my main characters, and maybe a prop.


I arrange a room with a table and chairs and place my willing victim in one of the chairs.


When I enter the room, I will introduce myself as one of my own main characters.


We start a timer for 7 minutes.


My “date” asks me questions drawn from the jar.


The timer rings and I leave. My willing victim has one minute to write down a few words about what they thought of me.


I come in as my next character.

My goal is not to overthink but to go with my first impulse. I also want to respond with the body language, tone of voice, level of confidence, and expression I feel is appropriate for the character. Basically, I am in character for the entire date. I will be making up some stuff as I go along. In fact, I think anachronistic questions will be to my benefit. Ask a medieval fantasy character what songs are on her playlist right now? Her favorite cartoon character? Why not? It gets me thinking outside the box, and more about personality.

At the end of the evening my date and I will compare notes. If any versions of my main characters were just not working, we’ll ditch those. I’ll agree to see the best versions of my characters again—on the page, of course.

I’ll let you know how it works!