🎨 Your Challenge, Should You Choose to Accept it ...
You may have thought before about your own inner critic and the kinds of things it says to you.
What about your character's inner critic?
What kinds of things do you think that inner monster may have to say to your character? Choose a character in your story that is behaving badly—be it your main character, your antagonist, or a supporting character, and explore their inner critic.
- First, draw a silly sketch of the voice inside their head that tells them they're all wrong. Make it a cartoon monster. A silly sketch can give you (and your character) a little perspective.
- Then, draw in some speech bubbles and think about the kinds of things this monster might say to your character. How aware of this critic is your character? Do they believe the things this monster says? Will they discover at some point in the story that the things the critic is telling them may not be true?
- Once you've created your sketch and added some words, play around with the possibilities. Maybe this exploration gives you ideas for additional scenes. Maybe you want to create a full set of inner critics to see how similar these inner monsters are for your key characters. Where might these monsters create opportunities for your characters to empathize with one another? Where might these monsters create additional conflict?