Ready for a new writing prompt? Here we go!
What is your character worried about?
Right now, wherever you've written up to in your story, what is your character worried about? Be as specific as possible.
Probably the first thing that comes to mind is the Big Evil Bad Guy or whatever is at the heart of the plot. And that a great answer. Your character is probably constantly worried about it. But what else are they worried about?
Think about yourself for a minute. How many things do you have going on right now? How many roles do you play? Between work, family, friends, hobbies, health, are you ever only worried about one thing at a time?
Unless this is where I find out my anxiety disorder is way more severe than I thought, the answer is probably no. There's always something else. Right?
Even if your character is on the brink of defeating the most heinous betrayer god and thus saving the entire world from corruption and destruction, they're probably also worried about things like their family back home.
Whether or not their old friend survived the attack on the village that they heard about. Where they're going to sleep tonight. How the side characters are holding up. How they're getting home after all of this is done. What their family is doing right now.
Bonus prompt: Do the side characters know what the main character is worried about? If so, how do they feel about it?
Are they conversely worried that the main character is too burdened and worrying too much? Do they think the main character can't see the bigger picture? Or does their worrying say something about the kind of person they are?
Then, if you want to learn even more about the side characters and their relationship to the main character, flip the prompt around. What are the side characteristics worried about? Does the main character know about these things? What do they think about these worries?
This has the potential to create such a strong tension between all of your characters. Thinking about my own characters, I could create a couple plot points just from this prompt.
If my character Myrah knew that Acacia was constantly worrying about her hometown and the people she left behind, Myrah would feel like more an outcast than she already does as an orphan who ran away from home to find a family of her own.
If my character Cairnan knew that his brother Anatole never intended to go back to their home, Cairnan would start to question why he's on this quest in the first place.
Alternatively, if Acacia knew that Anatole was fighting solely with the intent to finish the journey by traveling with Acacia and seeing the wonderful place she comes from and meeting the family she's made there and have been raving about, she would either: have a renewed drive to accomplish the task set in front of her and make it home alive; or crumble under the weight of yet another expectation placed upon her and her success. Could go either way!
As always, have fun with this prompt. Explore every potential you can. Even the ones that seem a little odd or may not work with your story. Because this is an exercise. If you write a page for this prompt and then realize that it doesn't really fit the character, first of all, that's a little more you know about that character that you didn't before, and you don't have to keep it.
Keep what you like, take what you can learn, and throw out the rest.
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