Characters have bodies

A writing exercise to feed your creative mind

Write a list of four physical activities e.g. digging a hole, gutting a fish.

Write a list of four difficult conversation topics e.g. the end of a relationship, revealing an affair, telling someone you’re unwell.

Write a scene in which two people have a difficult conversation (one from your list) whilst doing a physical activity (one from your list). How does this physical activity change that conversation?

Think about the physicality of the people having this conversation. How does this person move their body? How often do they touch the other person in the scene (are they doing an activity which means it is harder/easier to touch)? Do they scratch their nose in between thoughts? Do they have knees that ache when they kneel down?

Characters have bodies - let’s use them.

Please share your writing in the comments if you’d like!

Photo of Align Towards Spine on Unsplash