Find Your Heart Game

An exercise to feed your creative soul

What quality do you most admire in a person and might want to explore in a story? Come at this from your heart, not just your thinking mind. Start by brainstorming an empathy list. Muck around. And take plenty of breaks.

What core value do you most admire?

Honesty, bravery, love, hope, truth, compassion, confidence.

What professions/situations best test/show this quality?

What goal would best test this quality?

Why do they want it? Think about the reasons why your character wants their goal.

How can you best show the character arc of this quality?

Think how you might start. What happens if you start with its opposite value? EXAMPLE: A cowardly firefighter must learn to be brave.

What environment and setting could best show this quality?

This exercise was taken from A Writer’s Journal Workbook by Lucy van Smit.

Let us know how you get on in the comments!