2023 Character-Building Challenge: Day 7
Make the most of March by participating in the first ever Character-Building Challenge. Writer’s Digest provides free daily tasks for the first 10 days of March to help writers unlock compelling new characters. For Day 7, have two of more of your characters meet.
For the seventh day of this challenge, pick a place and have two or more of your characters meet and interact with each other. Some good places to meet? The laundromat, the gym, a school, public transportation, a library, a restaurant, and so on. So many places to run into each other.
And keep in mind that when I say that your characters should meet that the meeting may not be planned. I can meet an old friend at the grocery store, even though I wasn't planning to see them. However, it's totally fine if the meeting was planned as well.
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Here's my attempt at a meeting between two or more characters:
The sun's rays were slanting across the tops of loblolly pines as a compact blue car pulled up to the gravel parking lot with the guitar of "Voodoo Child," by Jimi Hendrix, blaring into the atmosphere. When the car came to a stop, the passenger door swung open and out popped Abraham. He shut the door and walked around the front of the car waiting for JJ to finally turn off the car and exit the driver side.
"So you're not going to enter the competition," JJ continued.
"No," Abraham agreed. "I'm not entering the competition."
"But you'd probably win," beamed JJ as they both started toward a walking trail.
"Yeah, well," Abraham started, but then he just lifted both his hands in front of him and twisted his wrists slightly so that the palms of his hands were turned toward his face.
"Yeah, well," continued JJ, "I think you should at least try."
"Trying is lame."
"Lame is not trying."
"Whatevs. I've got better things to do with my time than win art competitions."
Just then, a loud noise startled JJ and Abraham. It came from the trees, and it didn't take long for them both to realize it was a laugh. An evil laugh.
"Don't tell a lie, Honest Abe," called the voice. "You can't win, and you don't have anything better to do."
"Stephen," questioned JJ as she peered at the approaching shadow.
"None other, gorgeous."
"What're you doing hiding the woods, creep," asked Abraham. "Spying on JJ now?"
"She wishes. Actually, I was waiting for you, Honest Abe."
"Sorry to say, but you're not my type."
"Ha. Ha. Heh," said Killer as he pulled something from his pocket. A knife.
Abraham watched as Killer lifted the knife up in the air, and he knew what was about to happen. Call it his super power, but he often knew what people were going to do before they did it, and Abraham instinctively knew Killer was about to use that knife on him.
"Run, JJ!"
"What?"
"Run," repeated Abraham. "Get help."
"Stephen!"
"Listen to Honest Abe," agreed Killer. "We've got business between us."
"I'm not going anywhere," answered JJ.
At that moment, Killer lunged toward Abraham and pointed the knife at his stomach, the tip landing somewhere along his left side. The pain was immediate as Abraham instinctively backed off. JJ screamed.
Even Killer seemed a little stunned for a moment, but it only lasted a moment. In another moment, his lips curled into a smile as he seemed to realize he was in charge of this situation. Nobody would stop him from having his retribution.
"I'll show you what happens when you embarrass me," Killer said.
Abraham wasn't sure what he was talking about. He just wanted JJ to get out of there as he looked down as his shirt and hands getting more and more wet. JJ needed to get out of here. Get out.
As Abraham waited for Killer to move in on him, he heard footsteps quickly approaching before hearing a loud thud. Abraham fell back and saw Max standing over Killer with a giant tree branch. And JJ ran to Abraham's side still screaming and saying something that Abraham couldn't quite make out before everything went dark.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
