Today’s exercise is mostly a prompt. You’re going to free write for fifteen minutes about your characters and how they fit into their world.
That is, you’re going to give each of your major characters (let’s say two main characters and two villains) fifteen minutes of free writing time each. You’ll be writing in first person, from their PoVs. It’s just a self-summary thing. Think of it as if your character were starting a journal. What would their first journal entry look like?
Go wild. Remember to consider things like education (how that effects their life and their writing voice) and politics (their political stance and what they think of politicians). Also remember to consider things like how health care or a lack thereof effects your people. People with very few rights and very little healthcare will have a very different outlook on life from, say, someone in Canada.
This exercise is about finding the voice of each of your characters and exploring that. Even if some of them never become viewpoint characters, it’s good to have a feel for their voice.