Character Perception Exercise

This is an exercise we did in my intro to fiction class.

Choose one of the following settings:

a. a bank
b. a fast food establishment
c. a librarian's convention
d. a Yanni concert
e. the bus

Then choose one of the following characters to perceive and act in that setting:

a. a young woman who's just been diagnosed with terminal cancer
b. an old man who's just committed a murder
c. a middle aged man whose marriage proposal was recently rejected
d. a young girl who's overheard her parents talking about divorce
e. a poor woman who just lost her winning lottery ticket.

Do not directly refer to the situation preoccupying your character (e.g cancer, murder). Instead, reveal the character's feelings through perception and his/her interaction with the enviroment. First, second, or third person limited (the narrator can only see into the head of one character).

Try and guess where I was headed. I will warn you that I didn't get to finish.


Jamie meandered into the auditorium taking a seat alone and near the back. I was late and by the time I got there ther were only seats left at the front.
Jamie was my dear friend and we went to grad school together. She looked down and depressed --something unusual for her. She was normally a happy go lucky personat least in public who would and could help anyone find almost anything especially in periodicals. If she was upset here, today, it must be really big. She normally would discretely take care of any problems she might have out of sight.
But she had to be here, she was giving a seminar the next day. Hopefully her composure would be back and whatever was troubling her would have passed.
All through the talk I kept glancing at her trying to figure out by her body language what was wrong. I'd been around her enough to sort of tell (we even dated contrary to office politics).


That's it. I told you I didn't finish.
Two of the ones we read in class had were both about rejected middle aged men at Yanni concerts. I didn't know enough about Yanni to write about him.

We thank you for your support -- Bartles & James