LTSH Out Of Character Community

I was at a support group where someone had, upon hearing a few things I have gone through, said "Wow, that must have really defined you." I didn't particularly agree, but it did make me think about what things did define me.

The challenge for this month is Defining Moments.
What things have defined your character? Was it a particular event? A decision? Did it change them? Does your character think so?

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It's October and growing up I have often associated this month with fear... Zombies and bedsheet ghosts and all sorts of varieties of the undead. When I was younger, I had a lot of fears. Then when I grew up, those fears changed. There may not be a monster under my bed, but there are daily monsters to be faced every day. This month's challenge is Fears. Scary stories told with a flashlight, monsters in the dark, giant spiders... or maybe it's not a monster. Maybe it's facing fears or even being controlled by them. Is your character brave enough to slay a dragon but has a secret fear of bugs? What kind of phobias might they have in the right situations? How can they develop by facing their fear? Would they do it alone?

The first person to have ever told me that "blood is thicker than water" was my father. I was about six and didn't find out until I was much older what that phrase meant and it was realized with a lot of irony, considering how he had left us. It wouldn't be for another several years before the little family I had broke apart further... However, it wasn't that long ago that I learned that family isn't limited to who you share DNA or a last name with.

This month's challenge is Family Photo.
But it is not limited to a character's parent's or siblings or family relations... Who are they close to? Who would they fight for? What does family mean to them? Write a story or make a family tree. Draw a picture of a character with those closest to them. Or explain why they are alone.

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Go to any movie and you'll see them... Extras. They move about in the background, fill a stadium and basically give the hero people to save. Some get killed ten minutes into the movie, others are really just blurred shadows but they are still needed to give dimension to the story.

The challenge for this month is In the Background. Pick a character from a story and write about how it came to be in that setting. Did it have an important role that no one ever sees? What was their life like? Or create a character and tell how it would live if it were in a setting of a story you like.

Some prompts (you don't have to use them, it's just there if you want them):

* Randomly choose a book and pick an "extra". Maybe it's a cashier that the hero buys his coffee from, the person beside them on the bus. What had their day been like up to then?

* Your character has just woken up to a world of nothing. No busy streets, no random people, no animals or things that the main character or hero can interact with. Is it easier for you to write stories without background characters or is it easier to write stories with them?

* Draw a group photo of as many "extras" in a story as you can fit on a page. Or write a list and then write or draw how you imagined them to look like, what their personalities could be.

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Animals in History

When I was a kid I used to love history stories told from the perspective of an animal. One in particular was The Titanic Bear, the story of the Titanic as told through a sailor-dressed teddy bear.

The challenge this month is set at any point in history, told either from the perspective of an animal or about an animal. Be as creative as you like or as realistic as you want to be. It can be real animals or toy animals. It can be a story, artwork, pictures or anything that you think will be fun to share that goes with the theme.

If you get stuck or don't know what to write, here are some story starters! (you don't have to use them, they're just some ideas)
* Open a history book to a random page and let that be your setting
* Choose a battle and write from the perspective from the war horse or what may have happened to it after the war.
* Animals in a particular country for the first time
* Draw your favorite animal or pet in historic dress
* If a child from another time had your favorite plushie, what kind of life would it have had?

Special thanks to beachbunnykirby for inspiring this one! :)

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