Writing Games: Never and All the Time

    Have you ever gotten bored of trying to describe characters in one sentence? "John is a sullen person," "Jane is happy-go-lucky." Short summarizing statements like this can be good for making a character's personality consistent, but it can get pretty tricky sometimes to keep from using the same term for multiple characters.
    But what if instead of focusing on one character and one adjective, a sentence like this was used to summarize: "John never smiles, but Jane does it all the time."
    There are numerous helpful things about never/all the time sentences like this. For one, it helps come up with a defining characteristic for not one but two characters, and it does it in a more creative way than coming up with just one word to describe them.

Squirrels in the park are never very
dramatic . . .


    Secondly, writing never/all the time sentences is an exercise that helps one remember characters in their story. It jogs the memory of what they're like and how they might have associated with each other.
    Thirdly, a never/all the time statement might uncover a parallel trait that wouldn't usually come up. Using the John and Jane example: if John never smiles, he could just be a pretty serious person, or he could be hiding his emotions behind a continual scowl; similarly, if Jane's always grinning from ear to ear, she's got to be either uniquely peppy or someone who's very accustomed to masking her real feelings, like John. In this context, the never/all the time sentence doesn't show opposing personalities, but opposing reactions, which can make a relationship between these characters more interesting.

. . . but spoiled housecats, on the other
hand, are dramatic all the time!

    Fourthly, writing never/all the time statements for characters is useful because they could point out a weaknesses of each character, which could be focused more on in the written story. John could look at Jane and think that he's never as happy as her, or Jane could look at John and think that she's never as focused and respected as he is; either of these could add conflict to the story or build on a recurring theme.
    Finally, coming up with never/all the time sentences is also just fun to do; it's a writing game!
    Can you think of a "never and all the time statement" for two characters in one of your stories? :)