Have you ever dressed up as your main character in order to find inspiration for a scene?

I’m not being crazy, really. People do this! (…not that I know from personal experience or anything…)

I don’t know if they did it this year, but a few years back during NaNoWriMo, a group of participants declared November 1st ‘Dress Like Your Character Day’. It was meant to inspire you to start writing and get into the groove of your story.

I was writing a MG fantasy novel that year, set in Ir eland, with plenty of nasty fae. And they had some great cheap faery costumes at Value Village on markdown because the day before was Halloween.

(…I’m just sayin’…)

ANYWAY. Before you get all “but MY character has GREEN SKIN and lives on the MOON and doesn’t eat CHEESE so there’s NO WAY I could dress like him/her/it for a day!”, let me gently remind you that you are a writer and can use your imagination to get around these potential pitfalls. Srsly.

But really, have you ever considered it?

As weird as the concept might be, think of the last time you were writing a scene and got stuck. Maybe your main character wanted to do something completely different from what YOU wanted her to do. Maybe you had no idea what she would do. Maybe she decided she didn’t like your plot and stopped talking to you.

Why not step into her shoes to understand why?

Or better yet, try it during the character development phase. Set aside a few hours one afternoon, dress up like your character, and create a scenario. React how she/he would react, and when you’re done, record the differences or revelations you had during the process.

And if you want to make it really crazy and fun?

Get your whole writing group or critique group involved. Who said a character costume party is ridiculous? NO ONE, that’s who. (But if they did, you have my permission to give them the stink eye and send them cryptic Facebook messages until they go crazy with confusion and cave to the ultimate fact that you are, indeed, a literary genius and this is simply part of your METHOD and the kind of thing that completely sane people would do. Maybe. I think.)

Sooooo… anyone tried this before? Or am I just being completely loony here? (Which IS entirely possible, but I *do* have the group of people from several NaNos ago to back me up… really… they exist, I swear…!)