Happy Friday!
I’m excited to introduce the eighth episode of your Your Friday Funny!
This weekend I am heading off to a tango Festival in Miami. While it’s true that I am writing a book that concerns tango, it’s 70 plus degrees down there and I hope to get a little beach time in between tangos.

This exploration of our own identities is hard enough when we undertake self-improvement things like therapy, but to actually accept that our life experiences are the basic materials that will create the fabulous original jewelry of our characters and plots is a hard truth.
The application once you accept this truth is simple, but not easy: Write WHO you know.
Here’s an exercise that can help make this difficult process more fun.
- Set a timer for 10 minutes.
- Select a main character or obstacle.
- Decide which of the three types best describes them.
- Write for ten minutes about how they feel about great meal they had recently, the people they were with, and their experience with the servers through the filter of Passive, Noble or Aggressive.
- Make sure to describe how each event felt. Avoid lengthy descriptions.
- Put the work away when you’re done for a while.
- When you reread, ask yourself who this character reminds you of in your own life, and rewrite the exercise to reflect the real person.
I have found this fusion of real and imaginary characters very helpful because the characters feel “alive,” yet I’m not emotionally involved so I can be objective about them. Not judging your characters is critical.
Enjoy your weekend!
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz