Bridget Engman posted the following writing exercise as a challenge last
December 11. To the best of my knowledge, nobody submitted any responses. Since
a lot of new people have joined the list since then, and because we need a break
from the endless spamwars, I think it would be a good time to re-issue the
challenge. I hereby do so, and I hope that a lot of people will respond this
time.

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[Quoting Bridget Engman]

This is an exercise in characterization which I am calling "the people 
you love to hate."

It is a two-part exercise.

First, pick a character from any anime (or even make one up) that you 
hate.  Write a short scene involving that character in which you make the 
audience also hate that character.  (This probably won't work well in 
script form.)  Try to do so narratively, without speculating on the 
character; show it through actions, dialogue, and description instead of 
telling us.

Now take that same scene and rewrite it from that character's point of 
view.  Try to get inside the character's head and express how he/she/it 
sees him/her/itself.  Justify the actions.  

This exercise is supposed to help in characterization.  Sometimes it is 
too easy in characterizing someone unpleasant to make that unpleasantness 
superficial. (i.e.  Shampoo/Ranma/Nabiki is simply evil)  By delving into 
that character's motivations and opinions, you bring yourself and the 
audience closer to the character, giving it that much more depth.  It 
should also be useful in consciously making you think about point of 
view.  At least, I hope it'll do these things.  And, if nothing else, it 
should be fun.  That's what we're all about, ne?

Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics