When young writers describe characters, they almost universally make them flat goodie-goodies who might have problems, but little psychological depth. Or they don’t have enough conflict at all. Waggoner has students first write a character description, then pass that description to a neighbor. The neighbor is told to “do something mean to the character.” Then they pass it back and the writer must work with the problem that’s given — often a violent one. —Mike Arnzen describes a talk by Tim Waggoner. —Waggoner on Teaching Creative Writing (Pedablogue)
In order to limber up brain-dead students (after they have turned in a major assignment) I sometimes use something similar — a “tandem writing” exercise, modeled after what is almost certainly a fictional e-text that I first received in e-mail many years ago.
When I use it, I’m not so much intersted in what they do with their characters, but instead in getting them to see the value of having actual, significant opposition within their academic papers.
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Indeed. "Opposition within" is the key phrase...it helps students realize there are multiple pathways they can take in following through an idea, in addition to the "grant the opposition and move on" approach. It also has the side benefit -- usually -- of having students in the class bond as critics; this can carry over into peer editing and so forth. Thanks for the link to that essay at snopes.com!