Writing Exercise

I've decided that the aspect of my writing I want to work on next is characterization, and so I've devised a little exercise to start with. I'm going to create five different characters from various backgrounds. For each character I'll write their introductory paragraph five times, each time with them in a different occupation. My hope is that this will help me see how the characters remain the same and how they change, given that one variable.

I think it will also give me a little practice introducing characterization through different methods. What is the character's essential view, and how is it expressed when tempered by or applied to different areas? A cop will see things differently than a crook, but a single character could be faced with the choice of going either way. How would that decision, as well as the occupation it led them into, change their characterization?

I hope to have some interesting results. I'm going to take it character by character, but I'll share the results on Friday, and see what I've learned from the experiment. At the very least, I'll probably get some story ideas out of it! :D