Creative writing: 1. character

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Creative writing: 

Character

Testweek: creative writing

Upcoming weeks:

1. character development
2. dialogue
3. showing versus telling
4. powerful descriptions
5. setting and atmosphere
6. short short stories

Today's goal:Create an interesting fictional character.

• who could be the main character in the story you will write in your testweek test. 

You need your  notebook. 

Think of a name for the following characters and add what kind of person he/she is? 

(social, intelligent, impatient, mysterious etc)

Kaitlin Armstrong Found Guilty in Murder of the Cyclist Moriah Wilson. 

people.com

Next: video "how to develop characters"

While you watch: make notes

You are going to continue in the Of Course Online environment.

• somtoday - leermiddelen - Of Course - class code: 000350
• Do § 1.1 Reading & Listening "opdracht 2" t/m "opdracht 6" + "opdracht 10" 
• "Opdracht 10":  write the correct answers in your book. (page 12) = to help you memorise vocabulary.

• Do "opdracht 11 a " online.
  
• Finished? If you made a mistake: write the correct sentence in your book. 
• Time left? Study vocab page 54+55. You can use the "woordtrainer" 

What do we learn about these 3 men?

<div>Mr Ross</div>Mr. Vandemar
<div>Mr. Croup</div>

swagger: opscheppen

www.storybuzz.com

• Mr. Ross: huge, grubby, quite hairless, a filthy T-shirt, crusted blue jeans. He liked to kill things and he was good at it. (but Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar are amused by this, implying that they are much worse)
  
• Mr Croup: small, blue eyes, likes words, wears an elegant black suit
• Mr Vandemar: tall, brown eyes, rings (made of raven skulls), always hungry, wears an elegant black suit

grubby = dirty

In "Beloved", Toni Morrison gives us a haunted house as a character: "124" (full name: "124 Bluestone Road") who later in the novel will incarnate as the ghostly "Beloved".

We get a little bit of external description of the house (it's "gray and white"), but mostly it's the "soul" of the house we get to know: "spiteful", "full of a baby's venom", "the lively spite the house felt for them". 

The description of "Dill" (full name "Charles Baker Harris") from Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is done completely through dialogue.

In the back and forth between Dill and Jem, we get just enough physical description. Dill is very small, seven years old, but small enough to be four-and-a-half years old. Mostly we get Dill's precocious spirit.

Fun fact: Dill was based on Truman Capote who was a childhood friend of Harper Lee.

How to find ideas?

Now create your own character!

Write about your charachter. 

Make your character interesting. 

Give your character an object. 

Make your character speak. 

Make your character do something.

Your writing could be a start of a story. 

Or in the middle of a story.  

www.storybuzz.com

Can't think of a name?

Need inspiration?

Use the website on the next slide... 

blog.reedsy.com

Let's dive a little deeper

Another example:

Luke Skywalker’s Want is to escape his lonely orphaned adolescence and find a life of meaning and purpose in the larger galaxy. 

Luke Skywalker’s need is to overcome the fear and anger that tempt him into darkness.

What is Katniss Everdeen's want?
And what is her need?

What is your character's want?
What is your character's need?

Happy end? 

A powerful way to end your story is to confront your protagonist with their flaw, by giving them a choice between their ‘want’ and their ‘need’.

• If your character sacrifices their want and chooses their need, then they will ultimately be fulfilled.
• However, if they shun their need and seize their want, then they will be doomed to continue in misery.
• Either ending is fine, depending on whether you want a happy ending or a sad one.