Creating Characters

Creating Characters 8th Grade, ILA

How should I start? • There are many traits, characteristics and influences to consider when creating your own fictional character. • Think about the difference between showing (indirect) and telling (direct). • You will need to ask yourself many questions as a way to guide your thinking. • The slides which follow will help you think about how to begin creating a character, and how to develop him or her into a 3-D, fully developed person.

Indirect characterization • When teaching an audience about your character using indirect characterization, you will show the audience what the character is like by using the STEAL method: • Speech: What does the character say? How does the character speak? • Thoughts: What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings? • Effect on other characters/effect of other characters on your character: What is revealed through the character’s effect on other people? How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to your character? • Actions: What does the character do? How does the character behave? • Looks: What does the character look like? How does the character dress? Readers must infer things about your character when using indirect characterization.

Indirect characterization • In “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, the poet shows us certain aspects of the father’s personality through the eyes of his son. We must infer what they tell us about him. “Sundays too my father got up early/and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,/then with cracked hands that ached/from labor in the weekday weather made/banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him” (400). What do you infer about the father from this stanza?

Direct characterization • When using direct characterization, you, the author, will tell your audience specific details about your character. The reader does not have to make inferences because you clearly define aspects of your character. • When describing Mr. Brown, the pilot on the steamer Pennsylvania, Twain writes: “He was a middle-aged, long, slim, bony, smooth-shaven, horse-faced, ignorant, stingy, malicious, snarling, fault-hunting, mote magnifying tyrant” (101). • This is direct characterization! Why? • What do you know about Mr. Brown after reading this passage?

Questions, questions, questions! • The following slides will give you specific questions to ask yourself as you begin to imagine your own character. • This week you will develop a character. Make him or her interesting and fully developed. • These questions will help you with that. • Write these questions in your notes.

Where does your character live? • Michael Adams, a novelist and professor, believes that setting is the most important element of any story. Character and story grow out of a sense of place. • In what country, town, or universe does your character live? • Does he live alone or with a family? In a trailer park or a fancy estate? • How did he end up living there? • How does he feel about it?

Where is your character from? • Along the same lines, think about where your character’s life began. • Did she grow up running around the woods in a small Southern town, or conjugating Latin verbs in a London boarding school? • This will influence the kinds of people your character knows, the way she speaks, and the way she feels about the world around her.

How old is your character? • This seems like a simple question, but it is important to make a decision about this before you create your character. The details of your character will need to align with their age. • For example, depending on age he may have a cell phone, or prefer a land line. • Does your character drink Snapple or chocolate milk? • Does he depend on his parents for money? Or is he self-sufficient? • Does he carry his iPod or his stuffed teddy bear?

What is your character’s name? • According to novelist ElinorLipman, “Names have subtext and identity. If your main characters are Kaplans, you’ve got a Jewish novel. If your hero is Smedley Winthrop, III, you’ve given him a trust fund” (About.com). • Your character's name tells the readers a lot about him. • It can reveal information about his ethnicity. • It can reveal information about his background, planet of origin, even his social class.

What does your character look like? • There are many ingredients that go into creating what a character looks like such as age, gender, ethnicity, race, etc. • Is your character tall enough to see over the heads of a crowd at a concert or to notice the dust on the top of a refrigerator? • Does she deal with weight issues? • Is she a body builder? • Create a clear picture in your mind of what you want your character to look like so that you can develop the right details for readers to have an accurate picture.

What kind of childhood did or is he having? • Much of our personality and many of our ideas are determined by our background. When developing your character, ask yourself specific questions about your character’s background to guide your thinking. • Do his parents’ have a good marriage? Is there a lot of arguing at home? • Is he being raised by a single parent? • How does he interact with other people? This may be influenced by his past or present experiences. • He may be confident; he may feel stable or rootless; he may be shy or outgoing. These traits can be a result of his upbringing.

What does your character do? • These details could influence the plot of a story – or the other way around. Your character’s activities could be the result of a story plot line. • You will need to have some idea about what your character does. • A dancer will view the world differently than an alien. • A Southern belle will use different vocabulary than a Russian spy. • What we do impacts the way we view the world – this should be true of your character, too.

How does your character deal with conflict or change? • All stories need a conflict, so your character needs to be imagined by you as a participant in some element of change or conflict. • Is your character passive or active? • Does she avoid conflict and artfully change the subject? • Does she stomp off and have a temper tantrum? • Does she quickly go to her room and do some yoga exercises? • Does she keep a journal or call a friend? • Does she eat gummy worms until she makes herself ill?

Who else is in your character’s life? • Interactions with other people can reveal a lot about your character. • Dialogue between two characters can tell a reader a lot about the character. • What kinds of people would be in your character’s life based on the other decisions you have made about him such as where he grew up, where he went/goes to school, and his family background?

What is your character’s goal or motivation? • When creating a character you need to ask yourself questions about motivation from time to time. • Many of your character’s actions will result from the what she is trying to do, from her personality, and from any conflicts she may encounter. • Think about the questions you have already answered when creating your character. Those answers will help you answer questions about her motivation or goal.

Have fun! • Create an interesting character! • Create one who changes and grows ~ a dynamic character. • Avoid developing a character that is singly focused on one characteristic or interest and does not seem flexible enough to change no matter what may happen to him ~ a static or flat character. • Show us aspects of your character through indirect characterization. • Tell us about your character through direct characterization.

Giving credit where credit is due! Works Cited About.com: Fiction Writing. “Style/Technique: Top 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters.” October 12, 2013. <http:fictionwriting.about.com>. Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays.” Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Twain, Mark. “Cub Pilot on the Mississippi.” Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Creating Characters