Sunday, August 22, 2010

Assignment 5-Character

Out of all the Institute of Children's Literature assignments, I think this one has helped me the most so far.
I've had a terrible time trying to create a character. With this lesson I was to observe a child and then describe this child to my instructor. I learned how to use strong descriptions. The second part of the lesson I was to create a personality for this character. It was easier to do this with a child I wasn't familiar with.

I went to a girl's basketball ball game and had several"characters" I could choose from. When it came to writing the personality part, I had free reign to have her do what I wanted her to do.

After this assignment I took my notebook where ever there was going to be a crowd. I have since picked up many other characters.

Then after I had my characters created I could put them into stories or just let them tell me their stories.

I had heard of authors saying they "talk" to their characters or their characters talked to them. This had never happened to me before this lesson. Now all those characters I have "picked up " are clamoring for attention.

Oh, Jaxon is calling to me and we haven't been able to talk to each other until now, so if you' excuse me...

2 comments:

Patricia J. Weaver said...

your sooooo funny but I'm glad Jaxon is talking to you again.

Irene Latham said...

Happy for you and Jaxon! And for all those other characters too. It takes me a loooong time to get to know my characters... just takes time. Keep at it!