#CreativeWritingforPrimary#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters
All stories include characters and great characters engage readers. If you read up on developing characters, you’ll realize that often great characters are developed over time, as the audience gets to know them and learn to love (or hate) them. However, short stories don’t have a lot of time or words or pages to fully develop characters the way novels and movies do. So how can young writers use the principles of characterization in their writing? Well, the secret is in using every opportunity to help the audience know more about the character, to develop an emotional connection with them. And to do that, young writers have to use their words wisely.
Here are three things young writers must do well in order to make their characters memorable and believable.
1. Describe the characters in ways that creates an image in the mind of the reader.
This is like explaining who the person is – personality, looks, and behaviour altogether. The main thing here is to create an emotional reaction, not just a physical image in the mind of the reader. Show more than what the character looks like.
EXAMPLE – Andre was the kind of child everyone else in the class hoped to never meet alone on the playground. He was big and burly and the rest of us thought he must have been some kind of mutant teenager who got stuck in standard three.
2. Use dialogue to help readers learn more about the character.
The fact is that we judge people by the way they speak and the words they choose, so dialogue is an excellent way to bring characters to life and make them seem like real people. This also includes internal thoughts. Whether the story is from a first person perspective (writer is main character) or third person (writing about someone else) it puts readers in the head of the main characters and that’s a beautiful perspective to help them know who characters are, and what they think.
EXAMPLE: “Aye! Small head! Tankabean head!” Andre shouted from across the field. My first reaction was to ignore him. Of course he wasn’t talking to me. I tried to run in the opposite direction but somehow Andre had run 15 feet in 5 seconds. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and said, “Yes, is you ah talking to! Who else head small like marble and shape like a tankabean?” And with that, he pushed me to the ground, hard.
3. Use actions and behaviour to show who characters are.
Using descriptive words and imagery helps add to the readers’ mental picture of the characters. Compare the examples below to see how much of a difference this makes.
EXAMPLE 1: Andre ran after me.
EXAMPLE 2: Andre charged after me.
EXAMPLE 3: Andre charged after me like a raging bull.
EXAMPLE 4: Andre charged after me like a raging bull intent on impaling its victim.
It takes practice to develop writing skills like this, so be sure to have your child/student practice their writing regularly. And not just through responding to prompts, but guide them in targeted practice.
