Today’s Agenda
• Indirect Characterization Mini-lesson
• Character Development
• I can develop my character by using indirect
characterization.
Characterization
How Do I Make My Characters
Come To Life?
How do Authors develop
character?
1. By creating a clear mental
concept of the character
2. By selecting one major and two
or three minor character traits
3. By presenting these character
traits effectively
Senses
• Your reader must use all the
senses to “see” your character.
– Hear
– See
– Taste
– Feel
– Smell
Aunt Tiny had a laugh as rich and flaky as
biscuits and gravy. She wore gorgeous clothes
– reds so bright and whites so pure and
spanking clean. She would fix ribs, baking
them slow in the oven, and serve them with
red beans and steaming rice. She cooked the
beans slow, too, with giant slabs of clove-
studded onion.
from Yolanda’s Genius by Carol Fenner
Tiny’s hands were pretty as Momma’s, only her
nails were very long, squared-off at the tips,
and polished shiny red. She ate with delicate
bites, nibbling daintily, mincing her way
through rib after rib, wiping her mouth with
her napkin, not getting any of the barbecue
sauce on her blindingly white slacks. She
smelled wonderfully of perfume and food.
When she surrounded Yolanda in a big, soft
hug, Yolanda could have stayed there forever,
inhaling Aunt Tiny’s sweetness.
from Yolanda’s Genius by Carol Fenner
• The author appeals to all of our
senses in providing this portrait of
Aunt Tiny. She invites us to…
•hear her laugh
•see her bright clothes
•smell her perfume
•feel the warmth of her hug
•taste her cooking, nibble ribs
These selected details allow us to fill in the
rest of the picture.
We know from this description that Aunt Tiny
is warm, friendly and feminine.
Yolanda loves her.
The author does not tell us any of this
directly, but we know it because we have a
living, moving picture of Aunt Tiny in our
minds. The author SHOWS us!
Gestures
Gestures are something that we use every day.
• when a kindergarten girl feels shy, she takes a
piece of hair, puts it in her mouth and begins
to chew.
• a boy makes a fantastic goal and shows his
excitement by reaching up and pulling down,
hard on an imaginary rope as he cries,
“Yessss!”
Gestures are physical motions made by people.
Describing a particular gesture is one of the best
ways to bring a character to life.
• Christopher Paul Curtis uses gesture to develop the
mother’s character in his novel, The Watsons Go to
Birmingham.
• The book is narrated by a boy named Kenny, who
describes the mother making this gesture:
– “Momma put her hand over her mouth. She did this
whenever she was going to smile because she had a
great big gap between her front teeth.”
At the end of the novel, a bomb explodes in a church
in Birmingham, Alabama. At first, the mother fears
that her daughter was in the church when it got
bombed. Now Kenny returns to that gesture:
– “Momma was so upset that she even forgot to cover
the space in her front teeth.”
Internal Monologue
• Sometimes an author may have the
character silently speak without
saying any actual words.
• These are not found in quotation
marks.
• They are the character’s thoughts.
The Palominos were down to their last three
strikes. Ted walked up to the plate and stood
outside the batter’s box, using the bat to bang
dirt out of his cleats.
“No batter, no batter,” the catcher
snorted. Ted ignored him and looked up at the
scoreboard. 3-3, bases loaded, bottom of the
seventh. He looked out at the mound where
Cliff Proctor glared back at him. They were
both in the ninth grade, but already there was
a dark mustache above Cliff’s sneering upper
lip. The kid looked closer to twenty than
fifteen years old. He let fly a big glob of
spittle and pounded his glove.
from The Palominos by Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi
Don’t forget to breathe, Ted said to himself as
he stepped into the batter’s box. Relax. Get
Comfortable. This kid throws hard but wild.
Don’t do him any favors by swinging at a bad
pitch. Make him throw strikes. The bases are
jammed – a walk is as good as a home run.
You’re not going to get any offspeed junk from
this kid. No way. He’s too cocky for that. This
kid’s gonna bring his fastball and nothing but.
C’mon, Cliff Proctor, I’m ready. Show me your
heat.
from The Palominos by Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi
Considerations in Creating Character
• Create a meaningful, interesting
problem for the character, one that
holds possibilities for you as a writer
and one you can imagine.
• Choose a name that fits the family
background and setting and doesn’t take
over or distract from the story.
• Choose an age you can imagine.
• Choose a family background you can
imagine, plus one that will support the
development of the problem.
• Choose a setting you know well enough
to describe in accurate, believable
detail.
Considerations in Creating Character
• Choose favorite things for the character to do
to reveal what he or she is like and that fit
with each other and the character.
• Let the plot grow from the tensions created by
the character’s problem.
• Make the change in the character believable
and consistent with his or her personality and
life.
• Make the resolution believable and consistent
with who the character is and with the
personalities of the supporting characters,
especially those with whom the main
character is in conflict.
• Keep the main character true to himself:
consider, at every step, would this person act
this way?
So…what elements bring a
character to life?
• Character Words
• Character Thoughts
• Character Actions
• Character Feelings
• How the Character Responds or
Reacts to other Characters
• What the Author Tells the Reader
About the Character.
Main Character Questionnaire
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
What is your name?
How old are you?
What is the problem you are facing?
What is your family background?
Where do you live?
What do you like to do?
What is different about you?
What do you care about?
What do you fear?
What are your dreams?
Who are the important people in your life?
What are the important things in your life?
How will you change through confronting your
problem?
14. What will you know or understand about yourself or
your world at the end of the story?
Know Your Character Before
You Start to Write
• Once you have a good idea of who your
main character is, you will find it easier to
write about how your character reacts to
different situations in your story.
Happy Writing!