Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

characterization

Writing workshop: taking the risk to grow as a writer

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A couple of weeks ago, my creative writing class held their monthly workshop.  I have ten students working on various writing forms: poetry, short story, prose essay and novel.  What I noticed is they did not seem to know what to tell each other.   Each one knew what he or she wanted from the others but did not have confidence that the others would want the same.  There were so many, “Hey, your story is just great.  I like all the comic moments.  You really made me laugh.”  No substance to the criticism.  No chance for growth.  And then big, bad teacher thing had to sit there and attack failing description, pages of telling without concrete, sensory imagery, dialogue that offered little characterization, weak construction and a complete disregard for punctuating dialogue and paragraphing.  These students know better.  So why the sudden regression?

This was the sixth workshop we had this year, and my students had gotten
over shyness and taking things personally.  But a new student joining
us from another school and choosing not to speak at all when poetry was
on the floor seemed to take a lot of the earned confidence away from
those who were gaining familiarity with the forms they felt less
comfortable with.

Turning the light on in workshop

Today we sat down and talked about what each writer wanted to know to improve the work submitted to the workshop.   There were some revealing moments.  There had been a real division between the poets and the prose writers, a strong belief that there was little they had in common.  But as they added to the list on the board that each wanted feedback on, so much turned out to be the same: imagery, purpose, viewpoint, consistency, tone, tense, timing, conventions.  Sure there were areas that had greater need:  my novelists needed to know that they were consistent with the details, and my poets’ main concerns were imagery and message.  But they still all needed this feedback to improve and most importantly wanted it.  By the end of our discussion there was a better sense of how not just to use the workshop to benefit oneself, but how to provide the best assistance to the other writers.

This one class discussion brought back the chance for growth in all of them and put a stop to the belief that there was any good reason to sit out when a less familiar form was needing feedback.  It is two weeks before our next workshop.  I will probably have a briefing the day before we start so they can recapture this new view of criticizing each genre and how they can assist their peers in growing as writers.

Tuesday prompt: #5 2013

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line in the road of my personal space

I posted this prompt at least a year ago on Twitter as I was posting writing prompts there. But I decided that there were plenty of other groups and individuals doing the same so I quit.  However, I really liked this prompt, so I am posting it here.

He leaned in to me, past the line I draw that says, “You’re too close.”

Tuesday prompt: #4 2013

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MASK, mask

Often people have a persona that covers their true self.  Take that idea of a mask and apply it to a character.  Design them with a strong personality, but beneath it have a second sense of self that is kept hidden. As you design these two sides (interior true self and exterior mask), try to have a few aspects cross between the two.  Both prefer to listen rather than speak first or both like the color blue.  The interior escapes from inside when it fits the exterior persona.

So the tough guy that throws knives so well is crazy about practicing darts before bed.

Tuesday prompt: #2 2013

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Today imagine yourself or a character doing a common activity, i.e., washing dishes.  In the process of this activity, have a mythological creature appear.  How would your character or you react to such an event? Write about it.

Spirit of the cave

For example: Let’s say you choose dish washing.  Imagine as the water was flowing out of the tap, you (or your character) realized the water was looking just like a foot disappearing down the drain as if a water spirit had flowed out of the tap.  What would happen?  Would you turn the water off or reach for the disposal switch?  Would you back away or grab for the foot.  Write out the scene and find out.

Tuesday prompt: #52 2012

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Success going up the ladder

Choose an idea: happiness, success, despair, governance, laziness or….  Give it human qualities (yes, personification) and let it wander through a room or down a road, take a seat at a desk or settle in comfortably against a tree along a byway.  Describe it thoroughly from the button on the top of its cap to the nails in the soles of its shoes.

Appearances are important to characterization

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Recently some of my students have been following the “scene” mode of styling their hair. I don’t fully understand the term, but it appears to be a kinder, gentler version of emo, not dark or requiring heavy makeup or dyed hair.  But it does create a look that tends to ride the edge of the norm.  So I was thinking how one day a student can look like the average girl next door, reliable, kind, quiet.  The next day she walks in and a statement is made that marks her as not one of the group, not the girl next door but the one across the street that people make up rumors about.  The girl that is not “bad” but is not greeted by everyone.

That is what characterization is.  Small shifts from the norm that make the character stand out with a certain image immediately created by a part in the hair made so far to the left that the bangs must lay low across the forehead. The long hair is all brought forward to the front, so a split occurs in the back at the neck line, as though the person only has a front she shows to everyone, the back similar to the facade of a building put up for a movie set.  The front looks real enough, but the back lacks all the depth of a real building.  This can be used to create character.  Certainly the real live girl, has depth, but in the novel or short story, such a “front” can act as a thin veneer hiding the reality within.  It builds mystery, which one might believe is the purpose of the “scene” image for these teenage girls I teach.