An ABC for deriving characters from names and frames and lists
A
Names carry associations of place, trade and character. Adding a title can intensify the effect - Ms, Mr, Lady, Reverend etc.
Dickens exploited this to comic or satirical effect with Mrs Gamp, Sam Tappertit, Mr Gradgrind, Lady Dedlock.
Before showing either of the two illustrations by HM Brock to Dickens' 'Bleak House', read writers the caption or even some of the text. Then ask them to discuss what the scene and characters might look like. Then show them the illustrations and ask them:
Names carry associations of place, trade and character. Adding a title can intensify the effect - Ms, Mr, Lady, Reverend etc.
Dickens exploited this to comic or satirical effect with Mrs Gamp, Sam Tappertit, Mr Gradgrind, Lady Dedlock.
Before showing either of the two illustrations by HM Brock to Dickens' 'Bleak House', read writers the caption or even some of the text. Then ask them to discuss what the scene and characters might look like. Then show them the illustrations and ask them:
- who's who? why do you think that?
- what relationships are suggested here?
- what dialogue might there be?
- how else might this moment be illustrated?
B
Using the place names from a map to devise a possible cast list for plays and stories can help writers release their imagination - especially when the names are followed by a few descriptive words.
Bucks NWP enjoyed this exercise on 29 Jan 2015. Writing teachers found this a good way of starting into a narrative.
The process
1. They looked at the names on their scrap of map for 5 minutes and jotted down possible characters - ages - professions - circumstances - relationships - voices. From just the place-name one teacher created a sea captain with 'a jaw like the prow of a ferry.' This was enough of a mental image to launch her into a sustained narrative.
2. Then they chose one to develop for 20 minutes at greater length.
3. Then they shared and discussed.
Here is one example of the corresponding stages in the process of devising a 'character' from the map in the photograph:
1. Mrs Bunlarie - a cantankerous widow living in Scarsdale Villas - always complaining about the bus stop.
2. "Mrs Bunlarie was annoyed. Tired and annoyed. The letter was not what she expected - not what she deserved. In fact she thought that Dr McManners had no right to send it to her at all. She replaced it in its envelope and stood it on the mantlepiece ..."
3. Some writers felt that it might help to suggest a circumstance or feeling to 'situate' the character. Writers would be free to use or ignore this according to their taste. In fact, many reflected that having an idea to 'write towards' was helpful - even if you never got there! This is very different from the stipulation that 'you should include ..' which can hamper the freedom to 'go with the flow' and 'discover' a narrative with your own twists in your own words. Others noticed that a 'staged' process is useful: at each 'transition' the writer can choose to abandon ideas or run with them according to their own imagination's preference. This aspect would be worth discussing with pupils when they come to reflect on their writing process.
Using the place names from a map to devise a possible cast list for plays and stories can help writers release their imagination - especially when the names are followed by a few descriptive words.
Bucks NWP enjoyed this exercise on 29 Jan 2015. Writing teachers found this a good way of starting into a narrative.
The process
1. They looked at the names on their scrap of map for 5 minutes and jotted down possible characters - ages - professions - circumstances - relationships - voices. From just the place-name one teacher created a sea captain with 'a jaw like the prow of a ferry.' This was enough of a mental image to launch her into a sustained narrative.
2. Then they chose one to develop for 20 minutes at greater length.
3. Then they shared and discussed.
Here is one example of the corresponding stages in the process of devising a 'character' from the map in the photograph:
1. Mrs Bunlarie - a cantankerous widow living in Scarsdale Villas - always complaining about the bus stop.
2. "Mrs Bunlarie was annoyed. Tired and annoyed. The letter was not what she expected - not what she deserved. In fact she thought that Dr McManners had no right to send it to her at all. She replaced it in its envelope and stood it on the mantlepiece ..."
3. Some writers felt that it might help to suggest a circumstance or feeling to 'situate' the character. Writers would be free to use or ignore this according to their taste. In fact, many reflected that having an idea to 'write towards' was helpful - even if you never got there! This is very different from the stipulation that 'you should include ..' which can hamper the freedom to 'go with the flow' and 'discover' a narrative with your own twists in your own words. Others noticed that a 'staged' process is useful: at each 'transition' the writer can choose to abandon ideas or run with them according to their own imagination's preference. This aspect would be worth discussing with pupils when they come to reflect on their writing process.
C
Let's go on a list hunt! The two lists illustrated opposite come from two locations in London only 100 yards from each other. One is from a brass Thames-side war memorial - names of submarines lost in 1939-1945; the other is from a railway map of stations to Sevenoaks. There are interestingly different word patterns in the two lists. What lists can you find in your environment? What purposes do they anticipate in their readers? What notion and order hold them together? What stories do they tell? What situations, relationships, feelings and values do they provoke? Simon Wrigley NWP outreach director February 2015 |