Character Development
January 1, 2008 … I’m not feeling creative today. I’ve tried letting my mind wander. It doesn’t get far and thinks of little interesting. Forcing creativity doesn’t work. It has to “just happen.”
I’ve been thinking about the writing seminar I attended in Taos. A lady who made her living as a storyteller presented it. She was in Taos with a group of storytellers. I can’t remember her name. She was a chubby little Jewish lady from New Jersey. Her accent was a key component of her personality, story telling and teaching. She was very entertaining. The seminar was the day after the show.
Taos is a hotbed of artistic types; writers, artists, craftsmen – most of them quite well to do. I was a bit intimidated but did gather a lot of interesting information. She presented an approach to gathering subject matter for writing personal memoirs. The first exercise was to make a list of everyone you have ever known. I’m still working on that exercise, intermittently.
The next exercise was to make a list of every place you have ever been. It was interesting and stirred a lot of group discussion. Being a senior citizen and retired military, I have traveled a lot. I’m still working intermittently on that exercise as well. It will remain a work in progress.
When she finally told us to select an interesting person in our lives and create a web of personal characteristics about that person, I saw how her process worked. Creating interesting antecdotes about all the interesting people you know goes on forever. It is her method of character development and I like the idea. My interesting person was my dad. That was fun. It was also a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Wish I had not procrastinated so long in applying the method to my writing.
Were my mom still alive, she would be 88 on the third of January. Special times like birthdays are good excuses to spend some time developing a character. The storyteller’s character development method requires a handwritten chart -- “The Web of Anecdotes.” The selected character is the center of a hub with each anecdote leading away from the hub as a spoke. Since I can barely read my own writing, my “Web of Anecdotes” is usually developed as a bulleted list of anecdotes (characteristics) beneath the subject character. Maybe I should break here and spend some time developing mom.
Life is getting in the way of art anyway. Character Wife and Character Grandson are trying to develop me. Biscuits and gravy is my newest number one priority. :)
l8r
I’ve been thinking about the writing seminar I attended in Taos. A lady who made her living as a storyteller presented it. She was in Taos with a group of storytellers. I can’t remember her name. She was a chubby little Jewish lady from New Jersey. Her accent was a key component of her personality, story telling and teaching. She was very entertaining. The seminar was the day after the show.
Taos is a hotbed of artistic types; writers, artists, craftsmen – most of them quite well to do. I was a bit intimidated but did gather a lot of interesting information. She presented an approach to gathering subject matter for writing personal memoirs. The first exercise was to make a list of everyone you have ever known. I’m still working on that exercise, intermittently.
The next exercise was to make a list of every place you have ever been. It was interesting and stirred a lot of group discussion. Being a senior citizen and retired military, I have traveled a lot. I’m still working intermittently on that exercise as well. It will remain a work in progress.
When she finally told us to select an interesting person in our lives and create a web of personal characteristics about that person, I saw how her process worked. Creating interesting antecdotes about all the interesting people you know goes on forever. It is her method of character development and I like the idea. My interesting person was my dad. That was fun. It was also a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Wish I had not procrastinated so long in applying the method to my writing.
Were my mom still alive, she would be 88 on the third of January. Special times like birthdays are good excuses to spend some time developing a character. The storyteller’s character development method requires a handwritten chart -- “The Web of Anecdotes.” The selected character is the center of a hub with each anecdote leading away from the hub as a spoke. Since I can barely read my own writing, my “Web of Anecdotes” is usually developed as a bulleted list of anecdotes (characteristics) beneath the subject character. Maybe I should break here and spend some time developing mom.
Life is getting in the way of art anyway. Character Wife and Character Grandson are trying to develop me. Biscuits and gravy is my newest number one priority. :)
l8r
posted by Warren, Dad, Papa at 3:12 PM
1 Comments:
Gostei muito desse post e seu blog é muito interessante, vou passar por aqui sempre =) Depois dá uma passada lá no meu site, que é sobre o CresceNet, espero que goste. O endereço dele é http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . Um abraço.
Post a Comment
<< Home