Part III, Developing Characters

Who is going to be in our story? This is really the fun part of our story. We get to make up people from scratch. That's fun.

When we make up a person, we want to take many different ideas about the person into consideration.

If you are in an elementary school, then each grade level should be responsible for making up one character. If you are in a middle school or high school, then different groups of classes should be responsible for a character.

Your story might have 8 characters.

• Main Good Character
• Main Character's side kick
• Main Bad Character (protagonist)
• Main Bad Character's side kick
• Other individual related to the story
• Other individual related to the story
• Other individual related to the story
• Other individual related to the story

Of course it's your story. You can do anything you want. You can have just one character, or 25. You may want to have no side kicks at all. I just want to give you some ideas to help you out. Do what is best for you.

Is the person (our character) the good person or the bad person. Are they the main character, the main character's buddy, or just a character that is mentioned or seen a couple of times. What do we know about the character? What will the reader know about the character, and how do we reveal the characteristics of our character over time?

We are going to brainstorm about the characteristics of our character. We should and will know our character(s) very well. But remember, as we write the story we want our character to learn and to change. A good story has characters that learn, and change.

An Exercise,,,,,,,,What are we?

In your classroom, pick one student and have them stand up in front of the class. Ask the students in the class what they know about Suzy. Write down each and every response on the chalk board for everyone to see. Also, it will help if a volunteer writes down everything that you write down. You will probably get responses like the following;

• Suzy is nice.
• Suzy is short.
• Suzy likes to talk.
• Suzy gets good grades.
• Suzy has red hair.
• Suzy likes sports.
• Suzy has lots of friends.

Usually, this is about all we get. On average, a class will come up with about 8 to 15 characteristics about a classmate. Now is the time to ask the class, "What didn't you tell me about Suzy?" Most often, there are some very obvious and easy characteristics that have been left out that no one even thought to mention. Things like;

• Suzy has a family.
• Suzy lives with her Mother
• Suzy has two sisters
• Suzy lives two miles from the school
• Suzy takes the bus to school
• Suzy wants to be a rocket scientist
• Suzy is Black.
• Suzy has black hair.
• Suzy is 10 years old.
• Suzy likes to go to the park on the weekends and play basketball.
• Suzy studies after school to get good grades.
• Suzy likes to talk on the phone.
• Suzy's Mom works at the telephone company.
• Suzy thinks that Rush Limbaugh is a jerk.
• Suzy wants to go to college.
• Suzy doesn't like to keep her room clean.
• Suzy is a student.
• Suzy lives in North Carolina.

We can go on and on. That is the point, to go on and on and on. When brainstorming, we can get lots of ideas, and that is the goal. We can always cut back ideas, but we can't cut what we don't have.

When brainstorming characters people should think of themselves and remember the hundreds of attributes that make up their own personalities. Yes, hundreds if not thousands.

In the case of Suzy, most of the time, students will not mention that Suzy is a Student. Sure, they know it, but they didn't mention it and it's something that Suzy spends 7 hours a day, Monday through Friday doing,,,,,being a student. That's an important part of her life.

Usually, students won't say, "Suzy lives in North Carolina." This is very important too. She could live in Waco, Texas. How would that effect her life? She could live in Mexico. How would that effect the reader's idea of what Suzy's life is like?

After the class has come up with ten to fifteen characteristics, have them continue to come up with characteristics until they have at least 35 to 40. Then let them know that there are still hundreds of others that they have not considered. Just to let them know.

Now, look at your four sentence story summary, and figure out which character you are responsible for creating. If it is just your classroom and you have to come up with all of the characters, then maybe you want to break the class into groups, and have each group be responsible for a certain character. Have fun.

Change in the Character.

Think about some of the best stories you've ever seen. Take the Hobbit for instance. Bilbo Baggins starts out as a wimp. As he goes from adventure to adventure, he learns about life, he matures and he becomes strong, confident, and responsible. At the end of the Hobbit, the reader feels good that Bilbo has become a better person.

Think about a good mystery. Have you ever been convinced that Mrs. X is a totally good person, but then you see little by little that she is the most evil thing that ever walked the face of the earth. Characters going through changes in your story makes the story more interesting to the reader, and sure, everyone wants to tell a story, but if it is not interesting, then people won't read it.

What do the Characters Look Like.

You have a physical description of your character. Now it's time to have your class or subgroups draw pictures of the character. Have them make the character and hang their pictures on the wall. This makes the character real to your classroom.

That's it for now. Next we are going to look at our story line (four sentence story summary) and then create the goals of our characters. Once we have the goals, then we will be able to create our minor and major problems.