DAY 5 TOPICS

Spotlight WorkshopsCharacter Development

SPOTLIGHT WORKSHOPS

5 JULY

HOLIDAY

6 JULY

PRE-WORKSHOP

7 JULY

1. MONICA2. JEANIE

8 JULY

3. JACK4. KENNY

12 JULY

5. MARK6. MARIAH

13 JULY

7. BETH8. JOLENE

14 JULY

9. DAN10. DERIK

15 JULY

11. SHAWN12. GUS

19 JULY

13. TIM14. KATE

20 JULY

15. PAUL16. JUSTIN

21 JULY

17. KYLE18. TAMIE

Writer’s Notebook: Share Something

Share one or more new entries with your partner.

Prepare to be solicited: volunteersthe habitually modest

WRITING EXERCISE

JR 14: SHARE Rough Character Idea

Commit to a rough idea of who your main character is. Don't worry about the details or the storyline, at this point in time: simply tell me a bit about her/him.

REVEALING CHARACTER Showing versus Telling (i.e., scene versus exposition)

SHOWING WINS!!!! 

In real life, you don't sit down and lay out the beautiful and ugly things about yourself all at once. Intricacies revealing beauty and ugliness are revealed gradually.

Showing gives the reader more with which to engage actively.

FOUR METHODS

SHOWING A CHARACTER'S TRAITS

ACTION SPEECH

APPEARANCETHOUGHT

All four work together to create the symphony that is your character.  In real life, we experience people in a variety of ways, often simultaneously, and mixing the methods, as writers, recreates this sense of reality.

 The strings, winds, brass, and percussion of an orchestra unite into a harmonious or purposeful discordant whole: in writing fiction, you are the composer who must unite the discordant sounds into a harmonious whole.

POINTS OF VIEW

1st:  I, we 2nd:  you, you          3rd:  he, she, it, they, Marita Cruz

advantages and disadvantagesfreedom and limitations

FIRST-PERSON POV

subjective distinctive way of voicing the narrator’s

world I: “Cathedral” is Bub’s story—not some narrator’s story about

Bub

we: “A Rose for Emily” is the town’s story—not some narrator’s story about the towns people and a woman

extremely limiting: why?

SECOND-PERSON POV

risky perspective:calls attention to itself as technique

(metafiction)filled with presumption

Minot’s “Lust”—I to you

Hemmingway’s “XII”—invites reader to experience the thrill of a bullfight

THIRD-PERSON POV

subjective objective omniscient

The three perspectives do not necessarily exist separately: they are a writer’s primary colors.

WRITING EXERCISE

JR 17: Third-Person Point of View

Write in third-person POV: your character sees his or her own reflection.

challenge yourself: do not use a mirror.

 

WRITING EXERCISE

JR 18: First-Person Point of View

Scroll down so you are unable to see JR 17.Write in first-person point of view: recreate the

same scene.

What are the differences between 1st- and 3rd-person points of view, rhetorically speaking?

 

RHETORICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN POINTS OF VIEW

FIRST-PERSON POINT OF VIEW ASSUMPTIONS

reliability is questioned "biased" and, therefore,

skewed representation is provided

showing lens: the main character is the camera—can only see what the camera sees

the reader can only know what the character knows  

THIRD-PERSON POINT OF VIEW ASSUMPTIONS

"reliable" perspective "fair" representation is

provided showing lens: the camera

considers the whole scene with the main character as part of the whole

the reader can know what the character doesn't (i.e., there is license for the writer to fill in the blanks via exposition)

the main character's thoughts are not easily inserted in scenes

WRITING EXERCISE

JR 19: Interrupting/Jump Starting Action

a.  Cut and paste either your first-person or third-person POV segment in the new journal entry space.

b.  Add to the scene by having someone interrupt your character via action and dialogue.

WRITING EXERCISE

JR 20: “Boys and Girls”

You have the remainder of the class to respond to the title “Boys and Girls.” Write as much as you can, as quickly as you can.