Edited by Martin Cadwell, Sunday, 13 Apr 2025, 06:11
[ 7 minute read ]
This is not advice; only an opportunity to see something differently.
Most of the students studying 'Creative Writing' as part of their degree will have been exposed to courses in which they have been asked to develop a character; the OU is no different. Sooner or later, the A111 module will, in a few weeks time, ask us to develop a character; a plot; a place; and a bit more.
Earlier this year, I was on a writing course that indeed, did ask me to develop a character. It gave me some questions to ask of my character, as in what are they like. The student only had 1200 text characters in which to do this. I took the easy way out and developed a character in direct response to the questions. I can't remember the questions but I will attempt to reverse engineer my response to come up with some likely ones. I wanted to have one character (a man) describe another character, because I did not want to waste text characters on the background of the character being described (a woman). So, the description of the woman is bolstered or backed up by the way she is described. It is also practice for writing speech.
Here it is:
She
doubts herself
'She doubts herself at times but then, once she seems to get it
together she just can't help letting you know. Mind you, she is very
capable. The funny thing is though, for someone so small she can't
'arf make a big mess when she's angry...lot of tidying up to do
afterwards. She's a tornado. Funnily enough, that's what makes her
'appy; tidying up, I mean. And that's what she does when she is
happy, she sings; and she dances around her broom, and pulls faces
into puddles of spilt water and fallen spoons. I came into the
kitchen once when she didn't know. Singing away she was. Blimey!
You've never seen anything like it. Froze, she did. Solid. White.
Scared witless. Then she kind of deflated, like a balloon. From a
block of ice to a candle held too close to a fire. Melted, she did,
right down to the floor. I laughed and laughed. I couldn't help it.
I'd come home early from the pub. She couldn't work out why. Thought
she had done something wrong. So, she rises again, all pitiful and
about to cry but holding it in, like. Then she sits, all crumpled up
with her head in her hands. I could see she was sobbing, quiet like.
I couldn't understand it - she knows she's my bit 'o jam.'
(an east-London man in the lower end of the socio-economic scale describing someone in his household)
I ran out of text character spaces for the task on that course, so I added another section. This time, having exhausted my scope for the man's description, I chose to describe a person from another person's perspective, with the same limitation on text character usage.
Here it is:
'Quite
frankly, I cannot fathom why she is with him. He won't marry her. As
her mother, I was always the one she came to, but now its him. She's
stuck to him like a limpet. All I did was care for her and show
kindness, but him.....it's hot and cold with him. I suppose its the
making-up. You know, the contrast. He bought her a music box. It
doesn't even play anymore, but she winds it anyway and goes off in a
dream. She's completely forgotten he over-wound it and that she cried
for weeks; more than when her animals died in the fire. She can't
stand cruelty - unless it comes from him!
We went to the
sea-side last week, she and I. She absolutely loved the Punch and
Judy. I honestly thought she might die from laughing. But she can be
quite embarrassing. One of the donkeys was in the sea and....passed
wind. She pointed at it and shouted 'Ooh Look! Bubbles'. Helpless,
she was. I had to walk away from her; quite embarrassing. Tut!
Sometimes, she looks so sad. I asked her one day, "What's
wrong, Darling?". She didn't want to tell me. She just looked at
me. "Mother, I am scared he might leave me one day." It
reminded me of when our gaslights went out at home, and I found her
in the dark.'
- end -
Again, for me, I was combining writing speech with the task of describing the character. The two descriptions should be sufficient to cause the reader to recognise that the two descriptions are of the same person. In this second description, the reader understands that the woman does not come from the same socio-economic background as the man who described her in the first description. This, hopefully, added to the background of the described character. This is 'Show, don't tell'.
I think one of the questions was, 'What is your character like when angry?'
Another, 'What makes your character happy? Another, 'What does your character do when they are surprised?' Another, 'What is your character like when they are sad?'
What do they like? What do they do when they are happy? What makes them worry?
From this, I was able to insert, into a single sentence, three words, within a piece I had written years ago. It firmly lodged in my mind, the characteristics of the woman in that old piece.
Here it is:
Among the crowd and the cries of the hawkers; where the pickpockets
struck, a horse-drawn tram came to a faltering stop. From the rear,
into acrid gas-lit fog two men in black capes stepped down. They
paused and briefly looked about them, then moved towards a grimy two-storey building. The crowd parted. From an upstairs broken window
came porcine grunts. Inside, coins changed hands, but always the
shame remained in the smaller body. The clatter of clumsy footsteps
retreated down the stairs, paused, as an obsequious greeting was
muttered and then resumed. The two men stepped into the room causing
the pale woman to flinch and draw back. Her mouth formed a silent
'o'. She had a pen in her hand, torn paper, ink, a music box, and a
single flickering candle before her on a tiny, rickety table. Her
belly, once swollen, lay slack from recent childbirth. A flea jumped
from her washed-out blue shawl to her hair. She glanced into the
shadows at her baby and a tear formed in her eye.
- end -
That piece was written in response to being asked to write a reflective piece on good and bad places to write. The intent behind the question was to cause the students to consider their own spaces. I chose the easy way out through creativity and cheated the question. There were no points or marks available. Do not do the same when you are asked a similar question.
There is a trick that cinematographers use; moving the scene from outside to inside in order for the inner scene to have a place or background in time and social environment.
The last piece is an example of countless editing: adding; subtracting; rewrites; and punctuation checking. Another student on the course asked me whether a flea, in reality, can be seen jumping from the woman pale blue shawl. I doesn't matter. I never said it was noticed. The sentence is there to create a stop in the scene unfolding - only the flea moves. Silence making a statement.
Character Building
[ 7 minute read ]
This is not advice; only an opportunity to see something differently.
Most of the students studying 'Creative Writing' as part of their degree will have been exposed to courses in which they have been asked to develop a character; the OU is no different. Sooner or later, the A111 module will, in a few weeks time, ask us to develop a character; a plot; a place; and a bit more.
Earlier this year, I was on a writing course that indeed, did ask me to develop a character. It gave me some questions to ask of my character, as in what are they like. The student only had 1200 text characters in which to do this. I took the easy way out and developed a character in direct response to the questions. I can't remember the questions but I will attempt to reverse engineer my response to come up with some likely ones. I wanted to have one character (a man) describe another character, because I did not want to waste text characters on the background of the character being described (a woman). So, the description of the woman is bolstered or backed up by the way she is described. It is also practice for writing speech.
Here it is:
She doubts herself
'She doubts herself at times but then, once she seems to get it together she just can't help letting you know. Mind you, she is very capable. The funny thing is though, for someone so small she can't 'arf make a big mess when she's angry...lot of tidying up to do afterwards. She's a tornado. Funnily enough, that's what makes her 'appy; tidying up, I mean. And that's what she does when she is happy, she sings; and she dances around her broom, and pulls faces into puddles of spilt water and fallen spoons. I came into the kitchen once when she didn't know. Singing away she was. Blimey! You've never seen anything like it. Froze, she did. Solid. White. Scared witless. Then she kind of deflated, like a balloon. From a block of ice to a candle held too close to a fire. Melted, she did, right down to the floor. I laughed and laughed. I couldn't help it. I'd come home early from the pub. She couldn't work out why. Thought she had done something wrong. So, she rises again, all pitiful and about to cry but holding it in, like. Then she sits, all crumpled up with her head in her hands. I could see she was sobbing, quiet like. I couldn't understand it - she knows she's my bit 'o jam.'
(an east-London man in the lower end of the socio-economic scale describing someone in his household)I ran out of text character spaces for the task on that course, so I added another section. This time, having exhausted my scope for the man's description, I chose to describe a person from another person's perspective, with the same limitation on text character usage.
Here it is:
'Quite frankly, I cannot fathom why she is with him. He won't marry her. As her mother, I was always the one she came to, but now its him. She's stuck to him like a limpet. All I did was care for her and show kindness, but him.....it's hot and cold with him. I suppose its the making-up. You know, the contrast. He bought her a music box. It doesn't even play anymore, but she winds it anyway and goes off in a dream. She's completely forgotten he over-wound it and that she cried for weeks; more than when her animals died in the fire. She can't stand cruelty - unless it comes from him!
We went to the sea-side last week, she and I. She absolutely loved the Punch and Judy. I honestly thought she might die from laughing. But she can be quite embarrassing. One of the donkeys was in the sea and....passed wind. She pointed at it and shouted 'Ooh Look! Bubbles'. Helpless, she was. I had to walk away from her; quite embarrassing. Tut!
Sometimes, she looks so sad. I asked her one day, "What's wrong, Darling?". She didn't want to tell me. She just looked at me. "Mother, I am scared he might leave me one day." It reminded me of when our gaslights went out at home, and I found her in the dark.'
- end -
Again, for me, I was combining writing speech with the task of describing the character. The two descriptions should be sufficient to cause the reader to recognise that the two descriptions are of the same person. In this second description, the reader understands that the woman does not come from the same socio-economic background as the man who described her in the first description. This, hopefully, added to the background of the described character. This is 'Show, don't tell'.
I think one of the questions was, 'What is your character like when angry?'
Another, 'What makes your character happy?Another, 'What does your character do when they are surprised?'
Another, 'What is your character like when they are sad?'
What do they like? What do they do when they are happy? What makes them worry?
From this, I was able to insert, into a single sentence, three words, within a piece I had written years ago. It firmly lodged in my mind, the characteristics of the woman in that old piece.
Here it is:
Among the crowd and the cries of the hawkers; where the pickpockets struck, a horse-drawn tram came to a faltering stop. From the rear, into acrid gas-lit fog two men in black capes stepped down. They paused and briefly looked about them, then moved towards a grimy two-storey building. The crowd parted. From an upstairs broken window came porcine grunts. Inside, coins changed hands, but always the shame remained in the smaller body. The clatter of clumsy footsteps retreated down the stairs, paused, as an obsequious greeting was muttered and then resumed. The two men stepped into the room causing the pale woman to flinch and draw back. Her mouth formed a silent 'o'. She had a pen in her hand, torn paper, ink, a music box, and a single flickering candle before her on a tiny, rickety table. Her belly, once swollen, lay slack from recent childbirth. A flea jumped from her washed-out blue shawl to her hair. She glanced into the shadows at her baby and a tear formed in her eye.
- end -
That piece was written in response to being asked to write a reflective piece on good and bad places to write. The intent behind the question was to cause the students to consider their own spaces. I chose the easy way out through creativity and cheated the question. There were no points or marks available. Do not do the same when you are asked a similar question.There is a trick that cinematographers use; moving the scene from outside to inside in order for the inner scene to have a place or background in time and social environment.
The last piece is an example of countless editing: adding; subtracting; rewrites; and punctuation checking.
Another student on the course asked me whether a flea, in reality, can be seen jumping from the woman pale blue shawl. I doesn't matter. I never said it was noticed. The sentence is there to create a stop in the scene unfolding - only the flea moves. Silence making a statement.
This word count is 1247.