A. LaFaye's Blog: Word Wanderings Rest Stop - Posts Tagged "character-development"

Developing your writing style requires experimenting, so I'm writing my blog Twitter style. Revision advice 1 Tweet at a time.#RevBlog

1. Re-envision. See your manuscript in new ways. Write from another character’s POV. Write a poem in response to the 1st draft.

2. Go Draftless. Set the first draft aside and rewrite it to see what new discoveries you can make. Meld them later. Or not.

3. Go Poetic. Do a poetic weed. All active verbs. Cut conjunctions, articles, adverbs, abstract words. Focus on concrete imagery.

4. Pass On(e):Address one element each pass through—character, then plot, then imagery, then active voice, style, tension...

5. Expand: Look for expansion joints, places where your story or poem can grow-backstory? Steps in the story that are told vs. shown...

6. Contract: Where is your literary weight off? The space dedicated to an image, character, scene should be equal to its importance.

7. Voice: Have you employed as sense or orality & originality in your narrative voice. What does your work see say, others don’t?

8. Slant: Is your dialogue character specific? Does it slant to suggest things that aren’t on the page, but happened between the characters?

9. Once More With Conviction: Does your work unfold to reveal its theme vs. state it directly? Go for the reveal.

10. It’s Mine. All Mine. Make the work your own. Unique characters. Plot in unexpected directions. Use images that brings irony to new levels.

Want to know more about any of the topics in this #RevBlog? Stop by the blog on Goodreads and ask a question.

Tweeting Poetry Pen Pals

1. Establish a connection with another classroom. You can find a teacher/classroom willing to tweet poetry via Twitter. You can search for classrooms by grade.

2. Exchange contact information and plan out your shared unit via e-mail or in a phone conference. What are your goals? What schedule do you want to follow? Plan objectives, dates, assessments. Here is a website with lesson plan suggestions:
Poetry Lesson Plan


3. Prepare students for the first assignment: Suggested: Me Poems. Read examples of autobiographical poems. For example:
"Good Luck Gold" by Janet Wong


4. As them to write their own autobiographical poem using an exercise like this one:

Poetry Exercise:

1. Write an I-statement using a simile or a metaphor

I am like a tiger, my voice roars. simile

My voice is a tiger roar. metaphor

2. Write an I-have-statement (You can vary the verb)

I live in a jungle of books, dangling clothes, and animal filled drawings.

3. Write an I-want-statement

I’m hunting for a friend to join me on safari.

4. Put the statements together into a poem.

My voice roars like a tiger. I live in a jungle of books, dangling clothes, and animal filled drawings. I’m hunting for a friend to join me on safari.

5. Do character count, then revise for length.

Original 151
Revision:
My voice is a tiger roar. Welcome to my jungle of dangling clothes, and animal-filled drawings. Join me on safari, my friend. (126)

6. Workshop the poems in small groups of 4-5 kids. Have them offer feedback, revise, then resubmit. Kids will vote on their favorite poems in each group once they’re revised. Tweet the nominated poems to your Poetry Pen Pal classroom.

Here’s a helpful guide to using the Writer’s Workshop Model:
Writing Workshop Guide


7. Read the poems you receive from the other class. Assign one poem to each group. You can have them tweet questions, suggestions, comparisons to themselves.

8. Assess their learning. Here is a website on assessing the pen pal experience:
Pen Pal Assessment


You can also share videos of book reports, exchange poems about the place that you live, books that you love to read, the subjects are limitless.

If you use this unit in your classroom, please share your experience in the comments here or on my FB page
A. LaFaye Author Page
Or on my Twitter feed @artlafaye

Thank you!

I'm always open to improvements and suggestions and questions!


Fifth Grade Examples of Core Standards Addressed in This Unit
Text Types and Purposes:
CSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 5 here.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.6
With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.

Summer is often about going light and airy--shorts and a breezy blouse, a salad or a slice of watermelon, a book on the beach with your toes in the sand, so let's take that route through character development. Better yet, let's approach it with another summer pass time in mind, golf-- a character course in nine holes.

We'll take this course one hole at a time, adding a new hole a day!

Hole One: The Clubs You Bring Onto the Course AKA Backstory
In golf, you're swinging to hit the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible using different clubs, judging the lay of land, and doing the legwork to get that ball to the flag. Characters can work much the same way. You to create them in as few strokes as possible using the best tools and covering the distance from first page to last by judging the lay of the land in the fictional world that unfolds as you write it.

For your first tee shot, it's all about the clubs you bring onto the course and the metaphor is apt in more ways than one. In creating a character with compelling backstory, you have to remember that much of that character's story remains "under the rim" of the bag and the surface of the story until you pull a club out to take a swing. And each part of that story as a different purpose in your story like a driver is much different than a putter. With emotional situations that are raw and real and lead your character rash action, they are swung hard and fast like a driver. Emotional issues that are delicate and require diplomacy, you swing slow and easy with great care and aim like a putter.

For me, I come to the course with my bag of clubs aka backstory, but I allow my subconscious to choose the clubs. I just pick the bag--the point when everything that changes, the incident that shapes who the character is at the beginning of the story--the storm that leads to a farming accident that takes away the use of a boy's leg (Worth), the end of slavery that frees a young boy to go find the mother who was sold away from him (Walking Home to Rosie Lee), and the adoptee who is terrified of water has to go live on a lake for the summer (Water Steps). From there, I let the backstory unfold as the events do, asking myself "What would my character do now? Why?"

An understanding of character motivation and life-shaping events is essential here--study it in the books you read, the movies you watch, the people you meet, and consider a course in psychology via a book or an actual class. All of these things will be instrumental in helping you shape your character's past and remember--give everyone a past or the secondary and tertiary characters won't seem real.

Keep in mind, everyone plays golf differently, so everyone creates their character backstory differently. Find the way that works for you!

Here's an article from Rachel Ballon to offer you another perspective on developing backstory:




How do you incorporate backstory?


Hole 2: Swing with Distinction

Making your character unique is an essential of character development. You want your character to be someone your readers can relate to, but that can be as simple as making them a golfer--allowing them to have a hobby, need, or desire that readers in your target audience share.

Stake is an essential for your readers as well. That's the need/want that drives your character through the story aka keeps them on the golf course plugging away that little round ball. It could be a hole in one they're looking for here, but whatever it is, it should be internal and external. The hole in one is an external goal. Internally, the character may be trying to control their temper so they don't wrap their golf club around a tree when they miss a shot.

My dad frequently came home with bent clubs claiming that he was attacked by a heard of buffalo that he had to fight off with his club or get trampled. Let's just say, I came by my ability to spin a tale naturally and my dad was a definitely a distinct character!

You also want your character to have a distinct voice. To speak in a way others do not. Does your character constantly use shopping metaphors? Do they speak in as few words as possible? Run off at the mouth? Use a catch phrase like, "As long as no one swallowed a bug, we're good" is that because he swallowed a bee as a child and discovered he was allergic?

As I said, backstory is important and should be woven in. You can also distinguish characters through the pasts you create, the clothes they wear, the pets who follow them, the things they do every Tuesday at 9:15 AM.

Let your character walk off the page by being a unique individual with layers, voice, and motivations!

But don't just take my word for it, here's
an article on giving your character a distinctive voice by fiction editor, Beth Hill
Variety in Character Voices

How do you make your characters distinctive?

http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/03/15/...

Hole 3