Describing Characters Podcast Edition

Podcast Link:

My A-Muse-ing Life, Season 3, Episode 3

Word of the week- 

Imagination: Fascination with ideas not yet created; seeing something in the mind’s eye

Quotable Quotes:

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

― Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon

Literary Device:

Imagery: When a sensory experience is evoked through figurative language; to create a picture with words.

Highlight of the Week:

Do you want to create a visual graphic of your character?  Check out 

The Character Creator – Build visually stunning avatars

https://charactercreator.org/#google_vignette

Reading:

Pride and Prejudice Chapter 3 excerpt 

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pride and prejudice, by Jane Austen.

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

8 Tips on Describing Characters:

Describing a character well provides the reader with details about the character and helps bring the story to life.  Here are 8 Tips on Describing your characters:

1. Use visual image details.  Descriptive words are great, but it’s not enough just to say a character has green eyes and brown hair.  Give your reader a memorable character with visual image details!  Write in a way that allows someone to picture the character exactly as they are, not in just a general manner.
2. Describe more than just physical traits.  What mannerisms does the character have?  What do they do when they are nervous?  Excited?  Afraid?  Give your character habits and mannerisms to help the reader truly know the character.
3. Practice!  The more you practice describing characters, the better you’ll get.  Go somewhere with a lot of people, choose one person and describe that person in writing as though they were your character, inventing details about them.  Who are they?  Why are they there?  What do they look like?    
4. Appeal to the senses!  People use their senses to explore the world around them.  Instead of focusing on how a person looks, remember to add in other details too, such as the smell of the perfume they wear, the way they talk to others, or how they interact with others.
5. Give the character a backstory, chose one scene from that backstory, and elaborate on what happened.  How does what happened before impact the character now?
6. Use the environment to show your reader more about the character.  Where they live, work, and the places they go can all reveal details about your character.
7. Consider what’s in their hand!  You can reveal a lot about your character by what they carry in their hand, such as the coffee cup, purse, hammer, or other resources.  The same goes for the objects that fill their home, workplace, and other areas they visit regularly.  What goes with them when they go different places?  Use these items to reveal details about your characters.
8. Describe what they do.  Creating a vivid character isn’t just about the physical description, but about the actions a character does as well.  How does your character move when they walk down the street?  What do they do at home sitting in the recliner?  Are they a side sleeper, or do they sleep on their stomach?  Describe your character’s actions!

Prompt: 

Using the photo, describe the character and write about what is happening in the photo.