Characters...

...Or Who Are You, and What are You Doing in My Story?

Today, we are going to talk about characters. We've already said that every story needs at least one, and in the last post, we picked a friendly robot as our star of the day. That choice seemed easy--let's just pick a robot as our character, and then let's write a terrific story! But was there more involved in our choice? Maybe. How much did I, the author of the story of the robot sitting in the mud, know about my robot friend before I started writing? Quite a lot, actually. Let me explain.

Here are the things I knew about my robot when I chose him:

1. He was friendly. (I said that straight out--he was a friendly robot.) This means he is not going to shoot laser beams out of his eyes and destroy all the playground equipment. This means he is not going to say mean things to the kids playing all around him.

2. I knew what he looked like. Go back to the first post--see the picture of the robot in the center of the screen? I spent some time Googling "robot pictures" and looking them all over before deciding that this little guy was the one in my story. Knowing what he looks like helps me imagine how he looks when he's sitting in the mud. It also helps me describe his actions--he has short legs and short arms, so he probably can't reach the monkey bars from where he sits in the puddle. If he can't reach the monkey bars, he can't pull himself out of the mud. Maybe he will have to settle on waving frantically at the children, hoping they will help.

3. I know the robot doesn't like the mud. I knew this before I even started writing his story. I thought about that robot sitting in the mud, and I said to myself, he does not like it. Yes, this ties in with our setting--the mud puddle--so you can see that some of our character decisions can be made as we write.

So I know that our robot is upset about being in the mud, and that he doesn't like the way it feels as it oozes inside of him. But I could have made him like the mud. He could have really loved the way that mud felt as it oozed, and because of that, he might have wanted some of the children to come into the puddle to join him. He didn't like it, though, and so you get the idea that he's going to want to come out.

See how much I knew about this little robot? And because I knew so much, writing about him was so much easier. Let's see how well you do on making some character decisions.

Frogs and Felines--What do Their Pictures Say?

Look at the frog picture at the top of the page. What can you tell me about him?

When I first look at him, I decide that he is small. Tiny. His size will make a difference in how our story goes, for if he is tiny, he will not stomp down main street and smash cars with his feet. (But imagine that you decide he is large. Very large! What will a huge frog do in your story? How many giant-sized frogs do you see every day? How much story stuff does that already give you?)

Is our frog friendly, angry, or sad? When I look at the picture, to me, this frog looks clever, like he is thinking about how to get a bite of your pizza off your plate. Or like he is thinking of tricking the nearest animal into giving him a prize. The frog's eyes say, "I'm thinking sneaky thoughts, tricky, clever, sneaky thoughts. Wouldn't you like to know them?" If the frog looks friendly to you, or sad, or scared, this will change how he acts in a story. A sneaky, tricky frog will behave very differently than a scared or sad frog, don't you think?

If I say our frog is sneaky and clever, then, I decide, he must want something. What does he want? Maybe he is hungry and your pizza, which he was thinking of snatching, is all gone. What will he now try to sneakily steal to fill his empty middle? Will he try to eat the fly that the spider has so neatly caught in her web? Will he try to sip the milk from the neighbor's cat's bowl? I don't have to decide this now, but I do have to know that this frog wants something. And he wants it very much. He wants it so badly that he will do a great deal of clever sneaking and tricking to get it.

Do you see how we build our character? Many times, you will make these character decisions without thinking about it too much. But other times, you will have to work at it, so that you create a character that can actually fill up your story. If your character is boring, it is hard to write about him. The choices you make before you write help make your character interesting enough to write about.

Let's practice, okay?

How about this picture:


















What can you tell me about this cat? Write as much down about him as you can.

Now that you have created a cat character, what sort of story would you have if our tiny, clever frog decides to try and sip the milk from the cat's bowl? Imagine how this story might play out. Do you see how creating good characters helps us to write a good story? I hope so!

Next up: Pick your place!