The ultimate goal of a writer is to use his words as a paintbrush to paint vivid pictures for the reader. They can be pictures of a character, a scene that's unfolding, or a special place in the story. These images are the basis for the movies that we create in our minds as we read.
Here is an excerpt from Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah where the author creates a vivid picture of one of the characters, Anya:
"Meredith saw the mess grief had made of her mother's beautiful face: it had sucked in her cheeks and made her bones appear more prominent; it had drawn the color from her skin until her flesh nearly matched her hair. Only her eyes-startlingly blue against all that pallor- held any semblance of who she'd been a month ago."
Now find an excerpt from your book where the author paints a vivid picture for the reader. Make sure you give credit for the work by mentioning the title of your book and the author!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Say What?
I've been thinking a lot lately about characters and how authors develop them for the reader. They almost always help a reader to visualize characters by providing physical descriptions, and they often reveal what characters are like through their actions.
Did you know we can learn about a character by what he or she says or thinks? This will often show the reader what type of person he or she is. Think about it. Have you ever listened to someone talk and then made a judgment about what kind of a person he or she is based on what was said?
I want you to look through your book and find some dialogue between two characters or a part of the story where a character is thinking. Read it carefully and decide what the words spoken or thought by the character reveal about him or her. Then tell me:
1. the title and author of your book
2. the character's name and what he or she said or thought
(Be careful to use quotation marks correctly!)
3. Tell what this revealed about the character to you.
For example, here's what I would write based on a character in a book I recently read :
In Water for the Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, the main character Jacob is thinking, "I knew how important it was to keep her secret, and keep it I did - for the rest of her life, and then beyond. In seventy years, I've never told a blessed soul."
From these thoughts I know that Jacob is an extremely trustworthy and one-of-a-kind soul! Most people can't keep a secret to themselves for over five minutes!
Get the idea? Okay! Now tell me about one of your characters!
Did you know we can learn about a character by what he or she says or thinks? This will often show the reader what type of person he or she is. Think about it. Have you ever listened to someone talk and then made a judgment about what kind of a person he or she is based on what was said?
I want you to look through your book and find some dialogue between two characters or a part of the story where a character is thinking. Read it carefully and decide what the words spoken or thought by the character reveal about him or her. Then tell me:
1. the title and author of your book
2. the character's name and what he or she said or thought
(Be careful to use quotation marks correctly!)
3. Tell what this revealed about the character to you.
For example, here's what I would write based on a character in a book I recently read :
In Water for the Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, the main character Jacob is thinking, "I knew how important it was to keep her secret, and keep it I did - for the rest of her life, and then beyond. In seventy years, I've never told a blessed soul."
From these thoughts I know that Jacob is an extremely trustworthy and one-of-a-kind soul! Most people can't keep a secret to themselves for over five minutes!
Get the idea? Okay! Now tell me about one of your characters!
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