Creative Writing Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Today’s Targets Identify the importance of character in story development Identify methods of developing character in a story

Word of the Day iota \eye-OH-tuh\, noun: 1.The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding to the English i. 2.A very small quantity or degree; a jot; a bit. Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler taught us that the Earth moves and rotates while the heavens stand still, but this did not change by one iota our direct perception that the heavens do move and that the Earth does not budge. -- Julian Barbour, The End of Time

Today’s Tasks 1.Journal write 2.Two truths and a lie 3.Spilling Ink reading task 4.Pre-writing for character development

Journal Write Your homework was to think of a character and take a few notes. Ideas for coming up with a character: Base your character off of yourself, someone you know or compile traits from multiple people Base your character off of someone you see and then just think up their life story Base your character off of some ideas floating in your amazing brains Based on that character, complete the following: Look at your Spilling Ink book. Pick one of the following “I Dare You” prompts to complete: – Page 21 or Page 23 Be prepared to share

Two Truths and a Lie 1.Write your name on the card. 2.Write down two true and interesting facts about you that others in the class may not know. 3.Write down one lie. 4.Turn in the card to me. 5.Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll pull a few of these each day and try to guess which is true and which is a lie.

Spilling Ink Reading Small group jigsaw reading – Pages In your group, read your assigned section and discuss: What are the key things to develop character? Present these key ideas to the class

Key ideas from groups 1.Choosing characters (19-21): pick characters like friends, find qualities you find interesting, if based on a friend be sure to alter some qualities because it may be hard to put them in different situations and you don’t want to offend your friends 2.Creating characters from a story idea (23-24): a great story idea is nothing without great characters; the character has to have qualities that the story needs to make it progress 3.Get to know your character’s secrets (24-27): sit down with character then ask them questions about what they like, don’t like, secrets, etc. Get to know your character. 4.Know your character’s “heart’s desire” (28-29): list of all the thing that your character wants whether small or big and it lets you know what your characters goals are 5.Naming characters (30-32): phone books, baby name books, imagination, keep a journal of name ideas

Developing Character Complete the vital statistics handout and the goal/motivation/conflict chart for your character (HOMEWORK: Due Thursday at the start of class)