What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told. ~André Gide
- Characters are motivated by desire. An important question to keep in mind as you write is "What does my character want?"
- Character is revealed through ACTION, THOUGHT, SPEECH, and APPEARANCE.
- Stereotypes
- Primary, Secondary, Tertiary characters
- Excerpts from Junger, Irving.
Example of physical description:
The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield. -From "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving
Prompt:
Write a story about a character who wants something. It could be something as simple as a cup of coffee or to use the restroom, or it could be more complex, like taking over the world-- it's the desire itself that's important. The character should be realistic rather than stereotypical (remember the things that add to realistic characters are desires, contradictions, and flaws). At the end, you should have answered whether or not they get it at the end (yes, no, maybe).
Links:
Double Indemnity (anti-hero, film noir)
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