LESSON FOR 6/2/2010

Jun 02, 2010 08:10

For claire_chan,

You have until 10:30 to complete this.

DESCRIPTION-COLOUR YOUR WORLD

Description to writers is very important and I’m not kidding when I write that. Without description, your story would be bland and the reader most likely won’t be able to visualize the character (at least in the way in your mind). As a writer we must convey our characters, settings, etc to our readers so they can enjoy the story! Whenever I sit down to write a story, beforehand I keep a journal of thoughts about what I want to portray in a character such as height, age, religion, and anything else I can think of. Here is an example of a character description I made for a story:

Name: Derek.
Age: 20 (born December 1984)
Gender: male
Race: Caucasian
Socio-economic position: middle class
Ancestry: Irish
Education: Community college with two year degree
Interests: playing guitar, driving, writing, going to shows
Personality traits: outgoing, loving (great boyfriend), kind, polite
Hair and eye colour: Red with hazel eyes
Height and weight: 5'10; 185 lbs
Religion: Agnostic

Now, take a few minutes to jot down a character list like above. After you come up with the list, go to your inspiration journal and write a little story using that list about your character.

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Race:

Socio-economic position:

Ancestry:

Education:

Interests:

Personality traits:

Hair and eye colour:

Height and weight:

Religion:

Not only is description important for characters, but also for objects. Many times a simple inanimate object can be symbolic just because of the description. What is symbolism? Symbolism is when an object or action or person is used to convey a major theme. It need not be said expressly.  For example, a few common symbols are as following: A rose symbolizes beauty, youth, love, passion; light represents enlightenment, life, goodness, gods; night is ignorance, death, fear.

Borrowing from Writing Fiction website [1], here are other important symbolisms writers need to know to make writing even more effective.

[1] http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/fiction/2003/07/symbolism_and_a.html

Previous post Next post
Up