Charactaerization (Blog #9)

I hope each of you had some time over the break to relax and spend quality time with family and friends.

I took some time to re-watch past seasons of the television show “The Walking Dead.” For several years I had avoided the show while my husband has been an avid reader of the books and watcher of the series, all the while listening to him go on and on about the fantastic writing and depth of the characters. So, I finally caved in and started watching a few seasons ago. Within 2 episodes I was completely hooked. Now anyone who knows me understands that I do not like violence, gore, horror, or anything remotely zombie…but these characters are compelling, driven, and as a viewer I want them to survive and succeed! (I just close my eyes every time a zombie comes on screen!) And the show is just SO GOOD that now we re-watch entire seasons for fun :)

I also took the time to read through some of your jumble stories and started thinking about how you could improve the characters and enhance their stories.

For this blog, I’d like you to think carefully about a character(s) in a current television show, movie, or book that you enjoy. Tell us why the character(s) are so compelling. What makes them so? Why do you keep watching/reading?

Please post your comment but go back and comment on 2 others’ as well.

Ms. Z.

Naming Your Characters (Blog #8)

When you name a baby you’re taking a real chance, because you have no idea how the little tyke is going to turn out. We all know people whose names seem to belong to someone else. When you name a fictional character you have no excuse for getting it wrong because you should know him better than the members of your own family. The names you choose to give your characters should suggest certain traits, social and ethnic background, geography, and even things that have yet to occur in your story. Charles Dickens was so good at this that some of his characters’ names have become generic personality types – think Ebenezer Scrooge. The names you choose will have a strong influence on how your readers will respond to your characters. – from “What If?” by Anne Bernays & Pamela Painter

For this week’s blog I’d like you to think carefully about character names, and give a full name in your response to each of these 5 characters:

1.      A petty, white collar thief who robs his boss over several years.

2.      An envious, bitter woman who makes her sister miserable

3.      A sweet young man too shy to speak to an attractive woman he sees every day

4.      The owner of a fast food restaurant who comes on to his young female employees

5.      A grandmother who just won the lottery

Examples

1.      Robin Blackstone

2.      Mona Livids

3.      Tod Humboldt

4.      Lenny Salsa

5.      Nana Shimpkis

First Lines.... (Blog #7)

Every famous novel began with a memorable first line. The following are the top ten most famous "first lines" in history.

10 Best First Lines from Novels

1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)



Now, I'd like you to pick up your favorite novel or short story and in the comment section to this blog posting, write the first line to that piece of fiction. Feel free to comment on each other's first lines. Which ones "hooked" you? What makes them memorable?

Enjoy!