Character Development Based Writers Workshop

On Monday the 29th of October, a few of my friends, along with a group of 19 (including me and said friends) year 7 to 10s, and I got the opportunity to attend a two-hour workshop right in our own learning commons, run by the New Zealand author, Bill Nageikerke.

We first began with talking about the basics of a character, such as what characters are, and the difference between stereotypes (they way we expect characters to be) and archetypes (moulds of original things). We then went on to talk about key qualities. Such as qualities we believed to see in the different stereotypes and archetypes. A little bit of advice Bill gave up was to switch up characteristics from expectations, giving characters something unique. 

Thank you to Mrs Richardson for making a digital photo of these

The next topic to be brought up was story patterns. Bill talked to us about the three main types of story patterns, using helpful diagrams to further explain. The first of the three diagrams is the romantic/partner/codependent based pattern, this is where two characters meet and face obstacles together. Bill used Romeo and Juliet as an example and you could practically see my ears perk up. The next is the stranger in a close circle pattern, this is where a foreign person or object is placed in a foreign environment to see what happens. The final is the hero/quest pattern, this one is where a hero/es sets out on a quest and faces obstacles along the way.

Excuse my horrible handwriting, they do say
people with messy handwriting are more
creative ;)

(A few of my notes from that section, if

you'd like to try and figure out what

<-- they actually say)

Afterwards, he talked to us about things such as writing in isolation, as most authors do, before sending us off on our own to complete a short, 5 minute, writing task. The task was to choose a few key qualities about ourselves, about two or three, then write a paragraph or so where you are putting a character into a situation where these qualities are being contradicted, creating tension. For example, I chose the following qualities about myself: Codependent, scared/anxious easily, socially awkward/introverted. I somehow managed to lean towards my more... negative qualities for some odd reason. With this information in mind, I managed to create a short paragraph about a character who ends up being trapped, alone, in an unfamiliar place. 

"Where the hell am I? Have I been here before? How did I get here? Who are these people? Stuck in a sea of unfamiliar faces, no exit in sight. I still need to figure out where I am, for crying out loud! I can feel anxiety bubbling in my chest as I wander these strange streets."

With this paragraph written, we were then tasked to describe said character with one of the following; a t-shirt slogan (which I opted not to do), a headstone sentence, or a few words. I went with the last two, ending up with overthinker, quiet, background, introvert, daydreamer, dork and We always knew she'd rather be in the clouds. I'll be honest, I did not expect the headstone to be as dark as it was...

Hey, look, some actually decent handwriting

After a short break, we were back and revving to go. I will say, during this break, I took the time to take the tight description activity and apply it to a few of my own characters (as seen above). Anyway, back on topic, we then began the topic of writing is creating an illusion, and creating a character is not creating an actual human being but creating an illusion of one. From there we went onto significant objects and how most people have an object that is... well... significant to them. This brings us to our third (and final) task. In pairs, we were each given a card with an item on the front and questions on the back. Our task was to answer the questions using the item and a made up character. Jessica and I got a saddle.
The following is what I wrote:

More terrible handwriting that even I can barely read, yay!

Who is your main character?
Brooke (I have no idea what that says, jeez, my handwriting is that bad...)

Where does it (the story) take place
Rural village

What does your main character have to do with the object?
She's a horse rider from birth, it's one of the things that calms her down/doesn't freak her the f**k out

Who else comes in contact with the object? A rival/antagonist

Finally, Bill went through different writing tips, such as putting a character through a change to keep the readers interested (character development), choosing names with purpose (thematic, names with meaning etc.), the voice the story is written in (First person for a personal feel, third for a more distant approach), the tense it's written in (past, present, future), have empathy with your characters (Believe in them, make sure people like them), having chain reactions in your story (things that happen because of other things, moving the plot), showing rather than telling (show the person, through writing, what a situation is like rather than tell them), and getting rid of any padding in a story (Making sure everything in your story is actually needed to advance the plot, if it isn't, scrap it).

And that brings us to the end of the workshop. It was an amazing experience with a lot of useful information. Though we did have a few activities that I thoroughly enjoyed, I wish it was a little more hands-on in a more writing kind of way. I'd like to quickly thank Bill Nageikerke for coming down to Hornby High and taking time to teach us a few things! I hope you take something from this post, even if it wasn't much!