I am currently writing a set of sonnets to portray a particular character. In figuring out that character I wrote the following.
Waking - long formed habits guide
hiding awareness
Closed fists of too rough hands,
scraping crust from eyes
Dark, bloodshot and red - small white scratches
now pink. left from callouses on hands
too old on a body so young
Shaking torn tangles behind
Straightening her back
rising to the impressive
four foot seven
tallest yet of her classmates.
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It is good thinking but what in there should make me care? Her callouses? Her height and youth? All of it or none of it...focus on an element of her being and make me want to care about her.
ReplyDeletei like these projects, we did them a bit in my creative writing class last fall.i struggle as a poet to come up with character sketches that can survive in fiction - i'm not a fiction writer. the qualities i list for someone are descriptions that work in poetry, but they aren't substantial - like mark said, what in there should make me care? i have a really hard time with this, and as a poet and from what i see here, you might too :)
ReplyDeletemark - any tips on coming up with something that the readers are going to care about? what do you mean, an element of her being? is it that she's quiet? is it a particular event that has shaped her to be what she is? a hobby?
Take some one you are attached to and think of what attaches you to them and they to you...that is the element in the relationship that makes you care abut the person.
ReplyDeleteJust because you are writing a fiction piece does not mean you do not model to one degree or another on someone in your life now or in your past.
Remember not all attachments are good but they are all stemming from some emotion.