Storee's Tueday Writing Tip

What a Character!

Your characters:

Make them real. Make them funny or sad or strong or weak but make them real.

Write a paragraph describing someone you know. Show how that person looks without using describing words like fat or skinny. Is he good or bad? How do we know that?
Or
Write about an animal. Without saying  if it’s a dog or fish or a horse or a lizard can you describe it so readers can tell not only what it is but what it looks like?

Example
Josh is tall, kind of skinny and he’s nice.
Becomes:
Josh was lucky.  He could spot Mrs. Heeney’s weird grey bun bobbing down the hall long before the other kids  knew she was in the building. Of course he had watch out for low hanging branches when they rode their bikes along the creek but it seemed more than a fair trade to the two boys when she was on prowl.

 “Duck! Josh whispered out of the corner of his mouth, if she sees you you’ll have detention for sure!”

 “Oh man! I should’ve finished my homework last night instead of watching that old vampire movie,” Tim whined. “Hide me!” he said, trying to ease behind his friend.

“Like that’s going to work,” Tim’s sister snickered. “As if you can hide a beach ball behind a flag pole!”

The second version takes a lot more words but it's more interesting to read. Think about the characters in the books you like to read. Look at how the author describes them.

Recommended reads: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Peter and the Star Catchers.