Weekly Writing Exercise 1.2

[DeftAndEvil]

Hey, and welcome to the Weekly Writing Exercises #1 part 2. To some of you, welcome back!

So, this is the second installment of the first four part cycle. If you didn't participate in 1.2, don't fret; you can still participate in part 2! Or, if you like, participate in part 1here (it's never too late to join in past exercises; I'll respond to each entry). I recommend everyone at least check part 1 out!

Without further ado, here's part 2:

EXERCISE #2: CHARACTERIZATION:

So, by now, you should be familiar with setting. Next, we've got to start the plot. But before we do that, we must be able to write compelling, well rounded, dynamic characters. Fictional characters should feel real and even if no concrete details are provided the reader should still be able to form a pretty clear mental picture.

Inspiration for characters are everywhere. Writers usually get their inspiration from existing characters within books, tv, movies, etc., or from real-life people they know. However, it is important to develop characters to a point where they feel real and are not clichéd (I cannot stress that enough).

There are two types of characterization: direct and indirect. Direct characterization is the narrator or someone else directly telling the reader what someone is like ("he is a grinch"). Indirect characterization forces the reader to figure out what kind of character he is ("he never gives any tips and is always frowning"). The point of this exercise is to practice rounding characters! It is a very important skill since not all characters are the same.

Prompt: Describe the old man in the (copyright free) photo. He looks like a typical, grumpy, boring, simple conservative farmhand. Round him out.

(Some of the requirements are different. Remember, you must meet one challenge!)
Requirements:

M: Write about this old man. No visual concrete details that go against the picture (he's clearly not wearing a yellow shirt).
M: Characterization can only come from the narrator (you). No characterization from the old man himself, or other characters.
M: Both direct/indirect characterization must be used. Two types of concrete details must be used (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.).
C: Describe his occupation. He looks like a farmer, sure, but he can also be a mayor, or a retired lawyer.
C: Describe his relationships. Describing his family and friends can be an easy way to show character. For example, hanging out every Friday with his step-daughter shows he has a soft spot.
C: Describe his beliefs. Not just religion or political stance, but maybe something more philosophic. Maybe the guy is a cynic.
S: If you are stuck, expand on the guy's age. He seems to be about 60, so he is a baby boomer, so he probably hates all the young hipsters.
S: Be creative! Think of a random occupation and maybe that's what he used to do and now he's a farmhand. Here are some: actor (played a fairy), scuba diver, EMT.
S: Remember to use figurative language!
General Requirements:
M: 250-750 words. It is an exercise and if it blossoms into a grand story, good--but for now, we want to keep them short and focus on the exercise part.
M: 30-45 minutes. Obviously, I can't enforce this rule, but don't get hung up! It's important to work on your improvisational skills as a writer and transcribing your thoughts. If you have spent over 45 minutes, quickly wrap up. It's okay, we can work from there.
M: Post here or post a link to your NG page. NO EXTERNAL HOSTING.
M: Please post by Friday to be considered an entrant for this exercise.
M: HAVE FUN! DO IT!

Sorry for the late post. As usual, any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions are best posted here. I also respond to PMs. I will have my exercise soon and encourage you to do the same.

Thanks!

~Deft

[DeftAndEvil]

Hey guys, sorry for not being on the ball with this one, but I am kinda busy with relatives during the holidays. I'll try my best to put up part 1.3 on Monday (probably late in the afternoon) but I'll be back on it for the finale (1.4). Please participate! As I said, I am willing to pay a little prize to whomever "wins" part 1.4. However, you must participate in at least one exercise (I'll give some extra points to those that participated in 2 or 3). Also, I am thinking about paying the winner 1 dollar for each number of entries turned in that met all criteria (currently at 3, limit 10. Word count doesn't count if you gave it your best / ran out of time).

Anyway, about the exercise. Characters are important. However, we usually get caught up in one-dimensionality (I sure as hell find myself doing it). Most of us try to combat this by "balancing" the character with the opposite trait. But, this will make him seem bipolar (depending on the situation, this can be desired). For example, if the man is a cantankerous grump, most would try to show a gentle side. You want to avoid this, or rather, expand it. Show more than 2 general traits/characteristics. He is a grump, with a gentle side, who is also protective and idealistic.

Another thing: AVOID MARY SUE'ING AT ALL COSTS! This is never good. Even superheroes have their faults, which is why we love them. Don't make the character "too perfect;" everyone in the world has their downsides. If you are worried about your character being too apathetic and unlikable; you are right, you should worry, but it is better than your character not having any faults. In the same regard, make sure your character is not all ideals; make them pragmatic as well. Some homework for those overachievers: look up melodrama and the components it is made of. AVOID THESE AT ALL COSTS!

Anyway, here's my exercise (took me about 30 min.):
Marlon Westbrook sat idly on his porch with his even more sedentary hound, Good Ol' Sam--that was the dog's name; "good ol' Good Ol' Same," Marlon use to say. He lifted his timeworn hat and shuffled his hoary hair. His face was creased with age and hung like Good Ol' Sam's. He replaced his hat and tipped it downwards, ready for his usual nap; Marlon checked his wristwatch for confirmation: four o'clock sharp. He let out a contented sigh, rough and dusty with age.

He had no family left. The sad truth confronted every time he woke; he often called for his wife, only to remember she was gone. His call would always conclude in a whisper, as if realizing he'd just missed her. His wristwatch's repetitious alarm beeped "off" as Marlon squeezed the buttons. He was annoyed at the complication for snapping him to consciousness, out of his dream. He tapped his cane, alerting Good Ol' Sam that dinner was to be served and eaten. "good dog, Good Ol' Sam," Marlon muttered.

As he prepared the dog's dinner, he reminisced on his previous job; he was a librarian. The man valued the order and organization of the library. He would scan the shelves all day long, making sure no book was out of place. The droning silence was pleasure to his ears. He loved the library; in fact, that's where he met his wife. Her books were always overdue, however, Marlon always pardoned her.

Good Ol' Sam's tin can dinner plopped perfectly in the center of his bowl. Marlon stacked bread, bologna, lettuce, tomato, then bread again, in neat precision and debated whether or not to include mustard. He hated the pungent, yellow taste, but his wife always prepared his sandwiched with mustard. He left the jar on the countertop and took a bite, appreciating the simple taste. Good Ol' Sam barked at the misplaced jar, briefly reminding Marlon of when he barked at rascally kids who did not return books properly. He dabbed some mustard on his sandwich, returned the jar, and sat down at the table, and finished dinner with his dog.

[Dynaon]

Alright, I'll take a shot at this.

This old man, one of the simple age of fifty-five, has a very large history in his long, fulfilled life. Every day he wore the same thing. Somewhat like how the students of the present day wear a uniform to school, this old man wore a uniform to his own life. He fashioned a light brown hat upon his cranium, possibly to stop his head from being sunburnt when he tends to his small garden of crops. He wore a button-up shirt along with jean-styled suspenders on top of it. Along with it, his strength deteriorated with his age, so he always has a cane in his hand to keep himself up when he moves around.

The old man has made quite the living of himself, living in a medium sized house with his immense amounts of money. When he was younger, he lived out his life as a lawyer, making great grades in school and college to live on to be one of the most successful lawyers of his time. He spent twenty-five years in the lawyer position, working every day of his life to gain the status that he had now. Through all of the hard work and effort he put out in his younger years, he retired and earned a good amount of money. He now spends his time watching television and tending to his small garden where he plants many crops.

His family was a very close and compacted one, as he needed much support when his own mother and father died in a pile up in an intersection on the road. Ever since then, he got support from his children, Sarah and Ben, who were both happily married. Ben, the man of the family, had a beautiful wife and two kids, and visited his his father often to see how he did. The old man also makes the effort to visit both Ben and Sarah, showing his good side to only those of his family.

[Sharu]

Ok, took me a little while to get to it, but here's my submission (I hope when you said "by Friday" you meant "by the end of Friday" :P)
Anyway, everyone have a good New Year!

[DeftAndEvil]

At 12/30/11 09:02 PM, Sharu wrote: Ok, took me a little while to get to it, but here's my submission (I hope when you said "by Friday" you meant "by the end of Friday" :P)

It's due by midnight Friday (must be turned in before Saturday), so yeah you're good.

I was a bit let down by the turn out this week; I should have replied to both of you by tonight. This goes out to anyone who wanted to participate but didn't get a chance: IT IS NEVER TOO LATE.

I am still thinking about part 3 and it will definitely relate to exposition. Most likely it will regard narration. Thanks for participating!

[Coop]

Probably a bit too late for the exercise proper, but here's a little intro to Old Ged:

Meet Ged. A farmhand from the corn fields of Kansas. He's a man of few words, but with a heart as gold as the wheat he farms on those massive fields of his farm. Ask him a favour and he'll oblige. Just a nod and a smile and he'll be about his business. Life for Ged has one speed, though that's not to stand in the way of progress. His machines are always in good working order and if you brought him an old rusting John Deere from the 1950s, he'd still find a way to bring it back to life. That's his gift.

Sure, he looks grumpy in this picture here, but that's because I hadn't asked if I could take his picture. I think we're just about square now and if I'm lucky, I may even get asked in for a glass of lemonade, by Mrs. Ged.

Ged is married, of course. Clara is her name and she has been his wife for getting on forty years now. She's a good cook and it shows - neither of them would starve to death in a harsh winter and that, you could say. Is her gift, though that's a different story. They have doted over their son and two daughters, since they arrived in our busy little township, that's for sure and I wouldn't have it any other way - they are a credit to Altoona, Kansas.

Now how does a farmer from Kansas get to be so good with machines from Detroit and Illinois? Well, that's because he wasn't always from around these parts. I've never found out for sure where he was from, except it was North East of here. I thought he was a grease monkey who just wanted to move out here and start a new life, but he was... different. Maybe you should ask him, but don't say I didn't warn you. He's a man of few words and actions speak louder than 'em - especially someone like Ged's. I'm guessing that because you're after information like this, you're not a friend of his, otherwise you'd know it already.

I think that if you want some more information on him, you'd better get yourself on over to the horse's mouth. Don't go thinking that he'll give you what you want for a sugar cube though - he's stubborn as all hell!

[EKublai]

Title: HIS NAME IS JAM!

When Jam was sixty years old his left leg stopped working. Jam didn't think of it much though, and just leaned to the right and tilted his head to keep the world level. In the back of his mind, he must've been thinking, "Keep it all up." So he kept it up. Kept the farm, the animals (soon to be animal after Thanksgiving), kept the friends in town. He lost the wife. She hadn't needed to go so soon. Only one thing needed to go and that was the apple tree.

Jim wore his crumpled hat, the one with the bent side that left one ear exposed to sunburn. His motion was automatic, and soon his hacksaw had eaten three branches from the trunk. The apple tree, Jam knew, was a tombstone for a few of his forebears. Though his father was buried in Arlington Cemetery, His grandfather and grandmother were buried here next to each other. They had been young to go, and probably would have thought the whole affair pretty romantic. No more a romantic than he was a petulant Catholic, Jam had been only interested in that trivia because of his time as a gravedigger. Graves were full of stories like that, stories that could be told to kids to make death seem not so goddamn lonely. Jam had no kids, he had no use to keep up those stories. The ground the apple tree stood on. It was good ground, but only good for Jam.

Then all that was left were the roots, which would need a different saw. Jam wiped some sun-stung tears from his eyes and tried to get up from his kneel. It came to him to get lower to the dusty ground, just to see if he could, amidst the other fading voices, hear his father. So he got lower to the ground, but heard only the rumble of Jenson's tractor a mile down the road and of course, that was only what he imagined it to be. Jam found it hard to turn his back away from the sky, and the corners of his mouth dipped like two of Christ's scars. He felt two drops of wet tap the back of his neck, the day got dark under clouds. Jam stood and walked back inside the house. He stopped in the doorway and turned again. He slowly walked down the stairs, to the small white-plastic table next to the railing. He lifted the cool metal of his wife's box in front of his chest and his words fell to the ground faster than the rain. "Tomorrow, then."

[DeftAndEvil]

At 12/29/11 06:43 PM, Dynaon wrote:

Solid. I realize this is an exercise and there are imposed restrictions, but it is important for the result to be natural; the last sentence doesn't feel natural at all. Also, the description is very exact and scientific, and I thought it was appropriate for a mathematician/scientist, but not for a retired lawyer in his golden years. So, the description is solid, but it needs more focus on developing the character, that is, show us more traits. I see you met challenges 1 and 2.

At 12/30/11 09:02 PM, Sharu wrote:

Awesome! Good job showing man that once was but is no more. This is an exercise in characterization, so I would like you to focus on characterization and not setting. I see you met all challenges!

At 1/2/12 10:54 AM, Coop wrote:

Interesting description. However, there is something left to be desired; that is, most of the rounding is direct characterization. You spend most of the piece describing that he is a solemn but good man and you give a second trait right at the end, but I don't buy that he is grumpy. He seems very polarized. However, you did a good job of building him up. I see you met challenges 1 and 2.

At 1/2/12 02:39 PM, EKublai wrote:

Sweet. Very layered. He is very complex and solid throughout. It seems more like a self-contained micro-story than an exercise, but oh well. I see you met all challenges!

Thanks for participating guys, Some trends:

Original names. Yes, this is a must. Never name your character common names (including biblical names and popular culture names). Deviation. Please try to stay with the exercise >.> it's ok though, as long as we're improving, but it's important to work out all the right muscles, so to speak. Too simple. It's probably fault of the exercise for being so short, but two characteristics aren't enough. Three should be good, but try to round the character with many different traits. As always, it's about originality! because that's the most memorable, and also makes us think.

Part 3 coming (extremely) soon!

[Coop]

At 1/3/12 12:23 AM, DeftAndEvil wrote: Interesting description. However, there is something left to be desired; that is, most of the rounding is direct characterization. You spend most of the piece describing that he is a solemn but good man and you give a second trait right at the end, but I don't buy that he is grumpy. He seems very polarized. However, you did a good job of building him up. I see you met challenges 1 and 2.

Perhaps it was just one big brain fart - I knew what I wanted to say and yet somehow it didn't quite work out.

I guess that's why these are exercises.

[DeftAndEvil]

Sorry guys; I have to go to the damn opthamologist. I wonder what's wrong this time? Expect 1.3 about 2-3 hours from now. It is about narration with a focus on plot. It will be more "exercise-y" this time since most of you should be very familiar with plot. I will give my usual discourse on plot, its attributes and how we can use it. However, we are finally moving towards "the big picture" and it is very much more subjective whether something was done right/wrong, good/bad.