Character Development Exercise:
Orange Shirt
I think sometimes you only use the right chunk of your brain. Wearing your neon orange v-neck t shirt with khaki pants and flip flops. Folding your arms because mama didn't give you the dessert that your mouth was wet for. Stomping your way up the stairs like Godzilla through the narrow streets of Japan. I have always wondered if you actually like your own personality , or if you pretend to be someone else that's frilly and quiet. Of course, this person would be your complete opposite. Just like that orange shirt you are loud and begging to be seen. Sometimes I find myself wishing you to Never-land where the ticking alligator could run you from Goo Lagoon to Skull Island.After doing so, somehow, someway I find that I would miss you. I missed you and your boom box of a voice, even though I would never tell you that. Without you there would be no pink pajama coffee breath breaks in the cricket nights. If you were gone home would be like Treasure Island with no map to mark "X."
This was as far as I could write in class, and I didn't edit it yet or anything. Now that I read it, it seems like a free write just to get ideas down.
I didn't finish mine either but I really like the idea of having a template from which to create a character, similar to the template we used to create interesting dialogue. These are tool I think I will be able to keep and use in my future writing. Your character development seems very strong to me thus far, and its ironic that we both got to the same sentence and stopped! I am going to try to finish mine, I hope you get around ot finishing yours and then, use this character in a story or poem! Thats the other interesting thing to consider - what parts of the character you will imploy in your work and which parts just help you to solidify the character in your head to keep you grounded when writing.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of strange, interesting imagery here. You need to use these in another piece or other pieces. "The right chunk of your brain" sounds so much like a mass of gray flesh instead of the crazy wiring system we think of with brain. "Neon orange v-neck t-shirt with khaki pants and flip flops" has a high level of specificity to it, and sounds like an outfit I wore once. But these are just two examples of imagery that sticks out throughout the piece "Godzilla through the narrow streets of Japan." "boom box of a voice" "the tickling alligator" from Neverland - which may be a bit high on the tone thermometer, but it's a free write like you said. Still I think that you could definitely use this to start a piece based on this character.
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