WRITING ASSIGNMENT – THE CHARACTER SKETCH

 

 Write A Character Sketch Of Someone You Know Well, Focusing On One Dominant Character Trait.

 

            1. Do not name the trait or label the person through the title.

  2. Use description to convey the impression:

                        a. description of habitat or car or closet or purse or desk or wastebasket, or whatever

                       

                        b. of physical appearance, wardrobe, grooming, mannerisms, habits, rituals, talents, pet peeves, where they hang out.

 

            3. Include dialogue spoken by that person.

           

            4. Can include dialogue or opinions of others spoken about that person.

           

            5. Can include exposition -- a brief history or facts that are relevant to this trait. Explain how this trait came to be so pronounced.

           

            6. Include one anecdote or narrative section (one scene, in other words) that shows this person acting out this characteristic.

 

Choosing The Subject

            In choosing the subject for your sketch, it will help if you:

 

            1. Know the person well and have had much opportunity to study his or her quirks and habits and opinions and behavior, as well as grooming rituals, penchants, hobbies, etc.

 

            2. Have been in close quarters with this person, but perhaps not by choice: a family member, a co-worker, a fellow member of a club, a classmate or a teacher, for instance.

 

            3. Stay aware of the problem of distance -- you need to be close but not too close. You need to have an attitude about your subject but also you need to be able to control yourself. If you have what appears to be an unreasonable hatred or unreasonable adoration for the subject, your credibility will come into question. You don't need to be "fair," exactly, because that's not the point. But there is a need to be able to capture and convey the impression in a way that's persuasive. The Middle Distance.

 

Finding A Structure: Your sketch can be framed around the scene or anecdote, but not necessarily. You can lead up to a culminating incident, or begin with it and interrupt it to digress, then return and cap it off.

 

The Dominant Trait:

            1. Can be a virtue: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc.

            2. Or a character defect: egotistical, selfish, self-centered, conceited, sloppy, lazy, bigoted.

            3. More complicated motivations that drive us:

·        need to be accepted or loved -- try to hard

·        need for security, stability, order

·        desire for power, money, status

·        desire to be superior (achievement or social standing)

·        need for self-abasement, self-destruction

·        need for respect of peers or superiors

·        need to feel needed, to help, to nurse

·        need to understand life (faith or reason) religion

·        need for revenge

·        need for punishing others

·        need to escape from reality

·        need to deny what is

·        need for self-destruction

 

 

            4. How real people differ from literary characters:

 

            a. Real people are many things at the same time, have many roles, have many "themes" at different times in our lives, have different needs. Usually most people can be located at a major intersection.

 

            b. Real people are complicated, complex, contradictory.

 

            c. Literary people tend to be more simple: they partake of

                        1. the individual (a name, a history, a family, etc.)

                        2. the typical (social role, occupational)

                        3. the universal (the list of desires, needs)