Part Two – Appealing Characters …
Diana Wynne Jones Reading – Highlights
Creating Your World
- Every book should develop its own individual atmosphere on page one, certainly before the end of chapter one without the use of long winding descriptions.
- Visualise, see the place in your mind, as wholly and exactly as you can, as if you were standing in the place yourself, and then simply write the story that happens there.
- Just important as the setting, people in the story usually have to be fairly strong, dynamic characters, and some of them have to be people that children will follow willingly into the action. It does not matter that they are not children as long as someone in the story is likeable, understandable or a loveable rogue and so on. Many characters in books for children are animals, and are much loved by children, but beware of making absurd random changes – such as Toad in The Wind in the Willows who is sometimes frog-size and sometimes human-size, which tends to destroy any feeling of the reality of the story.
- As long as you have one sympathetic character any number of baddies is acceptable. It helps if the author themselves hate the baddie. Understanding the baddies may be politically correct but is not recommended.
- Again don’t waste time describing. Before you start writing, you will need to know your characters so well that you can hear their voices – then what they say will come out right without you really trying – and see details that won’t get into the book, like the way they walk and what they habitually wear. This is where understanding your baddies comes in, and you have to know what they are really after, and why.
Getting Vocabulary Right
- It is not at all necessary to limit yourself only to easily-understood words. After all, how else are children going to learn new words unless they read them?
- On the other hand, almost anything worth saying can be said in short, simple words, and tends to make a greater impact if it is. The advice here is not to start your book with a string of unusual words which will be off-putting, but to include them by all means when the context makes it clear what the words mean.
- Sentences must be constructed so that readers will not lose their way in them. If you are in any doubt, read the sentence aloud. This will almost infallibly show you if it is right or wrong, because you will get in a muddle if it is wrong.
- People needlessly worry about how long a children’s book should be. If your story is fascinating enough, children will read it whatever its length.
- The suggested readership age is something to let the publisher worry about. Most children read what grabs them, regardless, and your book will write itself regardless. For this reason it is best, if your protagonists are children, never actually to specify their actual ages. No one is more humiliated than the 12-year-old who eagerly follows the adventures of a strong character, only to find that this character is five years old.
Exercise
Create names and character profiles for at least three characters.
Make one a character with which your reader can identify.
Make one an adult character with some villainous qualities.
Make one mysterious in some way – a stranger perhaps, or with some supernatural qualities, or even (traditionally popular in children’s fiction) an anthropomorphic, talking animal.
Write down names, physical description, temperamental qualities, characteristic gestures and figures of speech, and any past secrets. Keep thinking about these characters until you can feel them coming to life. How would they get on with each other? Write down who might be natural allies and enemies.
Character Profiles
(ORIGINAL IDEA)
PINO
- Bully picks on smaller classmates
- Never does homework, always gets someone else to do it – the story is about being responsible for your own work
- Transition between school and home life. You know he isn’t all too bad because he has been raised in a big Italian family. Different contexts different personalities – the story is about realising that you should stay true to who you are, no need for false identities
- Leader
- Realises errors of his way. Must defeat Franklin – the story is about coming to terms with who you are and then working to be a better self
- Magic eraser
- Plots with Cassie to bring down Franklin
- Big, solid boy
FRANKLIN
- New kid in town
- Mysterious, keeps to himself
- Accumulates power. The power goes to his head, ego inflation – the story is about being humble. It is about being an equal
- Dictates the future through his journal. He writes down his fantasies of what people will become to control them
- How did he come into possession of the journal? The journal is the source of his power.
- Small, freakly faced Harry Potter-ish
CASSIE
- Teachers favourite
- Overall nice girl
- Becomes Franklin’s enemy. Jealous because of her intelligence. He pretends to like her but really despises her. His fantasies do not work on people who have done no wrong against him – the story is about karma. The bad are punished
- Petite and pretty, rosy cheeks
(REVISED IDEA) – Plot still revolves around story of Pinocchio, in that Pino must prove himself to be worthy of being a boy again.
|
NAME |
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION |
TEMPERMENT |
GESTURES/ FIGURES OF SPEECH |
SECRETS |
ALLIES/ |
| Pino(Protagonist) | Male/ Young schoolboy/ Solid Build, bigger than most boys his age/ Always wears a cap | School bully/ Very extroverted, outgoing, loud/ Disruptive in class, jokes around with friends instead of listening | Pounds his fist into his palm to threaten the smaller boys/ Mutters under his breathe when he gets into trouble | Has trouble with his schoolwork, can’t do it on his own but won’t admit it | (Pino is the main character and this column will list whether the other characters are allies or enemies of Pino) |
| HE BECOMES | A pencil | Realises the effects of his behaviour on his peers/ Transforms/ Appreciates his education and his peers and teachers/ Learns to work with others | Is still a leader in his gang and still rules the school but total attitude shift/ Acknowledges his newfound friends with a | |
|
| Miss Daisy(Class Teacher) | Female/ Petite and pretty/ Always wears a bow in her hair | Passive/ Gentle natured/ Kind, caring/ Happy/ Encouraging | Always smiles even when she is angry, hides her anger/ Sweet soft laugh | She is a witch with two personalities and it is not until Pino pushes her to the edge that she snaps and Miss Vile overtakes her body. Miss Daisy then becomes trapped as a journal and then it is Pino’s and Oscar’s mission to turn Miss Daisy back, and destroy Miss Vile. | Ally |
| SHE BECOMES A Journal as Miss Vile overtakes her body | Messy hair/ Ugly/ Mole on the face | Very upfront/ Impatient/ Scary/ Strict/ Mean | Cackles/ Walks with a cane and slams the cane to gain attention and threatens children with it/ Punishes those who don’t do their homework by making them write out lines until they get blisters on their hands (and cackles watching them) | Enemy | |
| Oscar(Nerd) | Male/ Young schoolboy/ Small build/ Glasses/ Side swept fringe | Very introverted, quiet, reserved/ Always does his work/ Gives into Pino’s demands, does his homework for him/ Nervous | Always fixes his glasses which slip from his face because he is so small/ Fumbles, drops books | Oscar is extremely intelligent but people are unaware of his ability because he is so introverted. He is an inventor and can come up with many ideas. | Ally |
