Tag archives for Characters
Writing Good Living History Characters for Re-enactors
This second post in the living history series is on creating good living history characters. The previous blog post was on the five steps for scripting living history events, of which creating your living history characters is the fifth step. Cooking snacks for soldiers at a living history event Living history events are a sort of promenade theatre with a lot of improvisation. Re-enactors are often mingled with the public, and many will be answering questions one to one. So living history characters need to be more robust than if you were writing for another medium. Here's what you need to do: Outline the scenario Work out what characters you need for the scenario Provide background for each character Define limits for improvisation Cast people as your main characters & brief them 1. Outline Your Scenario Mass-produced colour photolithography on paper…
Writing Exercise – Lovesick Witch
I'm in the middle of a 10 day online tutorial for A215 Creative Writing (not continuously for ten days, thankfully, but in little bits posted to the tutor group forum over a ten day period). So the first task was to create a character randomly based on two lists, one of traits/conditions and the other of occupations. Being a gamer I rolled dice to choose my combination and got 'Lovesick Witch'. So here are the 200 words (199 actually) that I wrote to show that character (the rules being that it needed to be show in third person, rather than a descriptive tell and that we needed to avoided stereotypes). Lovesick Witch Her phone still had no updates. When he’d smiled at her, she felt warm inside. She’d re-read the message asking if she wanted to meet him for coffee…
Character Profile – Cat Lewis
Cat Lewis is the fourth ‘perfect’ living in the shared house. Like the others she also grew up in Dawkins House. Cat has a very technical bent, and understands how things work. She doesn’t get overtly involved in Charlie’s nefarious activities, but knows about them and sometimes helps out behind the scenes. Physical description Cat is about 22, slim, average height and with black hair and an elfin face with large blue eyes. Her hair is just below the shoulder, although it is often tied up somehow. She dresses in black most of the time, although varies her clothes according to the social situation, getting glammed up with Rosie when they go out clubbing or to a party. When at work she tends to wear black trousers and black t-shirts or jerseys (depending on the weather). Like the others, her…
Rosie Giraud – Perfects Character Profile
Rosie Giraud is the third character from Perfects (taster excerpt available for free on smashwords). She's probably the next most major player in Perfects. Rosie Giraud Rosie has just turned twenty and is another of the genetically modified Hephaestus children. Like the other characters from Perfects she grew up in Dawkins House (born 2029, left there 2046). She is Charlie’s second in command and the link person for the cell. Physical Description Rosie Giraud is an attractive young woman of average height and a relatively slim build, although with an understated hourglass figure (you have no doubt about hips, waist and bust, but none of it is especially prominent). Her complexion is very pale olive, with has light brown eyes and long tightly waved hair. Rosie's hair is a mixture of light brown and blonde with hints of ginger. Her skin is very clear…
Character Profile – Charlie Semaj
I thought people might be interested in some of the character notes I made when writing the Exodus series. Not all of these are completely publishable, as they have spoilers for unpublished episodes, but I'll post up what is visible over the next few days. Here is Charlie Semaj, the first character we meet. Charlie Semaj Charlie Semaj is one of the early children that were genetically modified by Hephaestus Genetics. He was born to a surrogate mother in Cambridge in 2025 and grew up in the children’s home there, leaving it to attend University College London in 2043 where he studied Genetics for a year. When the scandal broke and Hephaestus went bust Charlie lost the funding for his univeristy place and had to drop out having only completed his first year. (more…)