At a bus stop, an airport, a cafeteria, or even a dance, writers can find inspiration in their environment. Sitting in a coffee shop, for example, offers great people-watching which may inspire a story. Writers observe people—their mannerisms, their fashion, their conversations, all their human details—and create a whole history just with a glance. In this activity, I invite my students to find inspiration in the people around them in order to create a fictional character.
Room Arrangement:
I arranged the desks in a circle, so students could see everyone. They wrote details based on someone’s external description, so it helped to see each other.
Grade Level:
Upper elementary, middle, or high school
Time Limit:
You can do this as a 15-minute writing warm-up or expand it to 30 minutes with a time for sharing at the end.
Community Level: Low
This activity is not collaborative. It’s good for the beginning of the year when students don’t really know each other very well. Students are just observing, describing, and inventing.
Accessibility Level: High
Anyone can do this activity. The directions slowly ease students into the creation of a character instead of requiring them to invent a character out of thin air. The activity does not require an immediate idea or inspiration, which sometimes can be a hurdle for students who don’t see themselves as creative writers.
Directions:
Writers find inspiration in the world around them. Writers often use “transference” when writing, taking details from real life and transferring them into fiction. That’s what we are doing today. We’re going to create a fictional character based on someone in this room.
Imagine you are at a coffee shop. Look around the room and choose someone at random. For the next 3-5 minutes, just write down their physical description. Hair, eyes, clothes, shoes, jewelry, the way they sit, the way they write, what accessories they wear.
She has brown curly hair. It’s in waves with a middle part. Some of it down around her face, cateye kind of glasses, black boots, black pants, white top, maroon jacket, right-handed, dark mascara. She uses a mechanical pencil. Her head is down and she has no jewelry, no socks on. She has a black backpack and black purse. Lots of black.
Now look over the physical description you’ve written. What kind of fictional character profile emerges? Give them a fictional name or assign a fictional archetype. Are they an outlaw, an innocent, a hero, a magician? What is this character’s life like? What are they obsessed with? For the next 3-5 minutes, jot down some details of their backstory.
She is a sorcerer-assassin who is being hunted by someone. She is not an outlaw, but works for a large federation. Her family are all like this. Even her grandfather, who was the best and her great aunt who kept up the family name when she was 90.
Now write some dialogue between this character and another character, maybe one based on you. To get started, you can use one or two of the following questions. Write for 3-5 minutes.
Why are you here?
What is your secret?
Who are you running from?
What weapons or powers do you own?
Will you be successful?
“Why are you here?”
“I have been running all night and found this cave thinking no one was here. I did not see your light. You have covered yourself up very well.”
“But why are you here?”
“I could ask you the same.”
“I am running from someone.”
“I too am running from someone.”
“So here we are together in hiding. It’s almost morning and we will have no more darkness to cover our movements soon. Do you seek shelter elsewhere or stay and sleep through the night?
“I must find my family. I am slight and must move in the darkness.”
“What weapons do you have for protection?”
“Just a small pen knife with a poison tip. It’s very delicate. It was given to my sister by our mother before she died.”
Student Rating:
They liked creating a fictional character, but they said they felt self-conscious and awkward at times looking around the room at everyone, and everyone looking at them too. They also didn’t want to reveal who they based their character on because they didn’t want to “be mean” if the person didn’t like their fictional character.