Recently, one of our local high school writing teachers asked me, as a local author, to come and visit his creative writing class.
I suggested a fun workshop on characterization, and he agreed.
It took me a few minutes to get the kids off their cell phones (!) and paying attention, but once they did we had a lot of fun.
We talked about how much characterization can impact story. I asked the kids to be brave enough to act out Cinderella, and they did, which was a lot of fun!
Then I asked them to change the characters in the story. Soon Cinderella was a rat and the charming prince a donkey, and the story moved from the castle to the barnyard. Now they were using their imaginations!
Once we followed where that story lead, we decided to try Charlotte’s web. The students changed the characters again, this time from animals to humans. Wilbur was a nerdy girl in school. (They changed her name to Wilma.) Charlotte became the popular girl, Valerie.
Soon we were talking about inciting incident, antagonists, and a lot more than I thought we’d cover in one session! But the kids were shooting out ideas left and right, and I was having to move quickly to keep up.
This time the story moved to a darker place involving abusive boyfriends and school shootings, which made me realize how much more our teenagers have to deal with today than we did when we were kids. They need all the help they can get. I hope my presence inspired some of them to turn to writing when needed to sort out their feelings.
The teacher was kind enough to take this picture when we were done. It was great to see all the smiling faces!
A few weeks later I got this card in the mail.
This is one thing I love about being a writer—getting a chance to spread my love of writing with others. Here’s wishing this imaginative high school class all the best for their future.