Character Development 2: The Voice

[Prof. Sky Alton]

Finding a characters voice is another one of those scary prospects. A good way of finding your way to it is considering how they’d react (and even better what they’d say) when asked something or when confronted by something. That way you may start to get a sense of how they’d narrate a particular scene themselves given the chance.

To try to spark off this process, I thought we’d adapt the practice of Character Sheets. Rather than you answering questions about your character though, let them do it for themselves. Be honest: if you think they’d find the entire exercise a waste of their time, let them tell you so. If you think they’d lie, let them lie.

Hand this survey to one of the characters you came up with last time and see what response you get.

Name:
Age:
Occupation:
Relationship Status:
How would you describe yourself?
What three things would improve your life right now?
What do you spend most of your money on?
What’s your attitude to honesty?
Do you value friendship or family more?
What do you spend a lot of time thinking about?

Your answers should equal 200 words for full credit but if they don’t, you can always fill out the questionnaire for an additional character and submit both.

You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.

[Iverian Gnash]

The boy on the skateboard is filling out this character sheet.

Name: Adrian (though I must say I'd prefer it changed to something else... just don't know what yet)
Age: 17
Occupation: Umm, school... 11th grade to be exact.
Relationship Status: Seriously? Single - probably forever.

How would you describe yourself?

I'd say I'm pretty cool to be honest. Got some awesome tricks on my skateboard, I'm pretty chill overall, not much matters to me.

What three things would improve your life right now?

Only three? I guess if school wasn't so insanely difficult would be the first - might actually be able to impress someone after all. Second, man I could really use a new skateboard to be honest. I was thinking about having one in red this time, rather eye catching. Third, a new sibling, mine's too hard to compete with, I always end up feeling like the disappointment.

What do you spend most of your money on?

Right now probably clothes and food. A new pair of shoes last week, I have a habit of stopping by McDonalds a lot when I'm passing by for some fries - I mean, who doesn't. But I don't have much money of my own to spend anyway, so not all that much is spent.

What’s your attitude to honesty?

I don't think about these kinds of questions much. It's good I guess unless it'll hurt someone. I don't much care about it to be honest - no pun intended.

Do you value friendship or family more?

Again, I don't think about this much either. Despite the stereotype surrounding teens, I don't have much of either, but if I had to choose, definitely value friendship more. You can choose you friends, you can't choose your family, but then again you may just consider your friends to be family after all. Now I'm not making sense.

What do you spend a lot of time thinking about?

People's attitudes and opinions actually. Everything seems to revolve around them. Tell someone what career you want to go into, what your life plan is, where you want to travel, or just something small like the next skill you want to learn. People will give you their opinion whether or not you ask for it. So yeah, I spend a long time thinking about it all.

[Silvana Mandeville]

A young woman who is enjoying her ice cream filling up her character sheet.

Name: Ana Li {This is a character from my story who I love so much! I really enjoy writing about her}

Age: 23 years old

Occupation: An Editor Copy at one of Seoul's Publisher.

Relationship Status: Single, but got my eyes on someone who works at the flower shop across from my office.

How would you describe yourself? I am a Chinese girl who just finished college and moving to South Korea for work. I stay with my uncle and his family. I am ... well you can say friendly, like to making friends. Sometimes in my free time, I love to do photography ㅡ I take a lot of pretty pictures of the Earth and also the sky. Aside from that, I also doing a part-time job as a tour guide. Well, it was when I was still at Beijing, in Seoul I haven't done it yet. I love to read, especially fantasy! Watching movies when I am not busy or go to orchestra concert with my cousins.

What three things would improve your life right now?
First is I want to improve my skills at languages. I graduated from Foreign Language and Literature, but sometimes my skill in slang is not really good yet. When I am at work or with my little cousinㅡwho is being up to date with everything, I am somehow kind of lost when talking with them.

Second is I want to buy an apartment for myself. Though my uncle would hardly accept it, I want to be independent by moving out. At his house, I was treated just like a princess, everything was already being prepared.

Third is my baking skill! I want to learn more so I can open my bakery one day.

What do you spend most of your money on? Clothes, books, and junk foods. On weekend I am always out with my cousins to watch some movies or concert. Or maybe paying for my brother when he is visiting me in Seoul. And another thing I spend my money to is for my trip! I love to do trips.

What’s your attitude to honesty? Hm, I always try to be honest to anyone if I have to. But, well sometimes I did not have to tell people everything right? And they should not really know about myself unless it is I who tell them. Sometimes I always answered them with a riddle to let them think what my real answer is.

Do you value friendship or family more? I think it is family. Both are important though, but sometimes we don't have to have bestfriend if we have our family as a bestfriend. And I got too much trust issues with new people so I don't have many friend I can be considered as a bestfriend, and them who being my bestfriend was already be my family. So, I guess I value the family more then friendship. Family, no matter how bad they are, they are still our family, who know us the best and love us more, though sometimes they don't know how to show it properly.

What do you spend a lot of time thinking about? Work, how to be a mature woman, my future husband, and family.

{PS. English is not my first language, so I am sure I did mistake here and there. But, if you find some typos on my work, feel free to correct me! I am always open to any correction which improve my writing skill.
PSS. Thank you again for Prof. Tarma and Prof. Sky for being my editors.}