Day 3 - Characters

Today we are going to look at our characters a bit more closely. There are many character questionnaires on the internet. I have chosen the Gotham Writer's Questionnaire for Burcu and Aydın. One of their assignments today will be to find another questionnaire of their own on the internet. Here is the Gotham Writer's Questionnaire:
https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/character-questionnaire/gotham

Gotham Character Questionnaire
This questionnaire is found in Gotham Writers Workshop's Writing Fiction.
You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:

• What is your characters name? Does the character have a nickname?
• What is your characters hair color? Eye color?
• What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?
• Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them
• Who are your characters friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?
• Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?
• Where does your character go when hes angry?
• What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?
• Does she have a secret?
• What makes your character laugh out loud?
• When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?

Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:

• What is in your characters refrigerator right now? On her bedroom floor? On her nightstand? In her garbage can?
• Look at your characters feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?
• When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?
• Your character is doing intense spring cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?
• Its Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If hes eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If shes stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?
• What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?
• Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?

You can find Aydın and Burcu's answers at the Characters tab on the menu bar. Their assignment was to answer the first set of questions. From their answers they were then asked to form a paragraph. Aydın wrote his on Google documents and Burcu and I helped him correct his mistakes. Burcu will send hers this week to us and we will correct hers as well.

Homework:
1. To correct Burcu's work
2. Pick one of the questions in the second part and write an answer to it.  Burcu picked the 1st question and Aydın picked the 5th.

This is what Burcu and I looked like after today's session :)

Day 2

Both Aydın and Burcu were given assignments to write a scene from the outline of their novel. Here is Burcu's piece: It is when Daniel and Berri are partnered for a school assignment. This is an important part of the book because this is where everything really starts. Berri and Daniel don't like eachother at this point and hate being partnered.

“Ok. Students. The end of this school year is coming. You have finished your exams. Now the fun part is coming. Project time! The class doesn’t cheer but the teacher is cheering so loudly that she thinks all of them are cheering. One of the students asks

“What is the topic of this project?”

“You are going to make a volcano.”

Now the class is cheering, shouting, talking about being partners with eachother.

“Class I have bad news; I have chosen your partners. Now I’m going to announce it.”

“Ben and Amy, Alex and Sarah…Berri and Daniel”

Berri doesn’t want to be with Daniel because he is lazy , stupid, and they just fought three days ago. He only cares about himself and his money. Being partners with Daniel is a nightmare.  

We are using all of the advantages of the internet...Aydın joins us from home via SKYPE and Burcu comes to the Writing House. Today Aydın shared his work online with us. We hope he gets his camera working soon so we can see him aswell as hear him :)

Aydın shared his work on his screen and we share documents with him on Google documents. Here is his piece:

"WHO ARE YOU?" a voice asked.It was a loud and strange voice but it was soft. The Guards pulled the bags from their heads.Berri and Daniel were shocked. There was a giant cat sitting on a giant throne.

Berri started screaming:

-LET US GO WE ARE INNOCENT!

Berri started to shiver but Daniel was relaxed, he didn't looked afraid.He was cool. Berri was shocked.

The cat asked again.

-WHO ARE YOU?

Berry was still shouting. Daniel was cool.

-Im Daniel and she is Berry.

-Hmmm.Guards take them to dungeons and bring me the Wizard.

Berry was still shouting. The dungeons were cold the bars were made of some kind of magical material.There was no way to escape.They stayed there for 3-4 hours.Berri didn't stop shouting or talking  about the bad situation they are in.The guards brought them to the Cat again.Berri was still shouting.

-You should stop shouting!

said the cat and threw some dust on Berri.

-I won't hurt you.You are free to go. But first you must solve the puzzles.

A rough outline of the novel... there is still a lot of work to do.

April 20th 2016

  

Today...

We started our novel. We wrote our teaser. We brainstormed about the novel. We need to start to brainstorm Daniel's life and write the rest of the book...

My homework is to find a name for the book and write Daniel's life
Burcu

We brainstormed.
We made a framework.
We gathered background info
We wrote a summary

We need to:
Write the characteristics of supporting characters and find a name for the book.
Find why things happen in the story.

My homework is to make a list of supporting characters and write something about them.
Aydın