Creative Character Sketches

Emphasis on the Creative! (Finally!)

If you look back at the texts we have read this year, you will notice that all of them have been centered on
strong characters. Regardless of how you feel about Antigone, Oliver, Romeo, Juliet, Homer, Elie and
Toby/Jack, as a reader we know about who they are, how they feel and what they care about. In addition, as
we read these various short stories you will see that each one is concerned with characters. We will be inside
their thoughts, listening to them speak, standing next to them as they act, or hearing how they describe
themselves in written form.

Your task is to create a fictional character. You will know this person inside and out. After you have created
your character, you will write four short creative pieces, each about two pages, that allow us to understand
who your character is. Here is how to go about doing this:

1. Create your character. I will give you a sheet to help you do this. Your character can be anyone- a
used car salesman, an aide to the President, a homeless woman, a ten year old child, a professional ice
dancer, an old man in a nursing home… The only limitations: While you are creating a fictional
character, they must be realistic (they may not be a magician.) You may give your character any
profession, situation or location provided you don’t have to research too many details about it (if you
don’t know about astrophysics or what Stockholm is like, don’t create a Swedish scientist.) It is up to
you to decide how your character behaves, what your character cares about, and what his or her
personality is like. Everyone has flaws and secrets and a past- how does your character show these?

2. Once you have created your character, choose four of the below options to write about. While these
are going to be written about the same character that is the only thing that they need to have in
common. Your character might write a diary entry about a fight she had with her son, but then your
description of her doing an ordinary thing might be her driving to the grocery store three years after
the fight and never mention it.

Your character sketch options are below. Choose four.

a. Interior Monologue: Capture your characters thoughts as he or she does something (which
could be as simple as waiting for the phone as in Parker’s story.)
b. Dramatic Monologue: Put your character in some situation where he or she is forced to speak.
Capture just his or her words, but like Joyce Carol Oates does, allow the reader to understand
the situation from the character’s words.
c. Extraordinary: Capture your character doing something extraordinary and life-changing. This
may be from his or her perspective or from an anonymous narrator.
d. Ordinary: Capture your character doing something completely boring and ordinary. This may
be from his or her perspective or from an anonymous narrator.
e. Letter or Diary Narration: Have your character write a letter or a diary entry related to
something that happened to him or her, or related to concerns that the character has such as in
“Inter-Office.”
f. Personal Narrative: Insert your character into your life somewhere, whether it is your daily life
or something that happened in the past. Describe the interaction from your point of view (here
this is you as you, not you as the narrator. Use your real feelings and real thoughts on what
your character is a part of.)
g. Dual Narration: Capture something in your character’s life and switch from his or her point of
view to the point of view of someone or something else. Like “The Sinking House” switch
between the two points of view. The other view could be another person, or a dog, or the
television- it is up to you.
h. Memoir: Writer a piece of your character’s memoir. Like Wolff or Amy Tan, this will include
 description of some event from the past, as well as how the person looks at it now and how it
shaped them.
i. Dialogue: Create a conversation between your character and another person about something
that happened or something they feel or disagree about. Use the dialogue to show us what
happened.
j. Best: Capture your character at his or her best. The character should be doing something that
showcases his or her talent, brings out his or her best characteristics and shows he or she to be
a good person. This may be from his or her perspective or from an anonymous narrator.
k. Worst: Capture your character at his or her worst. The character should be doing something
that illustrates his or her weaknesses, brings out his or her worst characteristics and shows he
or she is not necessarily a good person. This may be from his or her perspective or from an
anonymous narrator.
l. Inner group: Have your character join in some way one of our English classes. They might be
a student, a visiting parent, or a person peeking in the window. Describe an experience or
interaction he or she has in room 123. You may include members of the class if it is done
respectfully if you have their permission.

3. Your four sketches should be creative and interesting and written with a specific style in mind. If you
choose to do a dramatic monologue, you will be focused on writing interesting dialogue that sounds as
if a real person has spoken it. If you choose to capture your character doing something extraordinary,
you should have rich descriptive details that allow your reader to visualize him or her. Look at the
short stories we are reading in this unit. These are character sketches, not a full story or novel, and so
there will be parts of your character’s personality that we never get to see. Perhaps you have decided
that your character is incredibly stubborn, but when you write your character sketches, you never
show us that. This is ok!

Each sketch must be at least two pages long. It will be double-spaced, 12 point font, Times New
Roman. Give each sketch a creative interesting title. Staple your sketches together. Include a cover
page which has a name for your collection of character sketches as well as the types of sketches you
did and the titles of your sketches.

4. We will have time in class to be working on these character sketches. You should have everything
you need to work on these in class everyday. In addition, we will have mini lessons on various
creative writing techniques and styles that are relevant to both our short story unit and our character
sketches.

5. On ______________________________ a complete draft of your character sketches is due in class.

We will have time to conference with one another and revise your sketches.

6. Your final character sketch collection of four sketches is due in class on _______________________.
On this day, you will give a short one minute presentation to the class about your character. More on
that to come.