'Without a character you have no action, without action there is no conflict, without conflict there is no story' - Syd Field
Characters are the main focus , without a character there is nothing and the narrative reveals round the character.
What Makes a Good Character?
Next activity was to look at character development and why characters are important to a narrative.
Luna
Characters are the main focus , without a character there is nothing and the narrative reveals round the character.
What Makes a Good Character?
Next activity was to look at character development and why characters are important to a narrative.
Carnelle Scott
‘Carnelle Scott is young and beautiful and full of dreams and is feeling marooned in the Yazoo city, Mississippi. Her only way out is by winning the town’s beauty pageant on the Fourth of July. Carnelle Scott Successfully escapes from her home town by winning the beauty pageant’
- Why would this ending not work?
This ending would not work as it is a fairytale ending and it is too predictable which makes it boring. This is because there is no character development and the story ends without having a moral.
Here are bullet points for an alternative ending for this story also the progression of the character Carnelle Scott and her back story.
- The only way Carnelle can be happy is to win the pageant.
- Her dad disagrees with beauty pageants as it reminds him to much of Carnelle’s mum who is dead. Also he does not want his daughter to become a sex symbol.
- To pay for the pageants Carnelle takes multiple jobs behind her dad’s back and to do this she has to drop out of college.
- Carnelle spoke to her godmother who used be in the pageants with her mother and the god mother agreed to help Carnelle with the pageant preparations. And she gives Carnelle her mums winning dress.
- Carnelle’s dad finds out and gets angry and gives the her the big speech and tells Carnelle that she is not going
- The godmother and Carnelle go behind her father’s back and enter the pageant. Her dad finds out and follows them to the pageant where the godmother has a serious and deep conversation with him.
- Carnelle comes runner up in the pageant, she doesn’t get the trip of a life time but she gets money to help towards the trip that she wants.
This story ending is much better to the first as it is not predictable, and you can see how the characters develop throughout.
From this activity I have learnt how to progress on a story also how to do a character back story as the history of a character is important to the narrative.- Age: Ten years old
- Gender: Female
- Her Dad became a ice cream man after he re-married because his pervious wife that passed away and her favourite food was ice-cream
- Luna also has a love for ice cream
- Is isolated from friends after grievance
- Due to the period of loneliness before remarrying, Luna has a very close bond with her dad
- Luna accompanies her dad when he is working because she is hesitant to leave him alone, also because she likes ice cream just like her mum did
- The family came from a poorer background so felt isolated amongst other children because she couldn’t afford things (e.g. scooters)
- She is shy and timid and has no confidence, due to the nightmares she has every night which makes her very nervous and frightened when he comes
