Storytelling: Fourth Lecture

Characters and Speech

FOURTH LECTURE

sjoerd-jeroen [email protected] education | storytelling | culture

THE CHARACTER/GOAL MODEL

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sjoerd-jeroen [email protected] http://moenandar.blogspot.com

o The encounter makes clear who we are

o The encounter makes clear who we are not

o We are the relationships we have with others

o One person is no person

THE ENCOUNTER

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Who are you?

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o Answer: The story of a lifeo Who are the characters who play a

role in that story?o The relationships we have with those

characters make us who we are

EXERCISE 1

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Write down the question that you think is the best question to ask when

you want to get to know someone

EXERCISE 2

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Find a random person and interview this person. Get to know this person as well as

possible.

Handout 3

Adriaan van Dis, “A Plate of Spaghetti”

CHARACTERISATION

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http://sjmoenandar.blogspot.com/p/normal-0-false-false-false-fr-x-none-x.html

http://sjmoenandar.blogspot.com/p/normal-0-false-false-false-fr-x-none-x.html

oExplicit (“he is crazy”)oImplicit (“he

said that he was Napoleon”)

CHARACTERS: CHARACTERISATION

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oCharacterization of a character by him- or herself

oCharacterization of a character by another character or the storyteller

CHARACTERISATION

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o Representation of thoughts, words and consciousness of characters and storyteller

o 3 types:• Direct speech: He said: “I have

to teach tomorrow.”• Indirect speech: He said that

he had to teach tomorrow.• Free indirect speech: He had

to teach tomorrow (often unclear if this is the speech of the storyteller or the character).

SPEECH

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DIALOGUE

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o ‘Show don’t tell’ is not relevant here:• “AAAAH!!! LOOK OUT YOU FOOL!!!!!!!” “BAM!”• “No,” he yelled. “No, no, no, no, no!”• “W-w-what do you mean?”

o Instead: describe, or use indirect speech and free indirect speech: • He let out a scream and yelled: “Look out, you fool!” A loud

bang followed. • “No” – he kept repeating the word, his schoulders were

shaking, a look of deep shock on his face.• Stumbling over his words, he asked her what she meant.

DIALOGUE

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o People often don’t have the same conversation. You can use this.

Hafis pointed at his screen and said: “Look Skander, this is how you should write a dialogue.”“What a horrible font.”“But you get my point, right,” Hafis continued, “you know, concerning punctuation and things like that?”“Blimey, it’s worse than comic sans!”With a sudden movement Hafis got up and left the office, shouting that this was the last straw. Skander would have to work on his own from now on.

o Please also note issues of punctuation for a dialogue (see the sentences above.)

DIALOGUE: PUNCTUATION

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o After a question mark or exclamation mark in direct speech there is no period, comma or capital:• “What do you want?”, she asked. • “What do you want?” She asked.• “What do you want?” she asked.

o Don’t end direct speech with a period if it is part of a sentence:• “I don’t agree." he stated. • “I don’t agree.” He stated.• “I don’t agree,” he stated.

DIALOGUE: PUNCTUATION

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o Never use more than one ‘sentence stopper’(., ! or ?) at the end of your sentence:• “No,” he said, “Do I look like I’m crazy?”. • “No,” he said, “do I look like I’m crazy?”• He added: “That’s insane!”. • Hij added: “That’s insane!”• She said: “I don’t think so.”. • She said: “I don’t think so.”

EXERCISE 3

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In groups of 2 persons:

Write a dialogue between a father and his daughter. She wants to visit her best friend who is studying in Amsterdam. He has his doubts. She is angry about this, because her sister was allowed to travel to Turkey

alone this summer and she always feels as if her sister is her dad’s favourite.

Rule: you are not allowed to actually mention the sister in the dialogue, nor are you allowed to let the father directly say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Storytelling: Fourth Lecture

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