Workshop 2

Class started with an exercise, Write about a character that goes against the grain. After five minutes, I introduced the day's topic, character. We discussed the ways a writer can show character. Physically - how they dress, what they look like. Personality, Background - what happened to them in the past, Speech. We discussed how a writer can speculate as to what motivates the character to behave the way they do. What do they love and hope for? What do they hate or fear? We read excerpt from Jamaica Kincaid’s book, My Brother. The section we looked at profiled the author’s mother. What do we learn about this character from the excerpt? Participant1: “Overbearing!” How did the author show that, without using the word? Discussed concrete versus abstract words. Concrete words are the words you experience with your senses. Abstract words are conceptual- words you experience only in the mind. “Abstract words are adjectives” Participant1 offered. And concrete words? “Nouns.” Kincaid shows us her mother is overbearing with concrete examples- chewing the food for her children, sucking the snot out of their noses when the child has a cold, but acting harsh and unsympathetic when the child in grown. “We think she’s caring and kind at first,” Participant2 said, “but then we get a bigger picture.” Participant3, too, commented on how more and more is revealed. Ultimately, the piece is about motherhood, and love- not just Jamaica Kincaid’s mom but mothers in general. How was the character revealed? We went back to our notes, and all the ways a character can be revealed. Discussed the mother’s speech. Some speculated that the character might be less educated because she used slang, “yam up yo food” but Participant3 recognized the expression as West Indian.

Following this, participants wrote on a second prompt: Tell a story about a character that was not who they said they were. Before writing, there was some discussion of what this means. The easy examples are a con artist or hustler. “Someone who was fronting,” Participant1 offered. Exactly. After we wrote for 20 minutes, most shared their work. Discussed how it is not uncommon for a character to present themselves as one thing, but be something else. Everybody’s got a back story, lots of people have something they’d rather hide.

The Kingfisher
By Kurt S.

Margie and I were working in New Jersey, backwoods assisting in building condos for the Gene Movahill Golf Course. The project manager and his lovely wife (she was really a bitch) hired one of the painters to assist in the opening of a restaurant (a total failure). Sam, as we knew him, was 5'10," white, educated, a crackhead (as we came to find out later) and a painter.

Sam was a good painter. He worked his way into the project manager's graces until Sam was driving his white Chevy truck.

One day they sent Sam to Paterson to pick up furniture with $1500 cash and he never returned. The lovely wife of the PM called the NJ State troopers and came to find out that Sam was wanted for kidnapping. He had abducted a woman, stolen her car, put her in the trunk and drove her around using her money card for almost two days. While attempting a stop he tried to run over a NJ Trooper in trying to escape.

Two weeks later Margie and I saw Sam on Americas Most Wanted. He was later arrested in NYC while trying to shoplift mayo and tuna.

Sam was not who we thought he was.