The Teachers Blackboard Ó2006

By

Karen Newcomb

Publisher’s note: Karen Newcomb is an award winning writing teacher. With this issue of the newsletter she starts a new column on writing, for teachers and home schoolers who want to help their students understand the writing process.

The purpose of this column is two fold, one, for the teacher to understand how a story goes together so you can better help a student create their own story.  The second, when a student understands what a story is, they learn to appreciate the books they choose to read.  And a bonus to this is they will be able to choose whether they want to read a selected book in the first three pages.

Last month I talked about the five parts that go into making up a novel.  But in each of these parts are a lot of necessary elements.  Under part one, the main character (also known as the hero/heroine, focal character or protagonist) the first thing to do is have your students create a name.  This can be done as a class project or an individual effort.  The reason for creating a name first?  You are going to be bringing this character to life element by element.  Once you breathe life into a character, that character will fit into any situation given them in any story line.  There are times when the story idea comes first and selection of characters comes second.  Either way is works. 

names

Be careful when choosing names for any character.  The names must not only sound right when you read them, but they should look right on the page.  A book of baby names comes in handy here.  Students of any age usually have their favorite names and strangely enough, usually this is one element they seem to agree on the most.

Character names should reflect the type of story they will be in.  For instance, a western story of cowboys, or even modern day horse stories, will have names like John, Mary, Joe, Jane, Ann.  These are simple names that reflect a period of history or a lifestyle.  Tom Sawyer, a historic account of youth on the Mississippi is another example of simple names of that era.  Today’s youth, and well into their early 30s, love the Manga and Toykopop graphic novels.  The novel Harry Potter, though set in another country, uses common names of today.  Fantasy and science fiction stories will have names that fit the story.  When in doubt about current names and books the kids are reading, ask them.  It makes for a good discussion as to how the names fit into a story.  To student readers these characters mean something to them no matter what book they are talking about.

Select names with different vowels, shape, number of syllables, divided names or ethnic names.  Again, students who read would love to talk about their favorite characters and what they think about the names.  Visual names like Helen, Allison, Michael, Nicholas are just a few that look good in print.

 Always watch the ending of the names, so they don’t sound alike.  It’s very confusing to the reader when you have one character named Robby and another Bobby.  It doesn’t matter that they are spelled differently, they sound alike when you read them.  A main character has to have a name that reflects the status they’ve been given.

Concentrate on the main character’s name first.  Then move on to secondary characters.   And you don’t have to give every character a name, just those that will have speaking parts and interact with the main character.

Practice with names.  Write them down, look at them, say them aloud.  One word of warning…once a name is chosen for the main character never change that name in the story.  To do that would be confusing to the author who would forget at least once of the name change.

Remember too that there are good guys (protagonist/hero/focal character) and bad guys (antagonist) in every story.  Names should reflect the image that the character is portraying.  Again, students who read a lot of books can talk about the bad guys in any story they are reading.  The bad guy should have the heavy-handed names. 

Nicknames work well too, but that nickname should reflect the character. At one time a character called Encyclopedia Jones was a popular read, the nickname certainly gave a hint into this main character. 

If we go back to referring to fairy tales, what did Cinderella stand for?  Or Snow White?  How about the cartoon characters the Smurfs?  If every character in the Smurfs is blue how do you suppose we recognize each and every one by their name?  That is the next element I’ll discuss next month…Developing character traits. 

Assignment:

Select a book the class is currently reading, or even one they have read.  Spend some time asking questions about the main character’s name.  Ask the students how that character’s name may have affected the story line.  Did they liked the name or dislike it. 

Have them choose 5 names that they think would suit a main character.  Then choose 2 names for the secondary characters or bad guys.  Ask them why they think these names reflect a bad guy. 

The discussion of names can carry over to any movie or video you may have the class watch.