Creating Character & Writing a Fictionalized Blog Post

These activities are meant to be used with the YA novel Speak.

Step one: Develop a fictional character

First: Copy the following list and paste it into a Google Doc. Call it “yourlastname Fictional Character.” Share it with me. Then answer all the questions for your student character. Be consistent. This means, all your answers have to make sense for the person you’re inventing. The only choice you don’t have is that you have to be a freshman.

  1. Are you a boy or girl?
  2. What kind of student are you? (For example, serious about classes, grades, etc. or??)
  3. What is your favorite class and why?
  4. What is your least favorite class and why?
  5. What clubs, sports, or other activities are you involved in? Describe your role or talent in these areas.
  6. Who are your friends? [Choose from actual Merryweather High students]. How would you describe your relationship with them?
  7. What’s your home life like? You don’t have to get too personal, but tell about your parents, what they do, and what your relationship is like with them.
  8. What are your talents?
  9. What do you like to do in your personal time?
  10. What do you look like? Be specific.
  11. Do you have a favorite teacher at Merryweather High? Who is it and why is he/she your favorite?
  12. What would teachers say about you?
  13. What are you most afraid of?
  14. What makes you laugh?
  15. Who do you admire and why?
  16. What is your name? Do you have a nickname?

If you feel like your character is a bit flat, you can find more questions here and some tips here.

Step two: Next, pretend Hairwoman is asking students to practice public speaking by introducing themselves to their English class. Of course, you’ll have to write your introduction, but as you write, you can imagine your character saying the words out loud. Besides including some of the details from the list above, the most important thing to do is to create a strong voice. Make your character sound like a real person, and let his/her personality shine through your words. You don’t have to include all of the details from the list above. In fact, it would be really awkward if you did. Just choose certain details, maybe the ones that help you best express this person’s character. Your introduction does not have to be longer than about 150-200 words. You can make it longer than that, but please, DO NOT go over 300 words!!

Example of what you might write: (this sample is 197 words long)

Hey y’all. My name is Elly and I just moved to Syracuse, and I’m new to Merryweather high. I grew up in South Carolina. My daddy got a job at a law firm on Lincoln Avenue. Anyway, this school is pretty nice, and I like being in 9th grade. My middle school was really strict and we had to wear uniforms. It’s great that we can wear what we want here. I love art class even though Mr. Freeman is sort of weird. But he’s nice. I am good at art. I’ve been drawing since I was little. I hope to learn how to paint. I’d love to paint like Van Gogh, swirly and all. I also like science–biology actually, and sometimes I draw bugs. They’re so interesting, but most people just squish ’em. Even though my mom runs marathons, I am just a klutz that way. I am no good at sports. I tried soccer in third grade and just kept getting hit in the face with the ball. See the bump on my nose? Yep, broke it. “That’s the end of my athletic career,” I told mom that day. Anyway, that’s a bit about me.

Note: My sample character is new in town, but yours may have lived in Syracuse all his/her life.

Step Three: Write a Fictional Blog Post

Now that you have a character and have established his/her voice, give him/her something to say by choosing one of the topics listed below and expressing his/her insightful opinion about that topic.

Directions

  1. Write in the voice of a fictional character and stay in that voice. Use FIRST PERSON: I, me, we, us, etc.

  2. The blog post MUST NOT be a summary or a retelling of the book or events in the book, but a careful commentary (opinion) about the way things are. It is important to figure out what “you” think first. Then find events/passages in the book that “you” can point to for examples, reasons, and evidence.

  3. This opinion is to be backed up by citing the book; however, students will not use a typical citation method (MLA, for example). Instead, because they are writing as a fictional character, they write as first person observers and their “proof” for what they think comes from their observations and interactions: what they see and hear. Three to four direct references to the novel are required. See more below about references.

  4. About 300-400 words in length, broken into logical paragraphs.

  5. Grammatically correct, though fragments and slang (school appropriate) may be used for effect and to maintain a strong voice.

Publish

  1. Create a new post called Speak: Fictional Blog Post

  2. The assignment has three parts:

    1. An introductory note. Copy and paste this statement: In English class we read the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and were given an assignment to create a fictional character and write a blog post that shows his/her reaction to or opinion of an idea/theme in the book. (Thanks Alex T. for help with this statement).

    2. Your introduction to the class that you wrote earlier (saved in Google Drive)

    3. The blog post for this part of the assignment.

  3. Create a sub heading for the second two parts. Use these headings:

    1. About Me

    2. My Blog Post About ….. (fill in the topic)

  4. Publish blog post by __________. Category: Speak

References to the novel

There are two ways to make references to the novel:

  1. Refer directly to an event that occurs. This event must be something that your character logically could have witnessed or been a part of. For example, you might say One day in social studies class, Mr. Neck started a debate. Well, that’s at least what he called it. Your character cannot know, for example, what happens in Melinda’s closet, so you could not refer to that.

  2. Use a characters words. Continuing with my example above, I could “quote” Mr. Neck this way. Yea. A debate. Well, in a debate there are two sides, but Mr. Neck actually said “I decide who talks in here.” Put quotation marks around words that characters speak. Be sure you quote them carefully.

For this assignment, because we’re creating an illusion of a character, you don’t need to include page numbers like you would have to have in a different kind of “essay” about a book.

Topics

  • High school clans: what do you think about social cliques and how they affect school life and/or students.

  • Is school a place where you can really say what you think, or not?

  • The teachers at MH: who are the best/worst and why? Which teachers help students grow, and which ones do not? Or just choose one teacher who’s the best and show why you think so.

  • The Marthas seem like great girls. The teachers and the administration think they are. What do you think?

  • What clubs, sports, or activities are you involved in? Is it true that 9th graders “hang back” and don’t join groups? Why?

  • Who is a “real” American? What do you think of Mr. Neck’s opinion? Going by his definition, are some of you not really Americans? How does that seem to you?

  • Suggest an idea: your teacher must approve it first (and you need to show that you will not end up with a summary).