” Comparing your characters”

“Can you use any of these methods in your stories and with your characters?

Having looked at the characters and ways of revealing characters in the passages from Burmese Days and Notes on a Scandal, go back to your character sketch and add any elements – for instance, details of appearance or behaviour – which you think might bring the character to life for your reader.

• Consider the ways in which your reader might be getting involved in the invention and imagining of your characters.
• Orwell uses third-person narration, and focuses on one physical aspect of Flory to create a picture of his psychological state.
• Heller uses first-person narration, which means we are dealing with two characters – the character being described, and the character doing the observing and describing. This adds an intrigue about the relationship between the two characters.
• Neither method is better than the other – they are just different approaches. Check whether you are using third or first person narration.
• Remember that your reader will always have to participate in the imagining of your characters.

© The Open University”

Previous Submission: Character created

Third person narration attempt

Sarah, a young woman with a gentle face and soft easy smile, keeps her curling golden brown hair in place using a white beanie with warm coloured stripes. Staving of the early morning cold en-route to her new job she wears a neat thin long army green jacket, its hoodie falling wayside. She shields her eyes from the pure sunlight and looks down her long pointed nose, concentrating while she waits to cross the traffic junction.

Points to note: present tense.

First person narration attempt

I first saw Sarah on a cold autumn morning en-route to the office. She was looking down her long pointed nose with an extreme level of concentration while waiting at the traffic junction, an obvious nube to Mayfair crossing! Her face, not yet hardened by the daily grind, was gentle in the sunlight with a soft smile playing across her lips. She wore a long army green jacket not nearly thick enough, and a white beanie with warm coloured stripes keeping her curling golden brown hair in check. Hardly appropriate office wear, I wasn’t surprised when Harry introduced her as the new website designer.

“Consider the ways in which your reader might be getting involved in the invention and imagining of your characters…Remember that your reader will always have to participate in the imagining of your characters.”

Additional link to additional resources

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/futurelearn/fiction