Our stories

Table of Contents

1. About this section
2. Journal
3. Suggested reading
4. What is narrative?
5. Narrative elements
   1. Character
   2. Setting
   3. Plot
6. Style
7. Reading stories
8. Writing a short story
9. Telling stories - elements of storytelling
10. The Dreaming - stories from Australian Aboriginal culture
11. Task
12. Copyright/Disclaimer

Character

All narratives have characters. Characters may be people, animals, monsters or mythical. In narratives there will be:

• a main character - the protagonist
• minor characters - one character may oppose or conflict with the main character. This character is called the antagonist.

How an author or storyteller develops characters is called characterisation. To understand characterisation it may help you to think about how you come to know a person in real life.

1

Characterisation What features of people do you take into account when forming an impression of them? These are some suggestions. Speech what they say tone - how characters say the things they say, what does their speech sound like? Is it kind, spiteful, arrogant, nervous, timid? how they talk (accent, slang, formal, informal) the things they talk about Appearance what they look like how they present themselves their clothes their physical features Behaviour their actions; what they do the impact or effect of their behaviour on others around them Others the reactions of other people to them what others say about them how other people behave around them. Background family background past experiences When you combine all of these elements you can get an idea of what a person is like. And this is the case when developing characters in a narrative.

A useful mnemonic to help you recall the elements of characterisation is SABOB. Open the link below for further explanation.

SABOB explained

Open the link below to access an information sheet on characterisation. Download and/or print this for your future reference.

Narrative elements - characterisation

Speech

When looking at character consider:

• what is said
• how it is said.

This will reveal information about the character's attitudes and personality.

A character's speech will help to shape his or her identity. Consider the use of accents and styles of speech (like slang) in the extract in the next activity.

Select the link below and do the activity.

Speech

Appearance

Sometimes an author will give you a direct description of what a character looks like, which could give clues about his/her personality. In other instances you may need to read between the lines for clues about appearance. A good writer or storyteller will 'show' rather than directly 'tell' the audience what a character looks like, as demonstrated in the extracts in the next activity.

Select the link below and do the activity.

Appearance

Behaviour

How a character behaves will give clues about what he or she is like. As you read or listen to stories, think about the behaviour of characters in certain situations.

• How does the character react to pressure, to acts of kindness, to conflict or other experiences in the story?
• How does the character react to other characters?
• What do the thoughts and feelings of a character reveal?

The behaviour of a character will tell you a lot about his/her personality and his/her attitudes as you will discover in the following extract.

Behaviour

Others

The reaction of one character to another may give you additional information. Consider:

• how characters behave around each other
• what they say to and about one another
• the reliability of the character making the judgement or giving the reaction.

How characters interact with each other and what is revealed about them through this interaction is demonstrated in the next activity.

Others

Background

Most narratives will provide clues about a character's background through dialogue or direct comment by the author.

The activity below demonstrates how a writer develops the background of a character.

Background