 In this week’s writing workshop we looked at characters with shared qualities. Mirror characters (also called Parallel characters) can strengthen themes in a story by what they share. For example, the three young wizards in Harry Potter (Harry, Hermione and Ron) strengthen themes of being in school and learning, having magical abilities, and coming up against a very scary dark sorcerer, sometimes feeling in over their heads (but always rising to the challenge).
We also examined how mirror characters can have very different qualities — such as Ron and Hermione, in some ways being opposite (study skills, for example)! The group had fantastic ideas for mirror characters and resulting stories. Three identical girls except for eye colour, who all have the same skills, led to the intriguing question … with all their similarities, where will the differences be? The differences will certainly be striking on the backdrop of so much similarity. A girl knows her shadow is just like her. It goes where she goes, it likes what she likes. Until it breaks this illusion and starts talking to her! Two characters with water power have pet otters. We can see a strong water theme in that story. A character writes in her diary about her friend Minnie, reflecting on their similarities and differences. I had a strong sense of both characters after the passage. And following my prompt on a reflection in a mirror breaking free, a story unfolded showing two very different twins — one Java-scripting in the modern world, the other loving old books and old things. There were other wonderful ideas spinning around. I look forward to hearing more of them.
0 Comments
What is a wolf/raven chimera called? A Rolven. And it is very clever. This and other fantastic beasties were created at my young writer’s workshop this week. I had so much fun hearing about Hedgeflies (a hedgehog plus fly), the Geckamillion (Gecko, mouse, eagle) and many others. Originally, in ancient Greece, a Chimera was a specific animal hybrid, often described as a lion with a second, goat’s head and snake tail.  Over time the word ‘chimera’ has come to mean any beast made of more than one animal.
Other mythical beasts include the Hippogriff (body of a horse and wings of an eagle), which appear in Harry Potter stories as Buckbeak. We can also find the ancient Persian manticore (head of a human, body of a lion, venomous tail), lurking the pages of middle grade fiction (Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, Spiderwick Chronicles). If you’d like to make your own chimera to place in your story, I suggest thinking of the qualities you’d like your beastie to have, and then choosing animals with those qualities. Will it slink on land and water like a fox/otter cross? Will it swim and fly like the Pephimontah (falcon/dolphin)? Or it will defy any expectation like the elephant worm or the hummingbird/jellyfish hybrid? Enjoy creating. And don’t be surprised if, as you think deeply about animals, you start to ask questions like, “Do bears have whiskers?” (Yes, just small ones, so we don’t often notice). |
AuthorThis is the blog post of children's author Giulietta M. Spudich. Archives
March 2023
Categories |
RSS Feed