Next Monthly Mini Workshop: June 7, 2021. We do a monthly “mini workshop” online using zoom before the Lehigh valley Poetry Salon, on the first Monday of the month from 8:00 PM EST-8:30 PM EST. These are typically short prompts, reflections, techniques, and generative exercises. For more information and some background, please check out this page.
In June’s Lehigh Valley Poetry Salon Mini Workshop, we are going to think deeper about the characters or subjects in our writing.
Much has been written about what makes a character/subject/ speaker (or point of view in a poem) COMPELLING.
It could be that people relate to the person. Maybe there is something unusual about them that you cannot relate to but want to understand. Maybe you want to experience their perspective vicariously.
How can we hone the skills of capturing and presenting characters in compelling ways?
One way to create interesting, compelling characters is to study real ones.
Exercise: Think about the people in your life, not characters, but real people. Think about a person who stands out as interesting. Don’t share who it is. It does not need to be someone that you know well, just somebody who grabbed your attention, for whatever reason. Somebody compelling.
Think about this person and imagine that you are in a room with that person.
Nobody else is there.
They will not remember the questions.
They have to tell the truth.
What do you ask this interesting person?
The purpose is not really to focus on imagining the answers, more on what kinds of things you might be curious about. Usually, manners or respect or social norms prevent us from asking questions.
In this case, those things do not matter. We are trying to create some inner mindscapes.
What do you want to know about this person?
Later: How can we add depth to characters or speakers in our poems?
