Year 11 English Week 3

Year 11 English
Week 3
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Year 11 English Week 3

Creative Writing: Characterisation and Speech

Moving on from our look at story openings, this week we will explore how to build
realistic, compelling characters and use speech as a tool to demonstrate this.

Characterisation

The characters are at the heart of the story. They must seem real and you should aim
to make the audience care about them.

Your characters should also be consistent, doing and saying things that seem to fit
their personality. Try not to simply tell your reader about the character. Instead, reveal
the character to them through actions, gestures and dialogue.

The plot of the story should reveal something about your characters. For example,
the reader should see them developing at a crisis or a turning point in their lives.

In a creative writing piece for a school exam, it's best to limit the number of main
characters. Too many characters can be confusing and doesn't give you time to let
them develop. You should, therefore, limit the number of main characters to a
maximum of three.

One tip for writing realistic characters is to introduce internal conflict. In real life,
people cannot be summed up by a single adjective or goal; they are multifaceted and
often have competing characteristics, such as virtues and vices. Perhaps your
character loves their family and tries to provide for them, but secretly harbours a
destructive addiction which inhibits their familial bliss and financial security. Similarly,
a lifelike character may have noble ambitions of becoming a doctor, though struggling
to achieve the necessary grades has to reassess their goals. This imbalance is a
surefire way to make the reader sympathise with the character as we can recognise
our own struggles embodied in them.

Another helpful tool for crafting people in your story is to give them distinct features
and mannerism. Having identical characters can be boring and confusing for the
reader. Try to make them stand out by introducing unique personalities, appearances
or mannerisms. Maybe your character seemingly glides when they walk. Perhaps
they spring up on their toes with a bounce or plod with heaving thuds. These
seemingly small differences can really help distinguish people and add to their
characters.

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Year 11 English Week 3

Extracts

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The famous Robert Louis Stevenson book is full of internal and external conflict. It is
a perfect example to demonstrate complex characters.

Our first extract concerns Mr. Utterson.

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted
by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean,
long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the
wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye;
something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in
these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of
his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste
for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theater, had not crossed the doors of one for
twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering,
almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any
extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. “I incline to Cain’s heresy,” he used
to say quaintly: “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.” In this character, it
was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good
influence in the lives of downgoing men. And to such as these, so long as they came
about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

● What contradictions are present in Utterson’s character?

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Year 11 English Week 3

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Another fantastic demonstration is in the titular character of Dr. Jekyll. He is riddled

with internal strife throughout the story which is laid bare in his confession.

And indeed the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, such
as has made the happiness of many, but such as I found it hard to reconcile with my
imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly grave
countenance before the public. Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures;
and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take
stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a
profound duplicity of life. Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities
as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid
them with an almost morbid sense of shame. It was thus rather the exacting nature of
my aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me what I
was, and, with even a deeper trench than in the majority of men, severed in me those
provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature.

● What internal conflict is present in Dr. Jekyll?

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Year 11 English Week 3

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Exercise

● Write your own character who is troubled by internal conflict.

Think of the examples used previously as well as the extracts from The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Perhaps their goals or desires conflict, or they are struggling with an issue.

You may choose to write in first or third person, but include plenty of description.

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Year 11 English Week 3

Speech

It is paramount that your characters should come to life. This can be achieved
through speech. They may be speaking to others in dialogue or to themselves in a
monologue. This can include their thoughts as much as what they say aloud.

In a creative writing piece, you have limited space and time, so it would be wise to
use dialogue effectively.

Speech should sound authentic and realistic. Good dialogue is central to convincing
drama. To make it sound realistic, you need to read it out loud to hear what it sounds
like.

A character’s choice of words tells us a lot about them.

Ask yourself:

● Where does this character come from?

● What age are they?
● What kind of person are they?
● What mood are they in?
● Who are they talking to?

For example:

● Someone from Glasgow will probably speak differently from a Londoner.

● A teacher will probably speak differently from a pupil, even though they come from
the same area.
● Your gran probably uses words which are different from yours.
● An angry person is going to speak differently from someone who is calm.

Extract

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment is a fantastic story with a diverse range of personas. In this
extract, Katerina and her children are dancing as a means of begging after the death
of her husband.

“Explain to this silly girl, please, that nothing better could be done! Even
organ-grinders earn their living, and everyone will see at once that we are different,
that we are an honourable and bereaved family reduced to beggary. And that general
will lose his post, you’ll see! We shall perform under his windows every day, and if the
Tsar drives by, I’ll fall on my knees, put the children before me, show them to him,
and say ‘Defend us father.’ He is the father of the fatherless, he is merciful, he’ll
protect us, you’ll see, and that wretch of a general.... Lida, tenez vous droite! Kolya,
you’ll dance again. Why are you whimpering? Whimpering again! What are you afraid

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Year 11 English Week 3

of, stupid? Goodness, what am I to do with them, Rodion Romanovitch? If you only
knew how stupid they are! What’s one to do with such children?”

(Cough-cough-cough!) “Set your dress straight, Polenka, it’s slipped down on your
shoulders,” she observed, panting from coughing. “Now it’s particularly necessary to
behave nicely and genteelly, that all may see that you are well-born children. I said at
the time that the bodice should be cut longer, and made of two widths. It was your
fault, Sonia, with your advice to make it shorter, and now you see the child is quite
deformed by it.... Why, you’re all crying again! What’s the matter, stupids? Come,
Kolya, begin. Make haste, make haste! Oh, what an unbearable child!

● How is the reader made to feel about Katerina in this speech?

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Year 11 English Week 3

Name: _____________________________

Homework

● Write a dialogue scene between characters with unique speech.

You are going to write a conversation among several characters who differ from each
other in their speech. It should be immediately obvious who is speaking by their
choice of words, use of abbreviation, colloquialisms and slang, and content of their
speech.

Remember to put inverted commas (" ") round the exact words the character says
and start a new paragraph for each new speaker. You do not need to use a reporting
clause after every instance of speech, but utilise some descriptive examples that
include interesting verbs, adverbs and information about what the character is doing.

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Year 11 English Week 3

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Year 11 English Week 3

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