CREATIVE WRITING 12

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET FOR WEEK 5&6

Conceptualizing a Character, Setting,

and Plot for a One-Act Play

TARGET

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. distinguish different types of characters;
2. create a character profile using very specific details to make the character
real, distinct and believable;
3. identify the parts of a plot of the story;
4. write a vivid description of a place or locale for a story using words that appeal
to the senses; and
5. create a specific mood or atmosphere that befits the setting and characters.

TRY THIS

Directions: Read each item carefully. Use your notebook to write your answers.

1. What do you call the main figure of the story?

A. Dynamic
B. Protagonist
C. Simile
D. Flat

2. What is the definition of antagonist?

A. The good guy in the story
B. The hero
C. The bad guy
D. A character that changes throughout story

3. What is the definition of plot?

A. The lesson in the story
B. The turning point of the story
C. The sequence of events in the story
D. The conflict in the story

4. What type of character changes little to none throughout the story?

A. Personification
B. Dynamic
C. Static
D. Primary

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 1
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 5. Which part of the plot introduces the characters?
A. Exposition
B. Climax
C. Rising Action
D. Falling Action

6. Which of the following shows the elements of plot in order?

A. Climax, rising action, exposition, falling action, resolution
B. Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution
C. Exposition, climax, rising action, falling action, resolution
D. Resolution, rising action, climax, falling action, exposition

7. What happens in the falling action?

A. You are introduced to the conflict
B. Events begging to calm down after the climax
C. The setting is described in detail
D. It is exactly the same as the missing action

8. Which of the following depicts the setting of the story stated in a sentence “the
moon was shining brightly as the fox slowly crept toward the chicken coop?”
A. Fox slowly crept
B. Chicken coop
C. Moon was shining brightly
D. B and c

9. Why setting is important?

A. It tells us about the characters.
B. It lets us know the context of character’s actions and sets the mood.
C. It settles the conflict.
D. It helps predict the ending of the story.

10. What is the best way to put setting in a story?

A. Take a picture and copy it into the pages of the story.
B. Use descriptive words and details that create a picture in the reader’s
minds and pull on their senses.
C. Use long words and sentences to make a picture.
D. Describe how the characters look

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 2
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 DO THIS

Task 1. CHARACTER DETAIL SHEET

Directions: Create your own character by filling in the blanks with the
necessary information. Make your character real and as human
as possible. Use your notebook to write your answers.

Name: _____________________________________________________________
Nickname: _________________________________________________________
Age: _________________________ Zodiac Sign:___________________________
Residence and type of neighborhood: ____________________________________
Birthplace:__________________________________________________________
Height:_________________________Weight:______________________________
Features:___________________________________________________________
Health Condition:_____________________________________________________
Types of Clothes:_____________________________________________________
Style of Movement/ Mannerisms:_________________________________________
Attitude/s:___________________________________________________________
Significant relationships
Describe briefly the relationships your character has with the following:
• Family ____________________________
• Friends____________________________
• Neighbors__________________________

Task 2
Directions: Read each question carefully and use your notebook to write your
answers.

1. How this person (refer to character detail sheet in Task 1) affected your
character?
______________________________________________________________

2. Education: How did he/ she perform as a student? / Did he/she graduate?
______________________________________________________________

3. Religious/ Superstitious Beliefs

______________________________________________________________

4. Basic outlook in life (Optimist or Pessimist? /Extrovert or Introvert? / Generally

pleasant or moody? / Cool or Temperamental? / Trusting or Suspicious?
______________________________________________________________

5. Speech Patterns (Is the character articulate or glib? Does he/she stammer?
Does he/she find it hard to express his/her thoughts or feelings? Does he/she
pause often when he/ she speaks?)
______________________________________________________________
Grade 11-Creative Writing
Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 3
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 KEEP THIS IN MIND

Well done! You have successfully

made a meaningful connection after
answering the previous activities. Now you are
all set for the discussion about conceptualizing
a character/ setting/plot for a one-act play.

I. CHARACTER

A character, is an imagined person who inhabits a story, but characters may

also be based on real people whom the writer uses as models. Characters are not
only limited to human being though. Some stories have the wind or death as
characters.

Characters are the first essential ingredient in any successful story. According
to Margaret Lucke “your idea won’t come alive, won’t begin to become a story, until
some characters claim it as their own; the story comes out of their motives, their
desires, their actions, and their intentions and reactions.

Characters often possesses human personalities that are familiar to us and

act in a reasonably consistent manner. It is important that characters are provided by
the writer with motivation, which explains why they do the things they do. If for
some reason, a character behaves in a sudden and unexpected way which is
consistent with his or her nature and personality or act without apparent reason, we
expect that the writer will soon reveal to us the reason for such unlikely behavior.

TYPES OF CHARACTERS

1. Stocked characters or stereotyped characters

The characters in commercial fiction are usually stereotypes. These
are characters that require less-detailed portrayal. We already know them well
since they have dominant virtues and vices. Most writers attempt to create
unique individuals who are multifaceted just like the people we meet --- not
the stereotypes. Characters must be solid, complex, and real, to be
believable.

2. Hero/Heroine
The hero is the good guy or leading male character who opposes the
villain or the bad guy. The leading female character is the heroine. The hero
and the heroine are usually larger than life like those found in epics in
swashbuckling tales. They are often stronger or better than the most human
beings and possess godlike traits and qualities. In most modern fiction,
however, the lead character is just an ordinary human being like the rest of
us. This type of character is also called the antihero because he does not fit
Grade 11-Creative Writing
Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 9
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 the traditional heroic mold. The antihero is a flawed character who is more
than just a good guy. Readers either regard him with pity or disgust, unlike the
traditional hero who is admired and extolled.

3. Protagonist and Antagonist

It is an older and more neutral term than “hero” for the leading
character which does not imply either the presence or the absence of
outstanding virtue. He or she is the person with whom the readers most
closely identify. The protagonist’s opponent is the antagonist.

4. Major or Main Characters

They are also called lead characters and we think of them as more
complex than the minor characters, are unimportant. They often play
significant roles in the way we understand or interpret the major characters.
They are also pivotal in the changes that major characters undergo.

5. Foil
A foil serves as a contrast to the major character to highlight the
particular qualities of the latter.

6. Flat Characters and Round Characters

Characters in short stories are often described as either flat characters
or round characters. Flat characters are stock characters or stereotypes who
are somehow capable of advancing the plot, but require only the barest
outlines of description. Round characters are usually the protagonist. They
have more than just one trait. They are complex and at times complicated.
They possess traits that may even seem contradictory. The writer explores
the character’s past and goes deeper into his or her unconscious mind.
Round characters may seem very real to readers just like our friends,
neighbors, family members, and colleagues.

7. Static and Dynamic Characters

Characters can also be termed as either static or dynamic. Static
characters do not experience basic character changes through the course of
the story while dynamic characters experience changes throughout the
development of the story. A dynamic character may undergo sudden changes
but these are usually expected based on the events of the story.

II. PLOT

Plot or plot structure is a sequence of events that “has a beginning, middle

and an end.” It is a pattern of actions, events, and situations. Plot involves the
sequence of events in a story, showing how time moves, and is linked by patterns of
cause and effect that lead to certain developments which eventually bring out the

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 10
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 resolution. Plot structure gives shape to the different parts of a story just like the
framing of a house or the skeleton of the body.

1. Exposition
In the exposition, the writer introduces the characters, situation and usually,
the time and place of the narrative. You can begin a story in medias res (in the
middle of things). Your exposition signifies that you have chosen a particular opening
more than any other.

2. Rising Action

a. Conflict is an event, situation, or circumstance that shakes up a stable

situation; it is a struggle between two opposing forces. It propels the
events of the story and raises the issues that must be resolved.

The body of a story contains the conflict, where the rising action is built to
introduce complications that are either external or internal.

b. External conflict arises between the character and an outside force.

Examples are conflict against and the forces of nature; conflict against
other characters; and conflict against society.

c. Man against Nature – an external struggle which positions the protagonist

against an animal or force of nature.

d. Man against Man – involves stories where characters are pitted against
each other.

e. Man against Society- involves stories where man stands against a man-
made institution, such as family, the church, Universities, the government
and the mass media.

f. Internal conflict arises within the character himself.

g. Man against Self - a struggle that involves a character trying to overcome

his or her own nature or make a choice between two or more paths.

3. Climax and Falling Action

The central moment of crisis in a plot is the climax. It is the point of greatest
tension which initiates the falling action of the story. An effective climax depends on
a quick reversal of the situation from an unexpected source.

4. Resolution/ Denouement is the final part of the plot. The French term
denouement refers to the untying of a knot. The denouement makes the characters
return to a stable situation. It is a moment of insight, discover, revelation by which a

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 11
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 character’s life, or view of life, is greatly altered. A story’s denouement may be
closed open.
A closed denouement ties up everything neatly and explains all unanswered
questions the reader might have just like in many mystery or detective stories. An
open denouement leaves the readers with few thought –provoking loose ends. The
open denouement is favoured by many contemporary writers who perhaps wish to
show that modern life usually lacks the usual closures of conventional stories.

Some stories are simple and contain a single plot. However, there are also
complex which involve longer periods of time. These plots are called modular or
episodic plot. Here, the writer provides transitions between scenes. Some of the
familiar plots include a) the Love Triangle, which is a love story involving three
people; b) the Quest which is unified around a group of characters on a journey; c)
the Transformation in which a weak or physically unattractive character changes
radically in the course of the story; d) the Initiation Story or the rite of passage or
“coming of age” story.

III. SETTING

Setting refers to the place and the time where and when an event happens.
Where a story takes place is also called its locale. When you set your story in a
particular geographic area, you are bringing the place alive for readers who live
somewhere else. As with time, you tell your readers whether your story happens
during daytime or nighttime; on a sunny or rainy morning; a few months ago or two
hundred years ago. More than the place and time, setting signifies a bigger
environment or surrounding. A story becomes more realistic if you are able to
incorporate the following dimensions in depicting setting.

The place, the time, and the bigger environment that the setting signifies
create an atmosphere that affects both the characters and the readers. In literature,
atmosphere or mood is the element that evokes certain feelings or emotions in
readers.
Atmosphere is created or conveyed by the words used to describe the
setting; it can also be reflected by the way the characters speak.

APPLY WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED

Task 4. WHAT’S YOUR PLOT?

Directions: Pretend you are the protagonist of a story. Put yourself in either of the
following complicated situations. Write a scene describing what you (as
a character) are going through and how you are going to get out of it.
Write your answers in your CW notebook.

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 12
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)
 1. You and your friend who has broken his/her leg are locked inside a room in
the first floor of a building and the flood continues to rise.
2. You are a poll watcher and you witness vote-buying or massive cheating
during an election.

Task 5. PICTURE IT OUT

Directions: Think of a place that has a great impact in your life. It could be your
childhood playground, a summer hang out, or a secret place. Describe
the place and how the specific spots have been memorable to you.
Write your answers in your CW notebook.

REFLECT

Well done! You have shown great

improvement after accomplishing all the
tasks in each lesson. This time you will
reflect on your work and rate your
confidence.

Task 5. STOP, LOOK, GO

Directions: Accomplish the infographic. Write your answers in your CW notebook.
How are you doing so far?

1. I HAVE LEARNED THAT

__________________________________

2. I HAVE REALIZED THAT

__________________________________
__________________________________

3. I WILL APPLY THE

__________________________________
__________________________________

Grade 11-Creative Writing

Competency: Conceptualize a character/setting/plot for a one-act 13
play (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)