Back in the saddle for Teachers Write

I’m back to writing after taking last week off.  I had a great time in the mountains with the youth group from my church.  We took part in a mission trip to Hinton Rural Life Center and spent the week painting for the sweetest lady who kept feeding us–Popsicles, cookies, cakes, and even a spaghetti lunch with all the fixings.  Since I was on staff over twenty years ago (Has it really been so long ago that most of the current summer staff wasn’t even born when I worked there), I was asked to send pictures and memories from back in the day.  I see my writing going in a different direction over the next few days as a reminisce.

But for today, I’m trying the Teachers Write! Mini Lesson Monday, Part I by Alex Lidell.  I’m learning to reveal character by NOT describing them.  Here is the picture that my characters are supposed to describe:

 

What can you learn about my characters from how they describe this scene?

Character 1:  The woman sprawled against the wall, blood oozing from the bite on her shoulder.  Her legs kicked out at odd angles, but it was her eyes that held me.  They had once danced with green and gold light.  Now that light had leaked out like the blood smeared against the wall.  Her flat, empty gaze held me captive.  I couldn’t look away.

Character 2:  Jagged tears surrounded the bite wound on the back of her shoulder.  Even if so much blood had not been lost, I’m not sure I could have sewn up the damage from such a fearsome beast.  It was too late, anyway.  The tilt of her head told me she was not of this world any longer even before I reached to find the pulse of a no longer beating heart.

The hardest part of this was focusing on just what the characters would say.  I kept wanting to describe what they would do!

If that’s not enough writing, there’s more:  I definitely want to try out Jo Knowle’s Monday Morning Warm-Up.  Then Anne Marie Pace talks about reading like a writer in Part II.    Those will have to wait until tomorrow because I’ve spent most of the day procrastinating writing.  That’s a whole other post!

 

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