HANDOUT #1: A CHARACTER COLLAGE
(This is a collage that a student in one of my classes did. In this case, the student was choosing details with a particular character in mind. Still, there are some nice, pretty random details included -- see the surgical gloves.
This writer didn't give the character long-term and short-term wants; maybe you can figure out what they might be.)
- Detests: Senior Citizens, laziness, cowardness/wimps, dogs, untidiness, sex, second-hand smoke
- Military training supervisor
- Would rather stick her head in a trash compactor than deal with junior recruits over the age of 30
- wears her hair neat and short
- Off the job she wears short sleeve utilitarian cotton blouses tucked into khakis or jeans with loafers
- Enjoys: golfing, skiing, hiking
- Favorite TV shows: Biography, Jeopardy, The X-Files
- Collects antique pistols
- has a small tattoo of an early colt handgun on her left buttock
- chews pencils until they break; once had to see a doctor for lead poisoning
- wears a 24-hour, cross-your-heart bra
- secretly hopes for another world war
- taped CNN's coverage of Desert Storm
- secretly admires the look of long, red fingernails
- drives a black '93 Metro
- has the books "Flying High: Amelia" and "Perestroika" (signed copy) on her coffee table
- occasionally dates her secretary, Warren Richards
- keeps a pair of surgical gloves in her nightstand
- doesn't believe in God
- once broke the arm of a man who was trying to steal her purse
- Supervises training of new recruits and has the authority to reprimand, punish or dismiss at will
- Name: Margaret Stick
- recruits often refer to her as "Dicky"
To Toot 2