While this is not the first Aussie Blog Tour it is the first I've been involved with - so that makes it personally special. I am also particularly pleased to be welcoming Dale Harcombe, author of The Goanna Island Mystery, a title in the third Aussie Aussie series. This series is a celebration of Australian stories and values especially written for Australian students. And its proving a successful export as well. It's wonderful to know the world loves Australia's stories too.
Hello Dale and welcome to Stories are Light.
Thanks so much to Sandy for inviting me to guest blog on her blog today. It’s great to be here at the end of The Goanna Island Mystery tour. It’s been a lot of fun. I hope lots of you will enjoy reading Sandy’s blog and have followed The Goanna Island Mystery tour from place to place.
We’ve looked at lots of different aspects of writing. Today I thought I’d talk a little about creating a character.No matter how long I’ve been writing, what constantly fascinates me is the way the mind works to put what sometimes appear to be disparate things together to create a story or to create a character. In the case of The Goanna Island Mystery I wanted a boy who was not a strong swimmer. In a country, surrounded by water as Australia is, that seems a bit strange. Yet I know there are still many like I was as a kid, (like I still am), who are not confident swimmers.
So Leo wants to visit Goanna Island and takes up Mark, the bully’s dare, but it needs to be at low tide. Of course the story wouldn’t exist if he didn’t end up get trapped on the island.Though Leo dealt with the problem of being bullied and dared to go over to the island, it became a different situation once he knew he was trapped on the island. Then his fears started to surface. Things he though he believed he suddenly seemed less sure about. Most children and many adults too, have fears. Sometimes they are rational. Sometimes they are not. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if Leo’s fears are rational or not.
I always wanted a character who tried to overcome his fears. A good starting point for any story is to think of a fear you have and then imagine a character with the same fear. Put them in a situation where they have to confront that fear.Leo is also a boy who struggles to come to terms with changed family circumstances and being in new environment. That is something a lot of children these days can relate to. I remember from my own childhood what it was like being the new kid at a school and how difficult it is to deal with the school bully. All of those aspects went into creating the character of Leo.I also wanted to use a boy with an artistic streak (which I sure don’t have) and one who liked books.
That’s because I think books and reading are so important.
If you would like to visite Dale at home on the web call in to her website or drop in to her blog, Write and Read with Dale
You can catch up with the previous stops on Dale's tour here:
Monday 25th Dee White at http://tips4youngwriters.wordpress.com/
Tuesday 26th Sally Murphy at http://aussiereviews.blogspot.com/
Wednesday 27th Mabel Kaplan at http://belka37.blogspot.com/
Thursday 28th Claire Saxby at http://www.letshavewords.blogspot.com/
Friday 29th Sandy Fussell at http://www.sandyfussell.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
Thanks Sandy for letting me crash your blog for a bit to talk about character. It's been fun. Looks like you and I have some of the same books in our to read pile. I also have Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood. I love verse novels, if they are well done as Pearl and Steven Herrick's and Sherry Clark's are and I'm sure ths one is. Also have The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth. It will be intersting to compare notes.
Well done Sandy and Dale - a great start to the blog tour! I'll have to get my hands on some verse novels (and the GIM too!)
Rebecca
www.alphabetsoup.net.au
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