At
the SCBWI-MI fall conference, I listened to a talk by the brilliant Kristin Remenar on Common Core Standards. One of her slides was about Multiple Intelligences and playing to students’ strengths by appreciating how they
learn. Multiple Intelligences include:
Word-smart
Logic-smart
Picture-smart
Music-smart
Body-smart
People-smart
Self-smart
Nature-smart
Follow
this link for detailed descriptions. (Of course, most people have more than one
kind of smarts.)
Kris’
talk got me thinking about how I could use character smarts to improve my
writing. In every story, the main character must develop new skills, acquire
new knowledge, or overcome personal challenges to achieve his or her goals.
Characters do this by learning.
Determining
how characters learn allows a writer to enhance character development and
strengthen the plot. Suppose a character is a picture-smart artist. If she
achieves her goals through an increase in self-confidence that accompanies the
refinement of her artistic skills, the novel will ring true. On the other hand,
if a self-smart individual, who prefers to work alone, is forced to collaborate
with a group of people-smart characters, the story will resound with tension.
What
kind of smarts does your protagonist have? How does he or she learn in your
story?
6 comments:
What a great way to apply "smarts" in a new way. Very writing smart of you!
Thanks Vicky. I'm guessing Ernie in your novel is picture smart.
Love this Ann! Thanks so much for sharing your "smarts" about "smarts." Never thought of it this way before!
Patti: We all talk about character arcs, but really for a character to change, he or she must learn. Learning sounds less inciting than changing.
That's a take on character development I've never seen before. I'll have to do some thinking on it. Thanks for the info.
Tim: Can you tell I miss thinking up write night exercises?
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