I see so many people who remind me of animals and I don’t mean that in a nasty way as I am a great animal lover, what I mean is if people remind us of animals in reality, why not get children to use animals as a way of helping them create characters when they write stories, act sketches or make their own comic books? Using these three easy steps, we can give children the confidence to realise that they too can create story people.
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Step One
This fun step shows children how people can actually remind us of animals and how it actually works so that they get a full understanding of what we are trying to achieve. I have given you a choice of three different ways of doing this, you only need to pick the way which appeals to you the most a) out in the field, b )the internet or books c) my chosen examples which are below.
a) Out in the Field
For brave adults only, we have to play at being spies – we have to act as if we are invisible so that no-one will know what we are doing. Sitting in busy places with a notebook offers up a glut of possibilities – train stations, bus stations, shopping centres and city centres have benches to sit upon with a notebook perched upon the knee. The child has to remember to keep quiet about their findings, notes can only be swapped later when safely away from the ears of the people we have written about.
b) The Internet or Books.
For the more sensible who don’t want to get chased by the dog walker or stressed out commuter , there is a treasure of photographs on the internet – Victorian ones tend to be very useful with all those whiskers, corsets and stern admonishing gazes.
c) Here are some ready made examples:
Is it a polar bear?
Boris Johnson reminds me of a polar bear with his unruly blond mop, his big, clumsy body and his small, bear like eyes.
A male polar bear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Is it a bulldog?
Winston Churchill reminds me of a bulldog with his stocky body, very round face and matching round, bulging eyes.
Meet our Winston.
Is it a cat?
Angelina Jolie looks like a cat with her high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes and elegant body.
Mildred or Angelina?
Ask the children to point out how the people in the photographs resemble specific animals. This gives them the idea of how humans can remind us of creatures – doing this first exercise helps the children to get the hang of using animals to create human characters. It helps them to see how it can work realistically.
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Step Two
Next, we need to read how creating characters from animals works in a piece of fiction. Below is an extract (page 21) from “Will Blyton and The Stinking Shadow” which demonstrates to the children how we can put animal or bird like humans into our own stories. Ask the children to point out to you what parts of Ravensmite are actually like a raven.
extract from “Will Blyton and The Stinking Shadow.”
I open the door and look out but there is no-one there. The rain lashes down and a cold draught attacks my cheeks and then something appears.
Standing on the path, by the front door is a tall, thin figure dressed in black. One of his thigh length, leather boots rests on a stone gargoyle as he sharpens his curved fingernails on the back of a stone. The nose is too large and hooked for the teenage boy he appears to be. His coat is like bird’s feathers when they are wet and glistening. He drops the stone and his hand disappears inside the feathered coat. It emerges with a lump of something that I cannot identify but has a long, thin tail. The boy crams the lump into his mouth and his tongue flicks out as he greedily gorges upon it. He spits a small bone out, and sucks in the tail. A harsh, watery belch follows and then he wipes his mouth with the back of his clawed hand.
A hard lump lodges in my throat but I am drawn to the figure and the gargoyle as an invisible thread pulls me out into the cold rain. The figure stops what he is doing and looks at me. The large nose becomes a black dagger of a beak whilst the coat becomes feathers and the boots slicing talons. It opens its weapon of a beak and caws. Black, beady eyes glare directly at me.
“Watch out Blyton, Master Corpsehound has sent Ravensmite.”
The raven unfolds its large wingspan and flies at me. A waft of air from its wings hits my face. Its muscular legs shoot forward and its talons spread and point, ready to splice. I beat it off with the pogo stick. It veers over my head scraping my hair with its hook like talons. I gasp as the claws scratch the side of my face. My fingers automatically feel for the pain. They are wet and sticky. The raven disappears into the darkness.
“Takest me back into thine abode for safety, Blyton, thou puppet.”
Although I am shaking, I quickly put Hamnet into my pocket to muffle the sound of his shrill voice. I bend down. There is writing scraped out of the top of the gargoyle. Before I read it, I look around for the raven, I shiver; it has gone for the time being. The gargoyle says ‘How do we find the village?’
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The idea of Ravensmite came from teenagers who dress in black from head to foot and even dye their hair the same colour. They reminded me of the wonderful bird, the raven. So this character was created by using the same exercise I am offering here. From then on it was easy to create this shapeshifting boy as he had to have a large, beak like nose. His nails had to be like a bird’s talons and as he was a menacing character I could use all the sharp parts of an actual raven to make him more so.
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Step Three
Once it is clear how it can work – choose an animal or bug or bird and take aspects of them which you can create a human character with. It can be fun to use a family pet. For instance, if I used Mildred, my sophisticated, black cat – she would be a slim, elegant, mysterious and beautiful character, probably a female spy. I would take parts of her personality and put them into the character – for example, Mildred washes herself more than any other cat I have come across; she often forgets where she is going because she stops to have a wash so often. My character then would be a spy who often got herself into trouble because of her obsessive need for cleanliness. Mildred is also always falling off tables and chairs because when she sleeps she is completely floppy and she often rolls off things in her relaxed state. So I would also have my spy as someone who is a bit dozy and falls asleep very easy. As you can see, my character is already becoming quite interesting as the way she looks actually belies her personality – she is a spy but it would have to be a comic spy – I think she would get into too many scrapes to be a serious spy.
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Main steps.
1) Find people or use the examples in this post to see how real people can remind us of animals..
2) Read the extract and discuss how a raven could be similar to a teenage boy.
3) Choose a specific animal and using parts of its physical appearance, create a physical appearance for a person. Think about how these animals act e.g. bees are very busy and add personality traits to your character.
At this point, the children will have created a character which they can use in a story, an acting sketch or even their own comic books. They might not use the character straight away as the sub conscious needs to work out what to do with it. However, I know the character will pop up in some future piece of creativity . Have fun.
Will Blyton - The Alternative Detective 