Characters and Speech

1. Characters and Speech
FOURTH LECTURE
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com
education | storytelling | culture

2. THE CHARACTER/GOAL MODEL
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3. o The encounter makes
clear who we are
o The encounter makes
clear who we are not
o We are the
relationships we
have with others
o One person is no
person
THE ENCOUNTER
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4. Who are you?
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o Answer: The story of a life
o Who are the characters who play a
role in that story?
o The relationships we have with
those characters make us who we
are

5. EXERCISE 1
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
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Write down the question that you
think is the best question to ask when
you want to get to know someone

6. EXERCISE 2
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
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Find a random person and
interview this person. Get to
know this person as well as
possible.

7. Handout 3
Adriaan van Dis, “A
Plate of Spaghetti”
CHARACTERISATION
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8. oExplicit (“he
is crazy”)
oImplicit (“he
said that he
was
Napoleon”)
CHARACTERS: CHARACTERISATION
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moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

9. oCharacterization
of a character by
him- or herself
oCharacterization
of a character by
another character
or the storyteller
CHARACTERISATION
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

10. o Representation of thoughts,
words and consciousness of
characters and storyteller
o 3 types:
• Direct speech: He said: “I have
to teach tomorrow.”
• Indirect speech: He said that
he had to teach tomorrow.
• Free indirect speech: He had
to teach tomorrow (often
unclear if this is the speech of
the storyteller or the
character).
SPEECH
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moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

11. DIALOGUE
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moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
o ‘Show don’t tell’ is not relevant here:
• “AAAAH!!! LOOK OUT YOU FOOL!!!!!!!” “BAM!”
• “No,” he yelled. “No, no, no, no, no!”
• “W-w-what do you mean?”
o Instead: describe, or use indirect speech and free indirect
speech:
• He let out a scream and yelled: “Look out, you fool!” A loud
bang followed.
• “No” – he kept repeating the word, his schoulders were
shaking, a look of deep shock on his face.
• Stumbling over his words, he asked her what she meant.

12. DIALOGUE
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
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o People often don’t have the same conversation. You can use this.
Hafis pointed at his screen and said: “Look Skander, this is how you should
write a dialogue.”
“What a horrible font.”
“But you get my point, right,” Hafis continued, “you know, concerning
punctuation and things like that?”
“Blimey, it’s worse than comic sans!”
With a sudden movement Hafis got up and left the office, shouting that this
was the last straw. Skander would have to work on his own from now on.
o Please also note issues of punctuation for a dialogue (see the sentences
above.)

13. DIALOGUE: PUNCTUATION
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o After a question mark or exclamation mark in direct
speech there is no period, comma or capital:
• “What do you want?”, she asked.
• “What do you want?” She asked.
• “What do you want?” she asked.
o Don’t end direct speech with a period if it is part of a
sentence:
• “I don’t agree." he stated.
• “I don’t agree.” He stated.
• “I don’t agree,” he stated.

14. DIALOGUE: PUNCTUATION
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
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o Never use more than one ‘sentence stopper’(., ! or
?) at the end of your sentence:
• “No,” he said, “Do I look like I’m crazy?”.
• “No,” he said, “do I look like I’m crazy?”
• He added: “That’s insane!”.
• Hij added: “That’s insane!”
• She said: “I don’t think so.”.
• She said: “I don’t think so.”

15. EXERCISE 3
5
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
In groups of 2 persons:
Write a dialogue between a father and his daughter. She
wants to visit her best friend who is studying in Amsterdam.
He has his doubts. She is angry about this, because her sister
was allowed to travel to Turkey alone this summer and she
always feels as if her sister is her dad’s favourite.
Rule: you are not allowed to actually mention the sister in
the dialogue, nor are you allowed to let the father directly
say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.