Text for Scotland: Building Excellence in Language Book 2

B

A

Activity 11 Think about the ways that

the writer creates characters as you read extracts A–D below and on page 37.

3 CharactersYou are learning:

• to create effective characters for a story.

Stories need really interesting characters. There are many ways that writers can create a good character for a story. They might:• create a character who is humorous• create a character similar to the people who might read the story• create a character the reader admires or finds interesting• create a character the reader cares about• create a character with some interesting flaws or problems that the

reader wants to learn more about.

from Silver LiningsJoan Lingard

Every cloud is supposed to have one, or so I learned at my granny’s knee. Isn’t that where you are supposed to learn such things? My granny is full of sayings, most of them rubbish according to my mother, who has her own sayings. Like most mothers. My granny isn’t one of those grandmothers who sits and knits in the chimney corner, shrouded in shawls, if such grannies exist at all. She tints her hair auburn and is employed as a manageress in the local supermarket. It’s not all that ‘super’ I must add, as it’s only got two aisles, one up and one down, but still a job’s a job these days. And money doesn’t grow …

Money’s a problem in our family and my granny helps us keep afloat with ‘care’ parcels. She dumps them down on the kitchen table muttering about the improvidence of my parents and the wasted education of my mother who had all the chances in life that she didn’t have herself.

from Hurricane JackNeil Munro

I very often hear my friend the Captain speak of Hurricane Jack in terms of admiration and devotion, which would suggest that Jack is a sort of demigod. The Captain always refers to Hurricane Jack as the most experienced seaman of modern times, as the most fearless soul that ever wore oilskins, the handsomest man in Britain, so free with his money that he would fling it at the birds, so generally accomplished that it would be a treat to be left a month on a desert island alone with him.

36

Unit 2: Short stories

37

DC

from Mary Moon and the StarsJanice Galloway

Mary Moon was as thin as a string, white-yellow hair hanging down her back in rats’ tails. She had specs with elasticated legs and her socks sometimes didn’t match. Her skin was see-through and she smelled like a cat’s cushion. She sat next to George Dickie who kept nipping folk. There were always marks on her arms. My mother said she was a Poor Soul and told me to ask her round for her tea but I didn’t. I suppose I was scared of the rings under her eyes, her fingernails always needing cut. I told myself she wouldn’t come anyway and just didn’t bother.

from A Time to DanceBernard MacLaverty

Nelson, with a patch over one eye, stood looking idly into Mothercare’s window. The sun was bright behind him and made a mirror out of the glass. He looked at his patch with distaste and felt it with his finger. The elastoplast was rough and dry and he disliked the feel of it. Bracing himself for the pain, he ripped it off and let a yell out of him. A woman looked down at him curiously to see why he had made the noise but by that time he had the patch in his pocket. He knew without looking that some of his eyebrow would be on it.

He climbed over the wall, under the hedge, and ran towards the house before coming to a sudden halt.

The underlined words are prepositions. They come before a noun phrase and give information about time, place and direction.

1 Sort the prepositions in the bank into three categories: time, place and direction.

2 Choose prepositions from that bank that could be used to complete these sentences:a He fell his bed and went to sleep.b You shouldn’t eat a big meal swimming.c He hid the key the doormat.

Knowledge about language Prepositions

Preposition bankoff into over under above around in before after while during near

2 a Do you find these characters interesting? Why?b Which of the techniques listed on page 36 have the

authors used to create these characters? Are any techniques used in these texts not included in the list on page 36? Copy and complete the table below.

Story Techniques used

Hurricane Jack

Silver Linings

Mary Moon and the Stars

A Time to Dance

3 Which of these characters are you most interested in? Write two or three sentences explaining your answer.