Character
A character moves from a small rural town to a huge city.
What is the most important question to ask?
A. What color are the buildings?
B. Why did the author choose this new environment?
C. What food does the character eat?
D. How long is the story?
B. Why did the author choose this new environment?
Two characters desperately want to meet, but an ocean separates them. What does the ocean represent?
Separation, physical distance, and difficulty.
A story takes place in a crowded city instead of the countryside. What could the city setting affect?
The character’s experiences, relationships, and conflicts
A character repeatedly returns to the same house whenever they experience problems. What should the reader consider?
The house may have developed symbolic meaning.
A character spends most of the story trapped inside a very small space. What could the location represent?
Isolation, lack of freedom, or being trapped.
Two characters live on opposite sides of a huge city and repeatedly fail to meet. Is the city just background?
No. The distance between them can become part of the conflict.
A character lives in an extremely isolated area far away from everyone else. What might the author want the reader to think about?
The character’s isolation, relationships, emotions, and ability to get help.
A character constantly looks toward a distant mountain but never reaches it. What could the mountain possibly represent?
A goal, obstacle, challenge, hope, or something unreachable.
A character moves away from their hometown and struggles to fit into their new environment. What should the reader consider?
How the change in geography affects the character’s identity, relationships, experiences, or conflicts.
A character must cross a dangerous mountain to reach another character. Why might the author choose a mountain instead of a normal road?
The mountain can represent an obstacle, difficulty, separation, or challenge.
A character repeatedly travels between two completely different locations. What should the reader ask?
Why does the author keep moving the character between these places, and what do the locations represent?
A character crosses a river immediately before beginning a completely new part of their life. What might the river crossing represent?
Change, transition, leaving something behind, or overcoming an obstacle.