Colourful Characters

A one-hour story character creation workshop for KS2, KS3 and KS4

This workshop is about enlivening characterisation in children’s fictional writing, and explores ideas such as motivation and back story, action beats and dialogue tags, with the aim of building fully-formed, believable characters.

Group of children and adults in colorful costumes and wigs at a costume event or party, with a wooden-paneled wall and a poster in the background.
Simple illustration of a yellow pencil with an orange eraser and a blue tip, pointing diagonally downward to the left.

what happens in this workshop?

ice-breaker
I read an extract where one of my characters is first encountered, and we talk about how I’ve used dialogue and description to show the reader their character.

topic
The focus is on considering narrative voice (eg ‘close third’), dialogue and dialogue tags in character building.

activity
Each participant picks a card from my ‘CharacterDeck’, and working in pairs they devise how and why their two characters would meet and react to each other.

support & feedback
I go round and help participants during the workshop, and at the end I invite several pairs to perform their dialogue out loud and I provide brief feedback.

resources
Whiteboards, pencil and plain paper work best, thesauruses are also a handy extra sometimes.

success criteria
By applying this process from both characters’ point of view, pupils gain important insights into how readers relate to the protagonist/antagonist.

Book a Colourful Characters workshop with Sarah for your school
A cartoon diamond icon with a blue outline and light blue facets.
Cartoon rocket ship flying upward with a cloud above it.
Line drawing of a light bulb with two hands holding it from opposite sides.
Illustration of a pink piggy bank with a coin above it.
A digital illustration of an audio mixing or equalizer interface with vertical sliders.