Lektion 9 of 11
In Progress

Beyond the text: Reworking the exposition

herr-stritt 2. Juli 2023
heart, head, beyond

Skills

Improve your creative writing skills in these special writing tasks. Develop appropriate vocabulary and find ways to present a character’s thoughts, feelings and actions.

Objectives

Find a deeper access to the film’s characters. Reflect on their role in the film by putting yourself in their shoes, by reflecting on the thoughts that might occupy them in that very instant, by bringing your thoughts to paper.


Diary entries, role biographies and interior monologues

man, write, plan

Writing skills

All forms of creative writing – Role biographies, interior monologues, diary entries – require an intense and detailed understanding of a character in a text. As you put yourself in a character’s shoes, you are seeing things through their eyes, displaying their struggles, thoughts and feelings through text. In all forms, you use the first-person perspective.

In a diary entry, you describe feelings, thoughts, hopes, wishes, problems and experienced events through the eyes of yourself or another person. You are having these thoughts right now – so write about them in the present tense (except if you are speaking about past or future events!). You can start like this: “Dear Diary, today …”

A role biography is written like a diary in complete sentences. For example, talk about your family and your relationship to them, your everyday life, your neighbourhood, your past, and your hopes for the future. Tell your reader what is important to you and what causes you problems.

An interior monologue contains thoughts and feelings of a character as they are passing through his or her mind. They do not need to have a certain structure, not even a chronological order. Make sure that you reflect events experienced by this character accurately and display their state of mind and feelings well.

Practise these forms now. You have got the choice between two characters and writing forms:

Option 1: Role biography – Walt Kowalski

Write a role biography for Walt Kowalski. Use the information you collected in your previous tasks. Add his thoughts and opinions where appropriate. The following questions should be addressed:

  • What has shaped Walt’s identity so far?
  • In what areas are his identity and his sense of belonging put into question?

Option 2: Interior monologue – Thao

After Spider and his gang have shown Thao the Gran Torino, he is left alone. What is going on in his mind? Write an interior monologue. Use information you have collected in your previous tasks. The following questions should be addressed:

  • What factors are shaping Thao’s identity?
  • When and how is his sense of belonging challenged?

Speaking Card Sets

B1 Level (GER: Form 10)