Valuing & judging

Inspiration for the lesson

This lesson has ~11 writing exercises.

To give you some inspiration for the exercises, we suggest using one of the images below (otherwise find your own or take inspiration from your life and imagination).

This lesson will be all about characters having lots of opinions, so you want an image that makes you think of at least one character and a world they could be in.

Here are some options. If you see one you like, right-click to download it or open in a new tab so you can refer to it when you need inspiration.

 

Four kids on bikes look at a creepy tentacled storm in the distance

The Stranger Things kids have all sorts of opinions on The Mindflayer. 

(A Stranger Things wallpaper by JustGiveMeFries on Wattpad)

 

Pied Piper leading rats through Hamelin town by Oskar Herrfurth

The Pied Piper is a classic tale of a town that thought rats were bad, and also thought paying their utility bills was bad.

(The Ratcatcher's Revenge by Oskar Herrfurth)

 

A 1th century Musician holding a tamborine by Caravaggio

This guy looks like he has Opinions.

(A Musician by Caravaggio)

For this lesson we used paintings for inspiration.

Worked example 1: Medieval Belgian fashion feud

Man and woman stand in medieval Dutch house with fine clothes posing for portrait

(The Arnolfini portrait by Jan van Eyck)

This is a famous Renaissance portrait by Jan van Eyck of a merchant, his wife, and their dog. We just liked the clothes and props, and imagined them in a long-running feud with their neighbours.

 

Worked example 2: Skater girl drops in on a demon 

Boy skateboards in empty pool

(Lords of Dogtown by Conor Smith)

We like pictures of empty swimming pools, so we started writing from this image, and then we got a little spooky and apocalyptic as we went along.

Once you're confident you have a character you want to follow and a world you want to explore, we can get started.

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