Blog Promopt #4

Personified Place

Activity: 
George Packer uses individual characters and biographies to personify places such as cities and regions in The Unwinding. To personify something means to represent qualities or concepts in human form, or to change those qualities into characteristics of a person. Personification is commonly used by creative writers in a variety of genres.

Here is an example in the form of a poem from Bianca Spriggs, a local poet and student here at UK, who attempts to personify her home region of Appalachia: http://www.stilljournal.net/bianca-spriggs10ways-poetry.php.

Here is another example from Carl Sandburg, who personifies Chicago in his classic poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chicago/ .

Create a character that is based upon your home town or region. Think about what qualities and concrete details are the most representative of your chosen place and make a list. These characteristics do not need to be major facts, though they certainly can be. Think about things like location, politics, jobs, accents, food, demographics, history, and anything else that represents the community and its values.

1.      Use those qualities to create (or “characterize”) a person and name that person after the place you have selected. As you start to convert your list of qualities and details about your chosen place into a list of characteristics, ask yourself some basic questions:

a.       What might this character look like?

b.      What might this character’s job be?

c.       How does this character sound, walk, talk, and interact with others?

d.      What are your character’s priorities?

e.       How might your character view the surrounding world?

2.      Write a 300-500 word characterization of your chosen location. You may wish to use one of our models to guide you. Feel free to mimic the form and tone of the poems above by Spriggs and Sandburg, the Camera Eye or Biography of The Big Money, or one of your favorite poems or songs.

Please include the name of your character in your “Post Title” field at the top of your posting window. Name your character after your chosen location (ex: Lexington Kentucky or The Bluegrass).

3.      Provide a short, 3-4 sentence explanation of your characterization. Be thoughtful! Teach us something about your creative process.

4.      Post your Personified Place by noon on Wednesday, March 5th.

5.      Comment on two posts by noon on Friday, March 7th.