Yesterday in my creative writing class we were discussing character development, so we closed class with a prompt where students selected scraps of paper from an envelope. Written on those scraps of paper were various random (sometimes odd-ball) items (a set of moldy dentures, a blow-up doll, red stilettos, a sticker that says HELLO! MY NAME IS: AWESOME!, etc.) and the students were then asked to brainstorm for several minutes about the type of person who might be likely to own each of those items before expanding those ideas into a full-on character.
"Who the hell owns a milk jug in the shape of a breast?" one of my students asked, flapping her scraps of paper in the air.
"My brother," I said.
On the other side of the room one of my other students was bent over his notebook and muttering to himself. Whatever he'd gotten on his scraps of paper was causing him a considerable amount of stress. Finally he just gave up and threw his arms in the air. "You know who would own this?" he asked. "TWILIGHT NERDS, that's who. TWILIGHT NERDS!"
Simultaneously, three girls in the room--and, yeah, I was one of them--whipped around and said, "HEY! WATCH IT!"
And then we all smiled and nodded at each other, pleased with our synchronized chorus and the fact that we were going to be having a very, very, very good weekend.
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