Characters and Action in your sentences

Characters and Actions

This sentence has a problem:
"Once upon a time, there was Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, the Woodsman and the Wolf. The end."

It has NO ACTION.

This sentence has action:
"Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place, a jump out from behind a tree occurred, causing fright."

But it has no CHARACTERS.

OK, this sentence has both Characters and Action:
"Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place on the part of Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf's jump out from behind a tree occurred, causing fright in Little Red Riding Hood."

What? That doesn't make any sense! Something is still wrong.

POINT: The characters were NOT the subjects. The actions were NOT the verbs.

The CHARACTERS need to be the SUBJECTS.
"Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place on the part of Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf's jump out from behind a tree occurred, causing fright in Little Red Riding Hood."

In this sentence --
The Subject: a walk through the woods…….is not a character
Then the main character: Little Red Riding Hood……….was not the subject
Then the main character: the wolf………was not the subject
The Subject: jump out from behind a tree……..again not a character

The actions underlined were NOT the verbs (verbs are capitalized)
a walk through the woods WAS TAKING place
Wolf's jump out from behind a tree OCCURRED.

Now move the main characters to the subject and the sentence will be:
"Once upon a time, Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods, when the Wolf jumped out from behind a tree and frightened her."

Main Character – Little Red Riding Hood
Action – walking
Main character – Wolf
Action – jumped

POINT:
If a sentence seems indirect and confusing, we do not see the main characters in the subject, NOR do we see the verbs as some type of action for those characters.

The first two principles of good story telling:
* Express main characters as SUBJECTS
* Express their actions as VERBS

What verb to use with There or These?

These and There….. so confusing.

When you use the word "These," ask – these WHAT?

These meetings? Then you would say These are.

You need to know what the pronoun is replacing.
Once you figure that out then you know what verb you should use.

There – pointing to – a lot.
A lot…..more than one……plural.

There – pointing to – signs.
Signs…..more than one…..plural.

How to stay away from "There are" sentences?
There are a lot of signs.

Change it around. Subject – Signs.
Signs are all over the wall.

Clear reference when using "This"

Using the word "This" can cause problems if you aren't careful.

The pronoun MUST have a clear reference.

Use the pronoun "This" when you have a clear reference in the preceding clause.