Character English Essays

Points: A good character is a fortune in itself – Man makes the character – Good character more precious than rubies. But when character is lost, everything is lost. If you would get on in the world, you must form and maintain a spotless character. A good character is a fortune in itself. It is one of the great essentials to our success in life. An American writer has eloquently said, “It is a mighty and gloriole fact that every man is the author of his own character.” But a noble character is not made in a moment or with little effort. It is the reward of constant and well-directed labor. We are the architects of our own character. Our mental powers must be cultivated. Plant the seeds, and tend them well, and they will make an orchard. Cultivate the powers and they will make a noble character. God gives the mind, man makes the character. The mind is the garden, character is the fruit, the mind is the white page, the character is the writing we put upon it; the mind is the metallic plate, the character is our engraving thereon. The mind is the shop, character is our profits on the trade. Large profits are made from quick sales and small percentages, so great characters are made by many little acts and efforts. The secret thoughts never expressed, the lie never told for want of courage, are just as effectual in staining the character as though the world knew all about them. A good character is more precious, than are rubies, gold, crowns or kingdoms, and the work of making it is the noblest labor upon earth.

To beginning writers, initial apprehension, explained as “terror of blank page”, may result from inability to tune ones system to a suitable frequency from which to download inspiring thoughts. When this is the case, you have wonderful ideas in the head but are not able to put pen to paper to preserve them so they go away and find someone else more receptive. The practical tested way of overcoming initial apprehension is to start writing. Your first few lines or perhaps may not be worth being kept, but just write and leave that to the pruning process. Once you have started, youd see that the process flows more spontaneously than you had expected. Thus you may set out to write a few lines, a scene, a couple of lines or a page but end up writing volumes. As many ideas as knock at the door of your creative mind, not necessarily in any particular order or in their “perfect” state.

Just collect the fish together with the prawns and snails so you can sieve and synthesise later. The word Perfect is placed in quote here because no work of art is perfect. Because there are no formulae in the humanities; creativity with flexibility is the watch word. To elaborate on this, i tell you the story of three blind men who went to a games reserve to “see” animals. After visiting elephants pen, one of them who had touched the ear said “Ah! So this is what elephants are; flabby, soft and flat.” Another said, “Elephant is so long and hose like”. He had touched the trunk. Yet the third exclaimed, “goodness me! Is that how an elephants body is? As strong as steel rod.” He had touched the elephants tusk. Now each of them was right in his description of the elephant. Yet this was from each mans point of view, and according only to each mans understanding and perception.

Similarly, the field of creative writing is bigger than anybody and so it is impossible to paint a perfect picture, as what you see as perfect may be to another man, terrible. So if one may ask, whose definition should we take as most suitable and thus, perfect? However, there are archetypes and ingredients that make your work a masterpiece by popular opinion and these, this essay has offered. While the following stages may not necessarily occur in a particular order, they are stages every creative thinker goes through in passing across his ideas. This refers to the process of receiving inspiration to write. That time when you begin to put your strands and bits of thinking together towards making a whole story that would be meaningful and appealing. This largely happens within the creative sphere of the mind but may often be triggered by external factors. External factors that may motivate the ideation of a creative thought or stimulate the flow of inspiration include personal experiences, witnessed experiences of things which did not happen to you but which you witnessed happen to another. What you see with your eyes equally play a huge role in stimulating your inspiration.