In this unit, we got to improvise a story of our choice. I chose “The Mirror Room,” a story about a haunted theater prop room with mirrors that trap people inside them. Four students hid in the prop room due to a school shooting. Three of the four students made it out, but the main character, Jade, got trapped inside the mirror.
When I started to read this story, I immediately noticed some areas for improvement, such as stronger word choice and faster transitions. However, the biggest issue was that every single character felt blank—meaning they had no emotions, thoughts, or characteristics. When the main character got trapped, no one seemed to care less.
To address these issues, I began adding more dialogue to the characters and filling in the missing emotions and characteristics. For example, I made Jade, the main character, sound fearless and brave, which aligned with her role as the leader. On the other hand, I gave Theo, another character, a very easily scared characteristic to add more drama to the story. Overall, I believe I did a good job of improving the blankness of the characters.
Next, I focused on creating slower transitions and making them clearer. The original story jumped from scene to scene, making it hard to understand the situation at any given moment. For instance, I made the transition from the trapped main character to the arrival of the police smoother, making the context easier to grasp.
Lastly, I added and replaced some word choices to add depth and realism to the story.