Portraying Character

Today for my writing class I had to try to give a picture of my character through different types of writing.  Here is my character.  Can you tell me what she is like?

Summary of a character -

Sherry lit another cigarette as she stood over the stove frying chicken.  She took a drag, turned over the chicken pieces, and strained the potatoes all in a matter of seconds.  Sherry was like a whirlwind in the kitchen.  Sherry was a whirlwind in most areas of life.  Good thing she had a wireless phone.  She was often talking to her daughter on the phone while folding the laundry or playing solitaire on the laptop while watching the news.  Her husband John on the other hand could sit with the cat on his lap for hours.  They were perfect for each other.  John got a kick out of how scattered Sherry was and he in turn showered Sherry with praise.

They had only been married for 7 years, each of them being married a couple times before.  Now that they had each other they didn’t need anyone else.  They were content to just be together at home each night and not to be bothered by the activities that bog down a person.

Repeated Action or Habit -

Sherry climbed in the passenger seat of the pick-up truck and  John started it up.  Sherry reached over and turned the radio on.  She liked noise.  But even over the easy listening lyrics, she and John would talk.  Were they even listening to the music or was it white noise?  Sometimes they had to repeat themselves when they talked because of the racket.  But neither of them turned the music off, it was just what they did whenever they drove somewhere together.  Alone, John left it switched off.

Speech in a Scene -

“You won’t believe what Claire said,” Sherry’s eyes opened wide with a look of amazement.  She loved sharing the latest news from her phone call with her daughter.  “She was at a grocery store, you know the one down the street from her work.  What’s that one called?  Oh it doesn’t matter.  Anyway, Claire was pushing her cart down an aisle when she had to squeeze by a heavy-set lady in one of those doohickys, you know those scooter things they have in stores.  Anyway, she accidentally bumped the thing.  The lady looked at her and said ‘Well, excuse me, am I too fat?’  So you know Claire can’t keep her mouth shut, she said, ‘Maam, I didn’t bump you because you are fat, I bumped you because you were taking up the whole aisle.’  Well I guess the lady didn’t like that, so she gave Claire the finger and rolled away.  So Claire, not knowing when to keep her mouth shut mumbled under her breath but loud enough for the lady to hear, ‘and yes, you are fat.’  Can you believe that girl?”

John smiled and said, “What did the lady do, chase after Claire at a snails pace?”  John and Sherry laughed at the audacity that Claire had to say such comments and more so of the picture in their minds of the chase.  Sherry laughed so hard she snorted which made them laugh even harder.  Soon, Sherry was teary-eyed.