Characters: the Heart of Your Story
Instructor: Virginia G. McMorrow
Are you having trouble creating fictional characters for your short stories or novels? Do they bore you and read like cardboard cutouts without heart or soul?
Dream up your own Scarlet O'Hara, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Darth Veda – whomever your imagination compels you to create. With exercises to help you discover your own compelling characters (loved or hated), you'll make your readers care about the characters and want to live in their world.
Virginia McMorrow, author of four fantasy novels and numerous mystery short stories, will help you learn to peel away the layers of your protagonist's – and antagonist's – personality so you understand not only who they are but why they are. This workshop will provide the essentials of characterization, enabling you to create characters you'll know as well and as deeply as the people in your own life. Each session will include writing exercises and examples to illustrate the main point.
Objective: Develop new fictional characters or fine-tune existing characters – both protagonist and antagonist to see how they will interact – in your short stories and novels.
Lesson 1: "The Obvious" (Protagonist)
Objective: Understand and flesh out the physical and background details of the protagonist.
Lesson 2: "The Driving Force" (Protagonist)
Objective: Get to the heart of the protagonist and find out what makes her/him tick.
Lesson 3: "The Backdrop" (Protagonist)
Objective: Describe the setting against which the protagonist acts and learn what it reveals about her/him.
Lesson 4: "The Obvious" (Antagonist)
Objective: Understand and flesh out the physical and background details of the antagonist.
Lesson 5: "The Driving Force" (Antagonist)
Objective: Get to the heart of the antagonist and find out what makes her/him tick.
Lesson 6: "The Backdrop" (Antagonist)
Objective: Describe the setting against which the antagonist acts and learn what it reveals about her/him.
Class start dates:
May 3-June 7, 2006;
Aug. 2--Sept. 6, 2006
(Contact instructor directly for non-conforming start date)
Tuition: $85
Private Mentoring: $35
