Class Description
In creating stories, many writers focus on what happens without enough consideration as to the why. And that why is all about character. What does your character want? Why do they want it? What are they willing to sacrifice to get it? Novel planning begins with answering these character-focused questions. Key to this is ensuring your character has clear goals, both tangibly and emotionally. This lecture-driven seminar focuses on techniques to create characters who feel real, with motivations, desires, wants, and needs. Students will explore how characters are actually a novel-writing secret weapon and how to wield them for the most effective results in their stories. Students will leave with a key understanding: characters drive the plot, not the other way around.
This course can be taken alone or in conjunction with the other seminars in this series: The Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning: Story Beats (April 5), Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning: POV, Side Characters, and Endings (May 3rd), Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning: Setup and Payoff (June 7).
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.