Class Description
Characters are the lifeblood of story, no matter what genre. They need to be compelling and convincing, surprising and relatable. It's a tall order!
In this class, we're going to take a deep dive into the world of your characters, in any genre(s) you're working in. We will review the essentials of character interiority and explore techniques to reveal your characters' perspective, worldview, and goals. Each week, we'll investigate a different aspect of interiority–thoughts and emotions, worldview, backstory, and desires–and examine published works with richly developed characters. We'll read published works from writers such as Imbolo Mbue, David Yoon, Jacquelin Woodson, and Weike Wang. There will be writing prompts and short exercises to get into the mind of your characters. Then, you'll have the opportunity to share your work with the class.
Over four weeks, you will gain an understanding of the elements that comprise a character's interior life; develop richer, more nuanced characters; and learn effective ways to convey your characters' interior life on the page."
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
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.