Class Description
As readers, we love protagonists who are passionate, who feel deeply, and as writers we know that our protagonists should experience moments of joy and despair, rage and desire. But how do we express those emotions on the page without getting cliched and melodramatic? How do we ensure that our characters aren't relentless drama queens flipping wildly between one extreme emotion and another?
In this generative class, we'll look at strategies for conveying character emotions in ways that feel authentic and powerful on the page. We'll look at how to express the complex range of emotions a character might be experiencing without giving readers whiplash by pitching back and forth between rage and desire. Finally, we'd look at how to track the emotional arc of a character over the course of a whole novel, building their journey toward their emotional goal with each scene. You'll leave class with a keener understanding of how to plumb the depths of your protagonist's emotional life to better serve your story, and how to build novel scenes that pulse with feeling, minus the melodrama. Writing notebooks will be available, but feel free to bring your own. For writers age 13 - 18 ONLY.
Parents/guardians must also complete this permission form online before the start of the class.
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If you are registering on behalf of your teen, add their email information in the “For a Friend or Child?” field on the right-hand side of the screen before you check out. This will send them a direct link and reminder to create their own profile with GrubStreet.
(After adding the class to your cart, click "Checkout" and click “Add” next to “For a Friend or Child?” on the right-hand side to fill in their email. This is an easy way of linking the class to your child and encourages them to create their own account.)
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.