How this course works

- I've been teaching character development for over a decade to tens of thousands of writers between my blog, book, editing, and speaking engagements. The concept of interiority has always been at the forefront of my teaching. Let's take a moment to break down the term interiority a bit more as you're going to hear me use it often throughout the course. A character's interiority is defined as their inner life. What's going on inside their head. This includes their thoughts, emotions, reactions, struggles, and anything else they're experiencing on the inside. The best characters to ever appear on the page are characters crafted with interiority in mind, meaning the writer knows and understands the characters in her life almost as well as their own and uses that knowledge to help reveal the character to the reader in an engaging way by giving the reader key glimpses into the character's interiority. But how do we do that? How do we reveal character to a reader in a way that creates engagement and makes the reader want to read more? Well, that's what the majority of this course will be focused on. Here's how the course is structured. We'll start our journey into dynamic characters by first exploring the minds of our readers to get a better sense of what they're looking for in a story. In section two, we'll answer the question of why readers fall in love with characters and what is the most important question a reader asks when they dig into that first page. We'll also play a fun game that will give you a quick jumpstart into the concept of interiority and how to use it to elevate your fiction writing. Section three of the course is dedicated to learning how to write dynamic characters, which means how do we reveal character on the page in a way that ensures our readers are engaged and invested in our story. This is where we'll really hone in on that essential reader-character connection. How to build it and nurture it so that your reader feels like an active part of the story. To do this, we'll explore and master seven tools for effectively revealing character and we'll practice using these tools with seven fun exercises to get you inspired and get you writing. Then once you've mastered these tools in section four, we'll start brainstorming and developing our own characters, using what I believe to be the four key foundations that make up any dynamic character. You'll be able to use this character in an existing project you're already working on or to jumpstart you on a new project. If you already have a work in progress like a novel, memoir, narrative non-fiction, or short story, or if you have an idea for one that you've been itching to start, great. You can use this section to develop a character for your current project. If you don't already have a character in mind or you simply want to practice developing character with a blank slate, no problem. I'll start you off with what I like to call a practice protagonist. This will be a brand new character you will develop from the ground up using the skills taught in the section. The purpose of this section is to turn flat, one-dimensional characters into complex, fleshed out dynamic people who feel real, engaging, and complete. Once you have these complex fleshed out characters, you'll be able to write them into your stories with confidence and craftsmanship, using all the skills and tools you've learned throughout the course. Also in section four, we'll go beyond the main character and talk about antagonists and secondary characters and how to make them just as dynamic as your protagonists. Then finally, in section five, I'll give you some guidance on going even further with your characters and your stories, including some fun bonus exercises to launch you into the next phase of your writing journey. Throughout the course, I'll be providing you with a ton of examples from contemporary books to help you fully grasp and master the tools and skills plus loads of fun and inspiring exercises to put everything into practice. As Jessica mentioned, she and I will be getting together to do many of these exercises right along with you. We may have a few novels to write by the time we're done. Are you getting excited? I certainly am because the skills you'll be learning here are skills you will keep using for the rest of your writing life. The concept of interiority that we'll be exploring in great detail in this course is not something you learn once and then never use again. It's also not something with a limited use case like only your current work in progress. These are the very foundations upon which all great characters and stories are built, creating amazing, multi-layered, interesting and relatable characters is your primary job as a fiction and creative non-fiction writer. So every time you start a new writing project, you're going to reach for the tools and skills taught in this course. That sounds like a tall order but that's how deeply I believe in character. By the end of this course, you will be right there with me too. And remember, you can take this course as many times as you want. Anytime you need a refresher on what makes for a dynamic character, a reminder of how to bring your character to life on the page, a dose of inspiration, or just a boost of encouragement, I'll be here for you. So are you ready to get started? Click on over to the next section to start learning about what makes readers fall in love with characters.