What to expect

(bright music) - Have you ever read a book or story and simply couldn't get the character out of your head? Maybe you were at work or trying to fall asleep or brushing your teeth, but your mind kept drifting back, wondering what was the character up to? What would they do next? How would they react to what just happened in the story? That is the mark of a dynamic character. Someone who leaps off the page and into the reader's heart. Someone who connects with the reader and lingers in their mind even after the final page is turned. But how do you craft these kinds of characters? Good question. Welcome to Writing Mastery, Crafting Dynamic Characters with Mary Kole. I'm Jessica Brody, best-selling author, writing instructor, and founder of Writing Mastery and the Writing Mastery Academy. I've created a lot of online courses for writers because I truly believe that as writers and human beings, we should never stop learning. We can always continue to expand and improve our craft, which is why I'm constantly on the lookout for experts who I personally can learn from to improve my own craft as well. That's how I found Mary Kole. Mary is a character guru. She's been working with writers for more than 10 years as both an editor and a literary agent. In this course, Mary takes you to the very core of what makes characters work and what makes readers fall in love with them, cheer for them, cry with them, celebrate with them, and most important, remember them long after the story is over. In this course, Mary is going to share with us her secret sauce for bringing characters to life on the page and creating that invaluable reader-character connection that no good story can go without. Because you can have the most interesting, compelling, unique character in the world, but if you can't effectively reveal that character to the reader in a way that inspires them to keep reading, what's the point? That's where Mary's magic comes in. She will break down, step-by-step, the process of building and nurturing that reader-character relationship and provide you with seven vital tools for weaving character into your prose in an engaging way. And throughout the course, she'll give you tons of examples, actionable tips, and exercises to help you apply what you've learned and put your new skills to work to ensure your characters leap off the page and into the hearts and minds of your readers. By the end of this course, you'll not only have all the skills you need to craft dynamic characters into your fiction, but you'll leave the course with at least one new dynamic character fleshed out and ready to go. You can use this character to elevate a current work in progress or start a new project. This course is full of super fun writing and brainstorming exercises to help you practice what you've learned. And because I'm a writer who never wants to stop learning and improving my craft, I'll be doing these exercises right along with you. Throughout the course, Mary and I will jump on a video chat for our instructor jam sessions, where we will share and discuss what we came up with when we tackled the exercises. Think of it like our little writing critique group that you get to join in on. This will help you apply the exercises and skills taught in this course to your own writing and give you even more insight on how dynamic characters are crafted. Now, without further ado, I give you the queen of character herself, Mary Kole. Take it away, Mary.