Class

6-Week: Writing 3-Dimensional Characters

Having problems getting readers to connect with your characters? Feel like your stories are good, but need an emotional boost to make readers care more? Then this course is for you!

In this class, we’ll focus on a variety of tools to create engaging characters. As we go, we'll apply what we learn to develop one of your characters.

To start, we’ll learn the importance of character arcs and how protagonists grow throughout a story. From there, we’ll turn the tables and discuss antagonists and how they sharpen a protagonist’s characterization. We’ll explore, theme, review several tools to identify a character’s personality type, establish internal and external goals, and much more!

To put our knowledge into practice, we will spend half our time building our own characters. You can build a new character or use one from a previous work that you’d like to improve. You’ll develop your character’s arc, wants and needs, as we cover the various aspects of character development each week. This character built in class can then be placed into your preexisting novel, screenplay or memoir to strengthen your story.

You’ll be encouraged to share work in class and receive feedback from the teacher and students. The teaching artist is happy to read up to 10–15 pages of student works in progress and do a phone feedback session, upon in-class request of registered students.

This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book; we encourage participants to be fully vaccinated and masked in the interest of everyone’s safety. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.