Event

Defining Character

In novel writing almost everything relies on the characters you build. Our focus will go beyond the development of your main character and also address the rest of your story's supporting cast. By investigating the current trends in young adult heroes and heroines and outcasts and sidekicks, this class will allow you to create characters that matter to the reader.

Using Laurie Halse Anderson's breakthrough novel Speak, we'll analyze how to build a high school world from the perspective of a central character. We'll investigate the qualities that allow Anderson's characters to become people on the page and escape being high school stereotypes. We'll also examine Jenny Downham's internationally acclaimed novel Before I Die. We'll explore the ways in which Downham builds dynamic and authentic teenagers without the backdrop of a school setting. Through exercises that will help you deeply imagine your characters, you will leave this class with a fully realized protagonist and cast.