Character Alchemy: Bring Your Cast to Life

“Character is the vibrant pulse that brings a story to life,” says instructor Nina Schuyler. “When we develop characters through well-chosen details, they leap from the page, and we feel in the presence of unique, idiosyncratic individuals.”

In this 2-week class, we will move beyond the conventional ways of creating a character—describing clothes, hair, expression—into a deeper enactment of specificity, unveiling our characters’ motivations, desires, and vulnerabilities. We’ll read stories by Alice Munro and William Trevor, drawing lessons from them about how to create lively, fully-imagined characters. 

During the first class, through prompt-driven writing, we’ll start by creating character sketches. Those exercises will bring a few new characters to life, who will lead you to new stories you want to tell. Nina says, “Writing with granular detail helps to create a fictional character who becomes as real and intimate to us as a close friend. This dramatization is what the novelist Marilynn Robinson calls ‘the illusion of ghostly proximity to other human souls.’”

About The Writing Salon's In-Person Classes

Before your class meets, you'll receive an email from The Writing Salon with more information about your class. If you have any questions about in-person learning, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at hello@writingsalons.com.