Class Description
A literary agent-led workshop focusing on character development from a marketplace perspective. Be it memoir or fiction, projects that initially capture an agent’s attention most often get rejected because of flat, stock, or unengaging characters. Are you relying on one of the six stock characters we agents see all too often? Do you have sufficient internal conflict on the page without turning your character(s) into clichés? Have you drowned your poor character(s) with description?
In this one-day intensive workshop, we will tackle these problems and many more. We will study effective character descriptions and scenes that go much deeper than the words on the page. We'll work on an assortment of character development exercises, including a very telling Mad Lib-type exercise for your protagonist. Finally, we'll really get into the skin of our characters by using small group critiques and one-on-ones with the instructor.
Part of GrubStreet's Elements of Craft series, dedicated to exploring craft issues on a deeper level. For more on this series' offerings, click here.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.