THE ART OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT with Michelle Lyn King
SOLD OUT
6 Weeks | Tuesdays, 7pm - 9pm ET (on Zoom) | May 16 - June 20, 2023
$420 | REGISTER
Throughout this six-week course, we’ll explore the crucial role of character in creating compelling and resonant fiction. We’ll discuss key elements of character development, such as backstory, personality traits, desires, and flaws, and explore how each of these elements can be used to create fully realized and dynamic characters. We will also examine the various ways in which characters drive plot, and how a well-developed character can elevate a story beyond its basic premise. Focusing on developing character will both deepen and complicate your work and will help to solve problems in your fiction related to narrative shape and structure. By the end of this workshop, you will have a better understanding of how character functions in fiction.
Each week, students will be asked to give feedback on their peers’ workshop submissions. Each student will be workshopped two times. Workshop submissions should be complete short stories, rather than novel excerpts, up to twenty pages in length. Students will receive a 1-2 page letter from the instructor on each of their workshop submissions, as well as a scanned copy of their marked up story. Students will also receive feedback from their peers in the form of a ~one page letter. Students are not asked to provide line notes to their peers. Each student will also receive a thirty-minute one-on-one meeting with the instructor via Zoom.
Please write to emily@greatplacebooks.com with questions.
Michelle Lyn King is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Brooklyn College, and the editor-in-chief of Joyland magazine.
"Michelle Lyn King's writing is incredibly sharp and memorable—every word and every detail has a purpose. Michelle is also a gifted editor, knowing exactly what to cut and where to expand. Her enthusiasm for writing is contagious."
— CHELSEA HODSON, AUTHOR OF TONIGHT I'M SOMEONE ELSE
"Michelle is an outstanding writer, with a finely tuned ear for the speaking rhythms and the sensibilities of her characters. She is smart and well-informed and enthusiastic about writing—just the sort of person I’d want a talented, developing writer to be studying with."
— JOSHUA HENKIN, AUTHOR OF MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS