Craft Compelling Characters
Characters are the lifeblood of fiction. Without them, readers wouldn't have reason to care about your carefully woven plot, your beautifully described setting, your poignant themes. It's your characters who give your readers something to root for. In this carefully curated bundle featuring 11 digital products, you will learn strategies for character development, how to make your characters come alive, crafting characters readers will love, creating authentic characters and relationships, and more! If you want to write characters to keep readers turning pages, this bundle is for you!
Crafting the Characters Your Readers Will Love (OnDemand Video) Everyone loves a good story. But it's hard to have a good story without compelling characters who've worked their way into readers hearts. In this presentation, writers learn how to craft characters readers will love (or love to hate). With Philippa (Pip) Ballantine ($79.99 value)
Creating Engaging Character Arcs in the Novel and Novel Series (OnDemand Webinar) At the heart of any great story are great characters, and great characters have engaging character arcs. In this session, award-winning author C. Hope Clark will share effective strategies for creating compelling character arcs in the novel as well as in a series of novels. ($79.99 value)
10 Ways to Ruin Your Characters (OnDemand Webinar) Writers often struggle with creating characters who feel real on the page. But there are a few fundamental missteps that doom your characters—avoiding these mistakes won’t guarantee a bestseller, but will guarantee you’ll have interesting, well-developed characters: 1. The Cog: Treating them like parts of a plot machine; 2. The Explainer: Making their inner monologue an expo dump; 3. The Bolt-On: Mentioning details like checking off a list; 4. The Borg: Giving them all the same Voice; 5. The Forgotten: Failing to give them a purpose; 6. The Cheerful Idiot: Making them overconfident/impervious to setbacks; 7. The Juggernaut: The Single Personality Trait; 8. The Blob: Several characters doing the work of what should be one; 9. The Crazy Ivan: Forcing a sudden personality/loyalty shift/heel turn just for shock and drama; 10. The Non-Cheerful Idiot: Forcing your character to ignore what the reader sees as obvious. ($79.99 value)
Navigating Young Adult Characters Through the Expectations of Family and Society (OnDemand Webinars) The experience of being young is the experience of finding your place in the world. The world of young adult protagonists is defined by the characters they encounter the most, which are usually friends or family. Syed Masood examines how these relationships can represent social pressures, ideologies, and worldviews that the character has to choose between in order to discover who they themselves are. We will also examine how in contemporary YA fiction rebellion against these forces can be a stand-in for the hero's journey leading to self-actualization and self-realization. ($79.99 value)
Solving the Mystery of Authentic Characters and Relationships (OnDemand Webinar) This session with Jennifer J. Chow will first explore the elements needed to create authentic characters. It'll delve into ways to make a character come alive to the reader and also how to craft a multidimensional personality. Methods discussed will include research and unique personal experience. The presentation will also dive into the relationships shown in mystery novels and how to make them compelling. Writing devices used to examine the interplay among characters will include revelatory behavior, snappy dialogue, and sensory details. Examples from recent novels will be used to highlight the various concepts. ($79.99 value)
From Victors to Villains: Creating Memorable Characters in Noir (OnDemand Webinar) Hercule Poirot, Kinsey Millhone, Nancy Drew. You may have never read The Hound of the Baskervilles, but I bet you can tell me how the detective on the case behaves. Mysteries and thrillers are only as interesting as their characters. In this presentation, Erica Wright will talk about what makes memorable protagonists, antagonists, suspects, and allies. And how you can bring them to life in your own novels. ($79.99 value)
Creating Funny Characters (OnDemand Webinar) In this live, interactive webinar, a successful veteran comedy writer reveals these techniques and walks you through the precise steps you'll need to implement them, adding huge laughs to your screenplay. Whether you're working on a new screenplay or have a script in progress that just needs sharpening, this information-packed experience will leave you with all the ammunition you need to easily amp up the humor in your work. This webinar is for screenwriters and fiction writers alike! ($79.99 value)
Make Your Characters Come Alive (OnDemand Video) It has been said that all fiction is character-driven, and this statement is true. Even in a novel that's heavy on plot and action, it's through characters that the reader connects with the story. Character work is also key to originality in fiction. In this tutorial, you'll learn the essentials that make your characters come alive and draw the reader in. This tutorial is taught by James Scott Bell (jamesscottbell.com). ($39.99 value)
7 Surprising Approaches to Character Development (OnDemand Video) So many ways to think about Character Development. Do this, list that, plan and visualize. Well, Charlotte Robin Cook, a former publisher and acquisition editor, and now a successful story editor, has seven SURPRISING approaches to making your characters real, engaging, and even entertaining both to you and your future readership. And the operative word is SURPRISING. If a character doesn't surprise you, how can the character be believable, be real? Writer and reader alike want characters who are irresistible, compelling. These are strategies for bringing life and wonder to characters. ($29.99 value)
Writer's Digest July/August 2017 Digital Edition (Digital Magazine) Characters are the lifeblood of fiction. Without them, readers wouldn't have reason to care about your carefully woven plot, your beautifully described setting, your poignant themes. It's your characters who give your readers something to root for. The July/August CREATING CHARACTERS issue is dedicated to the heroes, villains and sidekicks who make your story matter. ($6.99 value)
2 Surprising Strategies for Character Development: Character-Based and Plot-Driven (OnDemand Video) This tutorial looks at the different strategies that allow characters to develop appropriately for character-based and plot-driven fiction. Considerations are sometimes surprising and inspiring: Plot-driven needs backstory development, character-based needs now-in-the-moment, while both need lots and lots of attitude and "feet-on-the-ground" freedom. So which kind of writer are you? Plot-driven or character-based? Who are your role models and which kind of writer are they? ($39.99)
