Writing from the Heart: Breathing Life into Characters

• Workshop 1: Analyzing a favourite character
  We will discuss what makes a character memorable by describing a favourite character and doing some analysis. What clues does the writer give about the character’s history, their environment, their relationships? What matters to this character? What do they want and what do they do to get what they want? What complications do they have to navigate? What further twists and turns could we assign this character?
• Workshop 2: Laying down the bones
  Building on what we discovered last class, we’ll take a person from our own lives and create their character biography, paying attention to the cultural elements that have influenced them and the choices they have made. We’ll use the medicine wheel as a template—the four directions encompassing mind, body, emotions and spirit—to describe this character as fully as we can.
• Workshop 3: Watch what I do—the Gingerbread Man syndrome
  Working from a situation with dynamics you want to explore, you will pull in two characters from “thin air” and plunk them into your situation. Here you’ll describe what they do and how they communicate with each other through their actions. You may find these characters take on their own lives and lead you in unexpected directions. You will begin a short character biography for each character.
• Workshop 4: Giving your characters voice
  Taking the situation and characters you developed in the last class, you will add dialogue to the scenario. You will flesh out the character biographies you started so that their voices come from their lived experiences beyond just this one scenario. How did they get to where they are in this moment and where will they go after this moment is over?
• Workshop 5: Imagining a character through their lifetime
  Working with a character you have created in class or with an entirely new character, you will create a timeline for them, from birth to death. You will choose three pivotal life moments in and write a short scene of each pivotal moment, capturing the essence of your character at those times in their life.
• Workshop 6: First person, please
  You will now experiment with writing a monologue in the voice of one of the characters you developed in the course. You’ll decide to whom they are telling their story, where they are, why they are telling their story and what they want to do to the person to whom they are telling the story. How do these elements impact the character in what they say and do? 

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Utilize a repertoire of character development techniques
• Identify different starting places for developing characters
• Develop confidence in sharing your creative work with others

• Participation in Zoom seminar Talking Circles
• Writing prompts and assignments 
• Small-group reading and discussion in break-out rooms
• Participation in written discussions with other students
• Reflective essay (applicable only to certificate students)

No textbook is required. We will provide all course materials online.