Writing Seminar Notes
Part One:
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Wood spoon—Tall, pale, round face, long limbs. –I dislike this exercise because how can
an object be personified and turned into a character? Why would you tell me to create
‘internal conflict’ of a character without telling me first how to do something like that?
What makes a character (not carboard) interesting, and what makes them uninteresting?
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General:
 Characters need to have an authentic purpose for the environment they have (i.e., a
sailor has no business feeling connected to a forest).
 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-tips-for-characterdevelopment#how-to-develop-secondary-characters -read entire article
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Interesting:
 Characters are interesting when they have dimension (ex. Redemption and
sympathy toward antagonistic force, and internal struggle with protagonists).
 How the character interacts with their environment makes them interesting.
 Characters need a distinctive ‘voice’ within their story.
 Characters need to have a motivation with their action.
 Internal conflict (i.e., wants to do something or be someone but feels held back by
the internal indecision.
 People can relate to the character.
 Internal monologue through viewpoint can create interesting insights.
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Not Interesting:
 One dimension and ‘cardboard’.
 Characters make no decisions to move the story forward (i.e., the story moves
forward without them, they do not move it themselves).
 Inconsistency is not necessarily uninteresting, but it is annoying (i.e., would that
person really do that?).
How does a reader learn about a character
 Narration (how they are literally described).
 They learn by how the character is described, either by the writer or by other
characters.
 The way the character interacts with others. How do they act, how do they reveal
themselves, how do they think about themselves?
Character backgrounds
 Important to be detailed about their past, their motivations, goals, societal pressure,
cultural pressure, familiar pressure, internal
 The farther back and the more detailed the better.
J
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Character Exercise – 10 Important Moments – Peter
 Death of his mother when he was he was young, and the lack of a mother during
childhood.
 Birth of his younger sister, who he close to.
 Father launches a revolt in conjunction with other great powers.
 Death of his father and sister.
 Destruction of his homeworld and his people’s exodus to Rin.
 The addiction to Lotus begins on Rin.
 First vision.
 Death of a reconnaissance group he led.
 He becomes viewed as a god on Rin. And meets a priest.
 His control of Lotus allows him to poison the supply, and he becomes the first to
destroy an entire planet without using military force.
 Usurps the throne.