At the center of a good story are the characters in it. In this course aspiring writers will discover how to build and bring to life complex, vivid and unforgettable characters. We will study the choices a writer makes to bring all characters to life on the page, and we will perform written exercises in order to develop a variety of writing and pre-writing techniques, in order to create a variety of characters. We will learn how to use our own life experiences, and the people we know (and how not to!). We will develop inner (thoughts and feelings) and outer (appearance, habits, behavior) lives for our characters and see how that can lead us to richer and more interesting stories. We will breathe life into our characters and let them surprise us.
This course is part of the Creative Writing Specialization
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About this Course
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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Discovering Characters from Your Life and Elsewhere
Creating Characters on the Page
Dialogue and Monologue
Set Your Characters Free.. and Give Them Somewhere to Go
Reviews
- 5 stars68.05%
- 4 stars20.83%
- 3 stars8.05%
- 2 stars2.11%
- 1 star0.94%
TOP REVIEWS FROM CREATIVE WRITING: THE CRAFT OF CHARACTER
The information I need to craft compelling characters. Wouldn't have learned this information just by reading books! Amy is an excellent instructor, and the work is challenging but not unreachable.
It was a truly amazing course because explaining the intricate details of what makes a person, what makes a great character is no easy task but with the great tutor it was quite splendid.
Excellent course. I didn't know what to expect when I started. I was very pleasantly surprised at both how challenging - and rewarding - I found it. Amy Bloom was brilliant. Thank you!
My only complaint is that some reviewers (peers) really don't elaborate or give much feedback. One of my reviewers for my last assignment, left nothing at all except his name. To me, that is cheating.
About the Creative Writing Specialization

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