WRITING CHARACTERS

Máire Fisher, writer

Good fiction requires believable characters; human beings with human emotions . So how do authors go about creating characters who are worth caring about, ones whom readers will love, ones they may dislike intensely? Writers can choose characters who are passive or driven, unreliable or eminently trustworthy . This course is designed to help participants step into their characters’ shoes, plumb their hidden depths, see what motivates them and how far characters are prepared to go to get what they want . The exercises supplied will work equally well whether participants wish to explore characters from work in progress or find new people to populate new stories . This course is suitable for both established writers and those who are just starting out as writers.

Recommended reading

 Corbett, D. 2013. The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV. Penguin Books.

 Schuster, A. 2014. To the Islands: A Creative Writing Handbook. Cape Town: Tiber Tree Press.