The Muse & the Marketplace 2017

Problems make life interesting. The best stories and novels revolve around characters that are facing some sort of dilemma, whether it’s physical, emotional, or philosophical. That problem usually motivates your character to take some form of action or to attempt to make a change in their situation, for better or worse. As in life, your characters may be haunted by some memory or past experience that is preventing them from fully engaging in life. How your character behaves is the essence of who he/she is, and has a great deal to do with the outcome of your story or novel. In this hands-on workshop, we'll try a few key exercises that will help you to know your character better so that you may have a clearer sense of what his or her dilemma is, and how his/her reaction to it may help to inform the structure of your story/novel.