About this course: 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.
Taught by: Amy Bloom, Distinguished University Writer in Residence and Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing
| Basic Info | Course 2 of 5 in the Creative Writing Specialization |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 2-4 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Video: Conception
- Video: The Conflict Within (Shop Talk with Brando Skyhorse)
- Video: Desire and Goals
- Video: Hearing, Selecting, and Seeing
- Reading: A Note on Assignments
- Video: Feedback Expectations for the Specialization
- Reading: Promo Codes
- Video: Visiting Writer: Richard Blanco
- Video: Voice
- Video: Making Them Matter to the Reader (with Visiting Writer Dani Shapiro)
- Video: The Story Reveals Who We Are (Shop Talk with Salvatore Scibona)
- Video: Inflection
- Video: Picking Your Point of View (Shop Talk with Amity Gaige)
- Video: Conversation's Greatest Hits
- Video: Idiosyncrasies
- Video: What We Do and How We Do It
- Video: The Relationship Between the Character and the Wide World (with Visiting Writer Valerie Martin)
- Video: Voice of Narrator
- Video: Voice of Narrative
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
| Audit | Purchase Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Not available | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Excellent course. I enjoyed how the instructors brought the content together.
Thank you
Craft of Character did a lot for my ability to create characters, and I learned a lot about writing dialogue, and the different points of view that those dialogues can come from. Instructions were always perfectly clear and easy to understand. Of course I wasn't always expert at the week's process involved, but that wasn't because of the directions being in anyway unclear. I loved taking this course, and will definitely be continuing on in the Specialization.
Even though I enjoyed the course, I found the description of the assignments sometimes very confusing and lacking in details.
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BC
You know something is amiss with your writing when a friend suggests more character development and you have to ask them what that means. This course was enjoyable a great start.