Does your book have too many protagonists?

Does it have one main character, but it feels underdeveloped?

When we open a book, a strong protagonist compels us to get in the proverbial car and go on a journey with them. How do we create protagonists that make us get in the car and stay in the car?

A protagonist is a leading character in your work, the person or people whose story you’re telling. Your protagonists don’t have to be likable, but they do need to be compelling. How does the writer achieve that? What tools do writers have to facilitate an emotional relationship between your readers and your characters? In this class we will talk about some of the common pitfalls of characterization in modern fiction and memoir, look at examples of unforgettable protagonists, and work on some writing exercises that will help you develop protagonists who can really be in the driver’s seat of your story.

In this class, participants will learn to commit to one or two main characters, to be hard on those characters, to acknowledge their contradictions, and to give them rich interior lives and ways to act out.

TAKE THIS CLASS IF

• You’re writing a novel, stories, or a memoir.
• You want to develop your main character to be as compelling as possible.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Chaitali Sen is the author of The Pathless Sky, published by Europa Editions in 2015. Born in India and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and stepson. Her short stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in New England Review, New Ohio Review, Colorado Review, The Aerogram, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other journals. Formerly an elementary school teacher, she has developed writing workshops for children, adolescents, and adults in Boston, New York, and Austin. She is a graduate of the Hunter College MFA program in Fiction.