Characters are the most important part of any story.

Creating fictional characters (or even characters based on real people) requires a balance between the unusual quirks that make a character compelling, and the realistic, ordinary details that make a character believable.

This class will examine strategies and writing exercises for developing your characters in a way that will keep readers engaged with your story. Sometimes, the most important aspects of a character are the things that happen off the page, the interests and impulses that that character would be pursuing if they didn’t have to be engaged in the plot that you’ve thrown them into. So, before you can get a reader to believe in and care about your characters, you need to get to know them yourself.

TAKE THIS CLASS IF

You want to create characters that readers believe in and care about.
You have a great idea for a plot, but you are struggling to create characters who are fully engaged in your story.
You write novels or short stories.
You want to write memorable characters.
You want to fine tune your characters so that they are the ones driving the plot, and not just along for the ride.

About the instructor: 

John Pipkin is the Director of the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas-Austin and also teaches in the low-residency MFA Program at Spalding University. Originally from Baltimore, he holds a Ph.D. in 19th-century British Literature and is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels: Woodsburner (Nan A Talese/Doubleday 2009) which won the New York Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and The Blind Astronomer’s Daughter(Bloomsbury 2016). He has received fellowships to MacDowell, Yaddo, Dobie-Paisano, and the Gullkistan Center for Creativity in Iceland. He is also the recipient of the 2021 Harry Ransom Award for Excellence in Teaching at UT-Austin.

The deadline to register for this class is Friday, March 31 at 5:00 PM CT.