Characters are the beating heart of most stories – but what makes some characters more compelling than others? How do you create a unique voice for your narrator or protagonist? In the words of PG Wodehouse, if you can’t create interesting situations, your characters can’t be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them. How exactly do Character and Plot intersect?
This day-long workshop will introduce a variety of strategies that can be used to create well-developed, complex characters as well as teach techniques and approaches to developing a compelling, engaging and original storyline. We will cover the initial stages of generating ideas, to developing back story, motives, voice and personality, and will also discuss and practice a variety of devices – including dialogue, point of view, character interaction, description and narration – that can be used to avoid exposition.
Through a series of dynamic writing exercises, personal feedback and key insights into the creative practice, this workshop is designed for those hoping to create authentic and unforgettable characters. Participants will learn how to balance action with characterisation; how to inject ‘movement’ into a scene; and how plot can open up a story, and its characters, to new and exciting possibilities.
Please bring your laptop or a writing pad – and come prepared for day of intensive writing, reflection and discussion, led by two experienced writers and industry professionals.
Writing Character and Plot
Where: Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre, Multi-Purpose Room 2, 251 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC
When: Saturday, 14 May 2016
Time: 10am to 4pm
Price: $179 for KYD subscribers; $199 for non-subscribers
All bookings are made through TryBooking: http://www.trybooking.com/177051
This is a day-long workshop. Morning and afternoon tea will be provided, and there is a 45-minute break for lunch. Kathleen Syme Library is close to public transport, and there is parking nearby. All participants also receive a goodie bag of resource material to keep you motivated long after the workshop has concluded. For further information, please email: [email protected]
About the Teachers
Hannah Kent is the co-founder and publishing director of Kill Your Darlings. Her debut novel, Burial Rites (Picador; Little, Brown), has been translated into twenty-three languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award, and has most recently been shortlisted for the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Hannah is currently working on her second novel.
Rebecca Starford is the co-founder and publishing director of Kill Your Darlings. She is also an editor at Text Publishing and a former deputy editor at Australian Book Review. She was a founding member of the Stella Prize steering committee, and her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Age, and Weekend Australian. Her debut memoir, Bad Behaviour, was published by Allen & Unwin in March 2015.
