Online Character Workshop

Join me online on Saturday, January 14th at 1pm EST for a one-hour workshop on characterization: Nice is Not Enough, part of the SCBWI (Canada East) “Digging Deeper” workshop series.

Here’s the blurb:

Nice is Not Enough: Developing Likeable and Unlikeable Characters:

What makes us root for a character? How flawed can a protagonist be? Is quirky the best we can make of sidekicks? Is there ever a role for a cliché? Must we empathize with evil to write well-rounded villains?

This workshop will focus on character development, why we attach to fictional characters and how we can develop characters that readers feel for—whether love or love to hate. With exercises designed to shift your point of view and move your fictional cast farther from your comfort zone, this workshop is made for novelists. (But picture book authors are welcome, too!) Come with characters from your work in mind, or start fresh from prompts to develop a spectrum of good guys, flawed heroes, memorable sidekicks, sympathetic villains, and bad guys.

Go to the SCBWI Canada East website to register.

(NB: This is a workshop for adult writers of children’s fiction, unlike most of workshops, which are for kids.)

And check out some other SCBWI Canada East events too.

Happy New Year!

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a global community of writers, illustrators, translators, publishers, librarians, advocates, and other industry professionals working to establish a more imaginative and inclusive world through the power of children’s literature.