In this four-week workshop, Joshua Mohr will teach you how to get out of the way of your characters, and let them take the story where it's supposed to go.
Your Instructor: Joshua Mohr, author of DAMASCUS, FIGHT SONG
Where: Online — Available everywhere!
When: This class is not currently enrolling. To be notified when it is offered again, Click Here
Enrollment: 16 students
Price: $375
Class Description
The best plots aren’t controlled by the author.
They spring from the characters themselves.
Got it? Good.
So, the writer masterminds all things, yes. But the more your realize that your characters are sovereign beings with independent consciousnesses, the better prepared you are to traverse what Joshua Mohr calls plaracterization.
Get it? Plot + characterization = PLARACTERIZATION.
In this four-week workshop led by the author of acclaimed novels like Damascus and Fight Song, you'll ponder characters’ decision-making, the causality between plot points, and how to keep a reader excitedly flipping pages. You'll delve into specific tactics for constructing a present action, and how to fold backstory into it.
Plaracterization is a strategy that will help any aspiring writer, by getting you to dig deep down into your characters, your plot, and the very DNA of your story!
This class includes:
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Four in-depth written lectures from Joshua
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Four writing assignments, to be critiqued by Joshua and your fellow classmates
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Ongoing opportunities for discussions and questions
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Weekly video recaps from Josh!
Want to learn more about Joshua's thoughts on plot? Check out this conversation he had on the subject with Anisse Gross, the film editor at The Rumpus.
* Class has started—but there's still time to sign up!
What This Class Covers
Week 1
During the opening week, you'll discuss how to construct plots that are a meaningful series of events. The trick will be contemplating how to let the characters themselves tell you what's meaningful to them, rather than using any authorial superimpositions.
Week 2
You'll turn your attention to conflict and tension. The best stories contain both internal and external conflicts; this week, you'll figure out tactics for how to dramatize your protagonist's internal wants and desires.
Week 3
Developing a cogent psychology—a psychology for a character that's independent from the author's—might be the hardest thing you do as storytellers. You'll discuss a variety of tactics aimed at giving your characters free will.
Week 4
During the last week, you'll put all these pieces together and discuss how to map your images, picking external plot points that illuminate new information about your character's inner-lives. When you nurture the symbiosis between these two domains, that's when plaracterization works at its highest octane.
Goals Of This Class
- Construct plots that are a meaningful series of events
- Learn to let the story spring from the characters
- Develop a cogent psychology for your characters
- Figure out the wants and desires of your characters
- Marry plot and character in a meaningful, profound way
- Polish your writing and get it critiqued by an acclaimed author
- Learn from a guy who has been through the gauntlet of the publishing industry
