Weaving the Character Web

One of the major mistakes of beginning writers is to conceive their main characters in isolation, rather than as part of a network of individuals who support, oppose, or challenge them. In this 60-minute workshop, award-winning author David Corbett (The Art of Character, The Compass of Character) will guide students in an exploration of how to explore what is necessary to make truly complex and memorable protagonists and opponents. Then students will learn to create the various roles—Ghost, Revenant, Counterweight, Ally, Betrayer, Visitor/Stranger, etc.—that provide the various positive and negative polarities for the main characters, and to fashion “four-corner conflict” from this web of main and secondary characters.