Evento

Characters Are People, Too with Bruce Holbert

Too often we decide who our characters are before they, themselves, get to have their say. It seems to me that characters, like people, interest because of their contradictions. Their skewed geometry creates tension and suspense -- not in the sense of genre, but what keeps us "in the air and between two points" compels us forward. This momentum seems to me crucial to any piece of writing that hopes to engage us past a grocery list.

One of the areas we'll spend some time is dialogue. Unless we're hermits or misanthropes, we say several thousand words a day to one another. Yet, dialogue requires a kind of balance between the natural interaction of characters and the nature of information that is almost like a dance. Like the best dances, it is a contest, as well, and this give and take between characters can generate spontaneous surprise and insight that reveals character to both the writer and the reader him or herself.

Together, we will view some fine dialogue from film and read excerpts from masters of the form, and then play with what we've discussed in your own work as well as work with some exercises, some stolen from the theater, some from other writers, some of my own concoction, that can allow you to step away from your stories and explore your characters rather than steer them, then return to the story with some fresh mojo.