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Business 132: Complex and Believable Characters

• Average Time Commitment per Week: 3-4 hours
  
  
• Time to Complete Course: 4 Weeks
  
  
• Difficulty (1-5): 3
  
  
• Course Description: How can you ensure your reader will care about your characters? Are your characters three dimensional or are they flat and lifeless? Will your main character be the next Huck Finn or Sherlock Holmes, or will they be easily forgotten and discarded? Do you want your main characters to be memorable?
  
  To be a riveting main character, they need to be multi-faceted. You want to get into the thoughts of your characters and share those thoughts with the reader in an organized way.
  
  We will fully investigate your characters and find out more about them. What do they look like? What have they done with their life? How do they think and feel? Get into your character and see how they tick.
  
  Do you make assumptions about how your characters are perceived? How can you help alleviate this problem and make sure each reader sees them the same? The bad guy or the villain, how do you make them believable and/or sympathetic. Learn how to have the desired impact with your villains.
  
  Come along as we make our characters more real to ourselves and our readers. Make your character someone an editor will want to get to know and would like to share with others.
  
  This is the second in a series of courses to help each of us develop more dynamic characters. Take one or take all three, the choice is yours.
  
  Please note: This course can be taken using only the course outline. The book is a wonderful resource, but it is not necessary to complete the course. References to the book are listed within the outline for people who have the book.
  
  
• Required Resources (texts, etc.): Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress
  
  
  • Lesson 1: Thoughts in Characterization
  • Lesson 2: Build Your Character's Dossier
  • Lesson 3: Make Correct Character Assumptions
  • Lesson 4: Creating Useful Bad Guys and Villains
    
    
  • Receive lessons by email (Just send us a blank message.)
    
    
• Classroom A
• Classroom B

Course developed by: Nikki Leigh

Facilitated by: Peer Group