Depth of Character

In addition to a pre-conference session, Donald Maass also did a worshop called Creating Depth of Character. I was only able to stay for about half of this session until I had to leave to get ready for my pitch session with Sarah LaPolla.



What makes for deeply engaging chracters?

Their jurney, their arc, their transformation.



What makes people interesting?

What they think

What they feel

     emotionally unexpected

Something new to us, a fresh perspective



How can this be accomplished?

Through opinions, especially the strength of those opinions



Try to provoke the reader through the character's strong opinion so as to connect and engage the reader.



Consider you protagonist and his/her sidekick or best friend. Think of someone that the protagonist hates about the other person. At the end of the story, turn around the opinion through acceptance and tolerance.



And that's all the notes I have on creating depth of character. What do you think best creates depth of character?