Wonderful Workshop at White Tanks Library in AZ

Combine the perfect locale with energetic, interested students and you've got it made! Such was the case for my "Creating Believable Characters" program at the White Tanks Library. It never ceases to amaze me how much we learn from our students.

Did you know that they have their own terminology for flat characters? Well, they do and they refer to them as a "Mary Sue or a Gary Stu." And while we explored round and flat characters in literature, we discussed what made certain characters stand out.

Certainly, action, dialogue, interaction, quirks, habits and "backstory" are all vital; but we focused on motivation and rationalization. Motivation, being the thing that drives a person or character to do something, and rationalization, the inner justification for doing it.

If your character cannot justify his/her actions, then it means that he/she needs further development in the story. The students in the workshop were quick to recognize this.

Needless to say, I appreciated the opportunity to work with them and look forward to providing more writing workshops in the future.