CRWR 233 - Character and Craft

FC ARHU WINT PRAX

4 credits
In this course, students will explore fiction through the lens of character. What choices must the writer make in order for characters to be not only believable, but also compelling? A character operates like a conversation, on levels both explicit and subliminal. Through the organizing principles of perspective, voice, desire, contradiction, gravity, and interiority, students will breathe life into their own characters, while examining a range of existing ones, from ghosts and scoundrels, to barnyard animals and restless dreamers. Readings and exercises will encourage both experimental and craft-based routes to character building, combined with a larger project to be workshopped.