Writing Workshops

Character Development: Summoning Compelling Players Who Drive Story with Debra Jo Immergut

$150

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 11:00 am EDT - 2:00 pm EDT June 10 to June 11, 2023

Online via Zoom

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It’s the writer’s most godlike act: the conjuring of complex characters who feel as real and known as anyone we really know—or more so. During this weekend, we’ll begin as gods. We’ll explore a variety of tactics for breathing the spark of life into our creations. Then we’ll turn these complicated people into our partners, allowing them to direct us into more compelling narratives. William Faulkner makes it sound simple: “It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up.” It’s probably not that simple, but over two days of work together, we’ll get our characters up on their feet and moving. We’ll begin to know their headaches and heartaches. We’ll learn to trust their innate wisdom, to shower them with compassion (even when we dislike them), and best of all, to be surprised by their choices. The bootcamp will consist of generative exercises, illustrated craft talk with examples, discussion, and opportunities to share bits of work. Fiction and nonfiction writers welcome.

Course Outline

Day 1
- Familiars and Unfamiliars
- The Yearnings
- Steering Toward the Rapids
Day 2
- The Writer’s Gaze
- Character Mapping
- Timbre and Pitch

Capacity: 20

Led by

Debra Jo Immergut

Debra Jo Immergut

Debra Jo Immergut is the author of the novels You Again, named a New York Times Best of the Year and shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize, and The Captives, an Edgar Award finalist for Best Debut Novel by an American Author and published in over a dozen countries. She has also published a collection of short fiction, Private Property. Her essays and stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Narrative, the New York Times, PANK, and elsewhere. She received Michener and MacDowell fellowships and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Learn more at debrajoimmergut.com.

By Debra Jo Immergut

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You Again

By Debra Jo Immergut

Published by HarperCollins

PURCHASE

Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age twenty-two—right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now forty-six and married, with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more explosive and life-altering?

As weeks go by, Abby continues to spot her double around her old New York haunts—and soon, despite her better instincts, Abby finds herself tailing her look-alike. She is dogged by a nagging suspicion that there is a deeper mystery to figure out, one rooted far in her past. All the while, Abby’s life starts to slip from her control: her marriage hits major turbulence, her teenage son drifts into a radical movement that portends a dark coming era. When her elusive double presents her with a dangerous proposition, Abby must decide how much she values the life she’s built, and how deeply she knows herself.

You Again is an audaciously constructed novel, an unboxing of memory, desire, and regret—and an electrifying portrait of a woman hurtling toward a key crossroads in her life, where a secret lies buried like an undetonated bomb.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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