GEORGIA WRITERS MUSEUM
We humans have an innate need to connect with others on an intimate level. It is the same with writing. Every book you’ve ever fallen in love with had at least one character you continue to think about long after you’ve read the last page.
To create a best-selling book, it is crucial to present a story your audience will connect to on a deep, intimate level. This is done by introducing readers to characters who create an emotional response.
To help teach and encourage fiction writers in their character development, on Sept.
16, Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) is presenting “Creating Impactful Characters.” In this highly interactive workshop, instructor Karli Land will discuss important aspects of character development to make them unforgettable and leave readers begging for a sequel.
Land has been fascinated with the written word since childhood. Through books and stories, she has escaped many grown-up days and hidden herself deep in fairytales. She grew up climbing orange trees in the small, quaint town of Frostproof, Florida, but now lives in Northwest Georgia.
In 2014, she founded Calhoun Area Writers and proudly watched this small group of friends blossom into a tremendous writers’ support system.
This year, she announced the addition of a sister group: Cartersville Area Writers.
Land also owns and operates Colorful Crow Publishing, a traditional publishing house that seeks to help talented authors build and promote an author brand to assist in book sales and a lifelong successful writing career. Using her Colorful Crow Publishing’s Ultimate Character Development Workbook, Land will describe and teach the many important aspects of rich, memorable character development.
Come prepared to hash out your manuscript and ask tough questions about themes and ideas, working on concepts that will deepen your understanding of the way your characters behave and interact with the world you’ve created for them.
Backstories and worldbuilding as they relate to developing a character’s personality also will be explored, as will be the importance of sub-characters beyond your antagonist.
While this workshop is geared toward creating fictional characters, the concepts do not end there. Land will also discuss the importance of character presentation in memoir writing and creative non-fiction through concepts from Who Turned Up the Silence, a recently published memoir by Andy Turner.
Land is an author herself and enjoys writing in many genres. Her latest book, The Day After Yesterday, is a story of caretaking from the perspective of a daughter looking out for her mother in the throes of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Join us at GWM for “Creating Impactful Characters,” Saturday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The workshop fee is $35 per person. Visit Georgia Writers Museum (109 S. Jefferson Ave., Eatonton) online at georgiawritersmuseum. org, or call 706-991-5119 to register.
– Contributed
