Character 1: Creation
Character 1: Creation is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom, or 3 weeks Online). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
If you feel you’re solid with conceiving characters, you may go straight to Character 2. If you’re in doubt about this, start with Character 1; it will be valuable even if some of it is review.
Characters are the beating heart of every story. When we’re made to feel their presence, the entire story awakens, and we follow those folks wherever they go—likable or not, young or old, familiar or foreign.
Whether you’re working on fiction, nonfiction, or a script, we’ll show you how to breathe life into characters that we see and believe and care about.
Character 1 teaches how to conceive characters—where they come from, who they are inside and out, what their contradictions are, where their desire lies, and what makes them fascinating.
Character 2 teaches how to bring characters to palpable life on the page, making them real enough so we feel like we could live next door to them or bump into them on the street.
The Character course is so substantive, well researched, and well written that it opens up your creative pores in such a way that what comes out of you in the exercises truly puzzles you.
Nahid Toubia
student
Notes
This is a cross-genre course, applicable to any kind of storytelling, including nonfiction.
Upcoming Classes
NYC, Zoom classes are being scheduled. Please check back soon.
Price
Registration fee $25, paid once per term
3-Week
-
Online
Anytime, week-long sessions
Tuition: $185
-
One-on-One
Tuition:
Mini - $395, Private - $775
Available on Zoom
Syllabus
This course gives an overview of how to conceive great characters, in any genre. Course components:
Lectures
Writing exercises
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
All of Humanity: The role of character. Likeable or not. Round and flat characters. Origins of characters.
Week 2
Getting to Know Them: Background. Physicality. Personality. Magic keys. Contrasts and consistency.
Week 3
The Character Thickens: Desire. Change. Names.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Jason Greiff
Jason Greiff wrote the feature screenplay The Godparents, which was developed with Universal Studios and Marc Platt Productions. He has produced credits in children’s animation in China and Portugal, and has helped develop shows for Disney Asia and China’s largest media company CCTV. His screenplays have won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the Lew Wasserman Award for Best Comedy, and a national competition sponsored by the Writers Guild of America. He authored the chapter on Tone/Theme in Gotham’s book Writing Movies (Bloomsbury USA). He has taught at NYU. He holds a BA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU/Tisch.
Read more
Stuart Pennebaker
Stuart Pennebaker is the author of the novel Ghost Fish (Little, Brown). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in JAKE, Unstamatic Mag, and After-Dinner Conversation. Her nonfiction has appeared in CHS Today and the Chronicle-Independent, among others. She is the former fiction editor of LIT and the author of the newsletter Missed Connection. She is Gotham’s Director of Publishing Guidance. Stuart holds a BA from the University of South Carolina and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School.
Read morewrote the feature screenplay The Godparents, which was developed with Universal Studios and Marc Platt Productions. He has produced credits in children’s animation in China and Portugal, and has helped develop shows for Disney Asia and China’s largest media company CCTV. His screenplays have won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the Lew Wasserman Award for Best Comedy, and a national competition sponsored by the Writers Guild of America. He authored the chapter on Tone/Theme in Gotham’s book Writing Movies (Bloomsbury USA). He has taught at NYU. He holds a BA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU/Tisch.
is the author of the novel Ghost Fish (Little, Brown). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in JAKE, Unstamatic Mag, and After-Dinner Conversation. Her nonfiction has appeared in CHS Today and the Chronicle-Independent, among others. She is the former fiction editor of LIT and the author of the newsletter Missed Connection. She is Gotham’s Director of Publishing Guidance. Stuart holds a BA from the University of South Carolina and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School.
Related Courses
Dialogue
Explore the art of creating effective dialogue—for fiction, nonfiction, and scripts.
Plot 1: Mechanics
Explore the fundamentals of crafting a plot— for fiction, nonfiction, and scripts.
Plot 2: Machinations
Explore the advanced twists and turns of crafting a plot— for fiction, nonfiction, and scripts.