Writing fiction provides an exhilarating opportunity to explore who we are without having to write about ourselves. What we typically don’t invite into our lives—unmanageable desire, irresponsibility, deception, outright villainy—is most welcome in fiction. There’s freedom in letting these forces into the creative process and they enliven the stories we tell.

In this one day workshop, we’ll explore how to develop characters that are, in Chekhov’s words, “just as complicated and just as simple” as people in real life, paying attention to how desire and wayward impulses compel characters to say and do things we may not advise as citizens but can be curious about as writers. 

Each student will receive feedback on writing generated in response to in-class exercises and come away with characters they can continue to write about in short stories or a novel.