The Bigger Canvas and How to Use It with Donald Maass
Characters don’t spring into your story from a vacuum; ideally, they feel as fully developed and faceted as anyone your readers might know in real life. Who they are, what they want, and why they do what they do is rooted in who they have been and what they have done—in other words, backstory. But backstory is not the story, and not everything that makes up a character’s past and current life outside the story is relevant to it. This session will explore how determine which threads in the fabric of your characters’ lives are essential to this story and which aren’t, and how to mine those areas to create rich, believable, fully fleshed, cohesive characters.
Once a first draft is written, the real work begins. Revision is where a story and characters become who and what they are meant to be. To revise is to see again. And during this webinar, we will explore ways to see our work anew to elevate earlier drafts—full of possibility—to create even stronger stories. Through considering our writing on a scene, story, and page level, we will focus on ways to strengthen voice, character, pacing and the emotional beats of our story. We will also discuss practical ways to incorporate feedback and organize the daunting task of re-envisioning our work to appreciate the true magic of story-making.
