Thinking About Character with Emma Adams

This is a Squad 12 workshop, grads who want to join us if there's room let [email protected] know.

During the past 12 months or so, I’ve been developing and writing two different theatre projects, moving backwards and forwards between two very different worlds of story and the characters that inhabit them.

I’ve found myself thinking about the similarities and dissimilarities of two projects and how character is working within each of them, asking questions about why the characters have emerged, changed and found focus in the ways that they have.

I’ve also been thinking about how genre and form create different expectations and challenges for writing character. And all that said, I’ve been struck by how often the nuts and bolts of character creation are, at heart, the same.

So, since I’ve been geeking out about this stuff, I thought maybe we could geek out about character together. If that sounds exciting to you, come to the workshop.

As ever, the work we do will be explored through the prism of dramatic writing, but all writers are welcome to come and bring your particular focus with you.

Some questions I’ll be thinking about and exploring with you during the day will be things like:

Why do some characters feel ‘rounded’ and others ‘flat’?

How to find characters that you (and hopefully an audience) want to spend time with?

What is the relationship between character and plot, genre and form?

What is the relationship between character and the dialogue they speak?

What we will be doing?

During the 1st part of the day, we’ll be thinking and talking and doing exercises about these kinds of questions. And during this time, we’ll create some characters.

During the 2nd part we’ll use the characters we’ve created to write work, solo and/or in teams. And then we’ll share what we’ve done.

At the end of the session, we’ll think about what all of this experimentation means and what we’ll be taking forward into our own writing.

What to bring / expect?

Come with an open mind and expect to do some thinking/playing out/sharing/talking/listening/writing/reading*/performing*.

Bring the tools you enjoy writing with.

*don’t worry, no one will be asked to do anything outside of their comfort zone.

THIS IS A WORKSHOP FOR MEMBERS OF THE WRITING SQUAD AND IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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