Weekend Workshop: How to Craft Compelling Characters & Dialogue in Fiction

https://workshops.filmarche.de/event/260502_charactersanddialog

This two-day workshop will explore two essential elements of great fiction: character and dialogue. Together, we’ll first consider (and challenge) some ideas of more traditional storytelling; this is so we can then look at other, more unexpected ways to craft a vivid and undeniable narrative. We’ll discuss a range of techniques for creating characters who’re worthy of audience investment—characters who continually grow more known yet also more mysterious:

• What exactly makes a character “interesting” to audiences?
• What distinguishes a character arc that’s confusing from one that’s compelling?
• What’re common pitfalls or out-of-date formulas for creating characters?
• How can you elevate character development from basic level existence to magnetic presence?

We’ll also focus on dialogue—one of the most evocative as well as most difficult-to-wield tools in a writer’s toolbox. So we want to demystify why it challenges so many writers. In class we’ll read examples of contemporary fiction writers—like George Saunders, Joy Williams, and Richard Price—who’ve cracked the dialogue code in uniquely spellbinding ways. And we’ll apply some of their techniques to our own creative work. Besides serving as a method for character development, dialogue can also act as a powerful force by which to create conflict, escalate tension, and galvanize a plot’s pacing. Together, we’ll break down some of dialogue’s seemingly more elusive principles, including:

• What distinct challenges does dialogue present to writers?
• What qualities do we tend to find in or use to describe the better kinds of dialogue?
• How do we organically and clearly distinguish different characters’ voices from each other?
• What’re some techniques to avoid writing dialogue that sounds one-dimensional or perfunctory?

By the end of this workshop, you’ll come away with a greater grasp of how to craft exciting characters, write engaging dialogue, and overcome several unique challenges in storytelling.

This event takes place over the course of two days (Saturday May 2nd from 10:00 - 18:00, Sunday May 3rd from 10:00 - 18:00) at the filmArche campus in Berlin Neukölln.

Alexander Lumans is a fiction writer based in Berlin. He’s been awarded fellowships to The Arctic Circle Residency in 2015 and 2025, a 2018 U.S. National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Fiction, and the Philip Roth Residency at Bucknell University. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Guernica, PolarLit, Off Assignment, American Short Fiction, and others. And he’s won fiction contest prizes from The Sycamore Review, The Yalobusha Review, and Gulf Coast. He received his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He currently teaches for the Berlin Writers’ Workshop. And he’s currently at work on a novel set in the contemporary High Arctic of Svalbard, Norway.

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Tickets cost between 80 - 120 euros. In order to register and pay for the event, you must visit this website and register there:

https://workshops.filmarche.de/event/260502_charactersanddialog

Registrations made via the event brite site will be voided. Please click the link above to register and send your proof of payment to the email provided.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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