Replay: Laurie R. King shares Five Things She's Learned About How Characters Come to Life
Check out the first five minutes of her recent class.
“Creation is magic—but it is also craft, a long series of deliberate choices and experiments which are the focus of this workshop. In this two-hour class, we will look at what goes into building a character who feels real: What kind of research do I need to do? What does he look like, how does she speak, where are they from? What has made this person a villain and that one a hero, and how much of their backstory do I need to know—more than that, how much does my reader need?”
– Laurie R. King, Five Things I've Learned About How Characters Come to Life
Laurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the captivating Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories. Here’s the first five minutes of Laurie’s recent two-hour class in which she shares the Five Things She’s Learned about creating memorable characters who come to life for her readers.
Five Things I’ve Learned about How Characters Come to Life intricately details the process through which characters are created by great writers – characters so memorable that readers cry with their sorrows and celebrate their victories, find courage and inspiration from them and change their lives because of the words on the page. In this class, Laurie asks the questions: what brings a character to life on the page, and makes the reader care what happens next?
If you want to learn how one of our greatest mystery writers goes about creating lasting, memorable characters, this class is for you.
Laurie’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice was chosen as one of the “20th Century’s Best Crime Novels” by the IMBA. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Creasey, Edgar, Lambda, Macavity, Wolfe, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate in theology, and is a Baker Street Irregular. In 2022, she was named Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. She co-edited (with Lee Child) the new handbook from Mystery Writers of America, How to Write a Mystery, and has a new contemporary series with SFPD Inspector Raquel Laing, beginning with Back to the Garden.
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