Joshua Mohr Workshop: Using Character to Drive Plot

Fri Mar 22 2013 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Writers' Dojo, 7518 N. Chicago Ave., Portland, OR

 

Using Character to Drive Plot: Why Our Protagonists Are In Charge

 

The best plots aren’t controlled by an authorial presence. Plot springs from the characters themselves. The writer masterminds all of these things, but the more we program ourselves to think of it in this way—that our protagonists are sovereign beings with independent consciousnesses from our own—the better prepared we are to traverse what I’m calling “plarachterization”—the intersection between plot and characterization.
 
This seminar for short story writers, novelists, or memoirists will be geared around characters’ decision making, the causality between plot points, how to keep a reader excitedly flipping pages. We’ll also delve into specific tactics for constructing a present action and how to fold backstory into it.
 
We will do some in-class exercises that will emphasize the necessary “trial and error” it takes for an auteur to familiarize herself with her players and their plights. Plarachterization is a strategy that will help any aspiring writer!
 

Joshua Mohr is the author of three novels, most recently Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as Termite Parade, an Editors’ Choice on The New York Times Best Seller List. He lives in San Francisco and teaches in the MFA program at USF. His new novel, Fight Song, will be published February 2013.
 
 
 
 

Cost:
The cost for this workshop is $55.
 

Cancellation Policy:
All cancellations are subject to a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations received SEVEN (7) DAYS before the program date are refundable. Sending in this form or signing up at the website indicates that you have read and understand the cancellation policy.
 

Sign up now via credit card:

Member & Non-Member($55): 

 

If you would prefer to pay by check, please print and mail this Registration Form.
 

For information, contact James Bernard Frost at jim@oregonwriterscolony.org.