Margie Lawson
Make your writing soar
Characters are like people. Each of us has "good" traits, like courage and resilience and intelligence, but we also have traits that get us into trouble like foolhardiness, stubbornness, and too smart for our own good. Same with our characters. We create strong traits, on both sides of the spectrum, and watch as our characters stumble through the story.
But they don't need to stumble! We can harness those traits and direct them into strong, cohesive plots. Actually, nailing all those plot points and inciting incidents and black moments in the perfect place is like trying to scratch that hard-to-reach place on your back. But, once you know how it works, it's easy-peasy.
Whether you're starting a new book or editing an existing one, this course can help you put the "punch" in exactly the right place.
This is both a beginning and a master's course, usable on both levels, and can be used to develop a new story or rescue a finished one.
Overview of archetypes, character arcs, and character traits
Archetypes and how they create instant recognition in readers
Archetype traits – virtues and vices – and how to incorporate them in writing
How to create a story grid
Continuation of story grid
Goal, Motivation, Conflict – the magic "three"
Creating your own story grid
Wrap up
Every lesson comes with reference material and homework assignments.
Sarah (Sally) Hamer is eternally fascinated by people and how they ‘tick’ and works hard to incorporate individual idiosyncrasies to create living, breathing characters in her many works of fiction. She writes in many genres – mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, medieval history, non-fiction – and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.
A teacher of beginning and advanced creative fiction writing and screenwriting at Louisiana State University – S for over ten years, she also is a book coach, with many of her students and critique partners becoming successful, award-winning authors.
I really loved Sarah's teaching style and how each lesson built on the previous lesson until you have a general plot for your story. This class is great for learning how to flesh out character motivation, helping you to plot your character arcs, culminating in using character arcs to plot your story.
Sarah makes herself accessible and makes it a point to give thorough feedback, I look forward to taking more of her classes.
Having trouble with you plot, learning your characters motivation? This class is for you. Sarah is great at explaining GMC and helping to make sure you've thought about all possibilities to make your story the strongest.
Sarah's class was perfectly paced to all students time to understand and complete homework. She was so attentive and supportive in answering questions. She gave us excellent resources that really brought characters to life and gave us an indepth approach to creating well developed characters. Each lesson builds upons each other to give a you completed outline plot of any novel. It was so much fun and gave a you clear understanding of your novel. Highly recommend this class!
Sarah's Virtues, Vices, & Plots course centers on creating powerful, conflict-motivated, understood characters with clear arcs, and it has been transformative for my writing process. Her approach to each character's traits, archetypes, internal conflict, and eventual change were explained thoroughly with workable assignments that asked the tough questions in a way my writer-brain needed them worded. Take this class!
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