Instructor: Tere Michaels
Start Date: Monday, August 5, 2024
End Date: Friday, August 16, 2024
Type: Group.io
Duration: 2 Weeks
USD Fee: FF&P Member – $5; Non-Member – $10

An exploration of world-building, development of plot and main characters through secondary characters.

Introduction

At the end of the day, no matter what the genre or trope, whether it’s happening in Alabama or on Mars, we are all trying to create the best possible characters to tell our story.

Writers spend a lot of time on their main characters – our heroes, our villains. We want them to be unique and memorable, leaping off the pages or screen to grab the reader and pull them into the world.

But that world needs to be populated. By names and faces (and the nameless and faceless) who bring forth information, distractions, difficulties and even just color and commentary. They are the supporting characters and to forget to give them the attention and depth they deserve is to short-change both yourself and your readers.

We’ll talk about the different types of supporting characters, their function, the do’s and don’ts to making them memorable (and how not to let them take over) and how to tell the difference between a supporting character and a misplaced main character.

About the Instructor:

Author/Plot Whisperer/Developmental editor with fifteen books under her belt (and two more due out soon!). From the Metro NYC area. Let’s talk about craft! (Or Marvel superheroes…or both!)

Tere Michaels unofficially began her writing career at the age of four when she learned that people got paid to write stories. It seemed the most perfect and logical job in the world and after that, her path was never in question. (The romance writer part was written in the stars—she was born on Valentine’s Day.)

It took thirty-six years of “research” and “life experience” and well… life… before her first book was published, but there are no regrets—she doesn’t believe in them. Along the way, she worked in television, animation, arts education, PR and a national magazine—but she never stopped believing she would eventually live her life writing stories about love.

Her home base is a small NJ suburb outside of Manhattan—a city she dearly loves. Her spare time is spent watching way too much sports programming, going to the movies, doing yoga, gardening, reading from her endless TBR pile, and thinking about superheroes.

Nothing makes her happier than knowing she made a reader laugh or smile or cry. It’s the purpose of sharing her work with people. She loves hearing from them and fellow writers, and is always available for consulting, speaking engagements, visits and workshops. Send here a message through her contact page or connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.

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