Hello! My name is Miss Charlie, and I have experience as a writer of fiction as well as a player/DM of multiple D&D campaigns. The same principles of storytelling apply to both genres, so I made this workshop-style class to help with character creation.

One thing that is always a challenge for creators is how to make a cool and compelling hero (or villain, npc, etc). With this class, we'll jump into the process and focus on good writing practices (applicable to all genres). The class can be taken more than once if you want to keep trying new things or develop different characters. Bring a character idea or even a character sheet (if tabletop RP such as D&D/Pathfinder/Starfinder, etc) and we will workshop together to make positive changes!

Character creation involves a lot, but can start from a single word or name. Sometimes that's all you have to work with, so we'll go over some simple starting points (such as background, parentage, appearance, and what makes the character special) and also use writing prompts to get you thinking about how to write (or play) the character.

Some examples of writing prompts:

"What is your character's greatest flaw? Are they aware of it? Are they trying to change, or are they in denial?"

"What's their favourite food? And what's something they absolutely hate? Why?"

"If your character sees someone drop money, do they pick it up and keep it, leave it alone, or hand it back to the owner? How do they justify their decisions and actions?"

"How is your character different from you, the writer?"

We will also take 5-10 minutes for each student to share their character ideas and get feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism. Since most people create characters to be shared with others at some point, whether through role-playing like D&D or writing stories for others to read, it's good to see how these ideas are received by an audience. 

Lastly, even though this class may seem geared toward D&D character writing, all of the prompts and tips are absolutely applicable to writing in general, because without compelling characters, stories simply aren't as interesting. Come on over if you have questions and want to improve your character-building skills!