Writing Unconventional Women!

Writing Unconventional Women

The world needs more women in fiction who are vibrant, authentic, and willing to challenge the status quo. Too often, women characters on the page are reduced to tropes—flat and predictable, or written only in relation to others. This course is about changing that. Together, we’ll craft fully realized characters who are completely true to their own voices and stories—even when that upends cultural and societal expectations.

This workshop is for fiction writers—whether you’re working on a short story, a novel-in-progress, or simply want to develop stronger female characters. Each week, you’ll generate new material in class through short assignments that push you to experiment with different approaches to characterization, while paying attention to the craft choices that make unconventional women characters unforgettable. We’ll look at how the finer details, such as skills, interests, and relationships, can make our characters stand taller, speak louder, and live more vividly on the page. Our discussions will help you refine your instincts for when to push against stereotypes and how to create characters who feel original and layered.

Each week, you’ll generate and submit 1-2,000 new words. We’ll also workshop your writing with a three-point focus: what we loved, where we got a tad lost, and what we want to hear more about. You’ll leave the course with a set of new character-driven pieces, as well as the tools and confidence to continue developing complex women characters in your fiction.

Who This Course is For

This course is for fiction writers who want their female characters to stand out rather than be stereotypes and tropes. We will look at how our own cultural backgrounds can blind us to the unconscious ways we write, the language, roles, context and relationships. We will use a variety of examples and I encourage you to bring more to the shared table. This process will directly impact your ongoing projects, building a deeper connection to your unusual female characters and how that impacts the story you want to tell.

Find out and more and sign up at Writers.com:

I hope you’ll join me! I’m excited about this class, a topic I love!