Craft Seminar: On Villains: How to Write Difficult Characters with Laura Warrell
Craft Seminar: On Villains: How to Write Difficult Characters with Laura Warrell
1 Session: Saturday, November 2
12:00-3:00pm ET
Laura Warrell
20 students
Laura Warrell is the author of Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Lit Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, and other publications. Laura has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the low-residency MFA program at Pacific University.
Fiction hinges on conflict and few elements of a story create more conflict than a powerful antagonist. But what if we want to write antagonists who are not only strong adversaries for our characters, but who are also plain villains (and perhaps even problematic ones)? Do we need to humanize them? If so, how do we do it without justifying their bad actions? In this generative fiction class, we’ll discuss these questions and look at examples of characters in stories and novels who might challenge or even offend our sensibilities yet still manage to capture our attention. We’ll explore how authors use dialogue, backstory, plotting, and specific detail to strike a balance between understanding and reproach, evenhandedness and accountability. Generative exercises will help us identify our characters’ motivations so we can empathize and ultimately write them in ways that make readers want to follow their journeys. There is no workshop component to this class, but there will be opportunities to share your work. There will be time for Q&A. My goal is for writers to leave the seminar with the tools to create rich, full-fledged characters and the confidence to put them on the page.
Workshop Highlights:
Gain a deeper understanding of what makes your antagonist tick
Learn strategies to flesh out antagonists that feel authentic and distinctive
Write at least one scene that reveals something new about your antagonist (and may even make it into your manuscript)
1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. For information, please contact Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com
Laura Warrell is the author of the novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm (Pantheon Books, 2022) a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Golden Poppy Book Award through the California Independent Booksellers Alliance. Named a ‘best’ or ‘must-read’ book by Vanity Fair, People, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Apple Books, The Root, The Millions, Hollywood Reporter, Bustle, Today, Debutiful, and elsewhere, the novel was also chosen as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and an Indie Next List Pick.
Named a “Writer to Watch” by Publishers Weekly, Laura’s writing has been published in the New York Times, Lit Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The Writer, and other publications. She has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop where she taught in the online Winter Workshop in 2023. She has taught Creative Writing and Literature through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America Los Angeles, at Writing Workshops Los Angeles, and at the Berklee College of Music and other academic institutions in Los Angeles and Boston.
