Get Inside Your Character’s Head: Effective Storytelling Across Genres with Daniel Peña
December 7 @ 10:00 am - 2:30 pm CST
$155Dec 7 & 8, via Zoom
Sat: 10am-2:30pm CST, (incl 30-minute lunch); Sun: 10am-1pm CST
Instructor: Daniel Peña
Nonmember: $155; Member: $135; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
As the great Henry James once shared, a story should never be just a story, meaning it should rarely be just an anecdote. Rather, it should show some true essence of the story’s character and explore fundamental shifts in that character’s psyche from the beginning of the story to the end.
In this 2-day multi-genre generative workshop, we will explore how to uncover a character’s fundamental truth and use it to shape a strong protagonist who creates persona-driven fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. We will also look at how to create shifts in character that make for exciting epiphanies and conclusions that land like lightning bolts on the page. Participants will also practice blending genres to create singular forms that best fit the story they are trying to tell.
This is a great crash course for those just getting their sea legs in storytelling concepts and the fundamentals of poetry alike. This course is open to beginning writers of all skill levels, 18+.
In this workshop, students will:
- Draft new written works
- Strategies for creating character-driven writing
- Experiment with blending genres to create a more powerful story
Daniel Peña is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Associate Professor at the University of North Texas, where he teaches in the PhD Program in Creative Writing. Peña worked as a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar. A graduate of Cornell University and a former Picador Guest Professor in Leipzig, Germany, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, The Kenyon Review, Texas Monthly, NBC News, and The New York Times Magazines. He’s currently a regular contributor to The Guardian and The Ploughshare blog. His novel, Bang, is out now from Arte Publico Press. He lives in the beautiful Dallas-Fort Worth area.
