Course Description:

Crawl Inside the Skin of Your Character

One of the most thrilling things about writing fiction is the opportunity to climb into the skin of another person.  Nothing drives the process of writing a story forward more than really feeling as though you understand the person you’re embodying, no matter how different they are from you.  Each day of this workshop we will approach a different aspect of developing your character through writing exercises and discussions.  You are welcome to work on a character from a story you’re already working on, but you’ll also be guided through the process of developing a character from the ground up.  You’ll come away from this workshop with a tool kit for creating unique, believable and engaging characters that will pull readers into your stories.

Bio:

Emily Ursuliak is nearing completion of her English Masters degree at the University of Calgary where she is working on her first novel and her first collection of poems. She is a member of the collective that runs filling Station, Calgary’s experimental literary magazine, and is the co-ordinator for their monthly community writing event, Hot Dates with Blank Pages. She is also the artistic director for the Poetry Prowl, a roaming poetry festival held annually in Red Deer. As someone who has spent far too much of her time in school she would be happy to help answer questions about the infamous English degree, and what the heck you do with one once you get it. She’s also happy to offer advice on the networking and hustling involved with being an “emerging writer” (whatever that means). You can find her work in Warpaint and Wax Poetry and Art Magazine.