CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

a Morrison’s Pilate wrapped in Caribbean stubbornness

Inspired by the character Pilate Dead in Toni Morrison's 'Song of Solomon', this workshop creates space to explore the power of creating unforgettable characters in our writing.

These 2.5-hour online creative writing sessions are focused on character development with facilitator Whitney French. Participants simply bring a project that they're working on that is character-driven (fiction, nonfiction, dramatic writing and even character-focused poetry) and through writing exercises, group conversation and audio free-write meditation will experience ways to deepen the characters that drive their stories forward.

This workshop includes:

+ 2.5-hour online course with professional writer and editor Whitney French

+ An ebook with bonus exercises specifically around character development (made for this course!)

+ A guided recording of freewriting exercises to tap into post-workshop to continue building on these principals

The Three Sessions are as follows:

SATURDAY MARCH 28th :: 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM (EST)

Open Session for all writers from all backgrounds

SUNDAY MARCH 29th :: 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM (EST)

Workshop for BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Colour)

MONDAY MARCH 30th :: 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM (EST)

Workshop for Black folx (prioritizing Black trans and cis womxn, femmes, GNC and gender queer peoples)

All sessions essentially cover the same content, with a few discrepancies.

Payment: Sliding scale, first come first serve

(If you have consistent income please consider a higher tier to free up space for other people who can only afford a lower-priced option)

About the facilitator: Whitney French is a storyteller and a multi-disciplinary artist. She is the editor of Black Writers Matter, a critically acclaimed anthology published by University of Regina Press in 2019. Her writing has been published in Geist Magazine, Canthius Journal and the Quill and Quire and anthologized in Black Notes: Young Black Voices (2017) and The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry (2010).

Whitney French is also the founder and co-editor and of the nation-wide publication From the Root Zine, a platform for Black, Indigenous and woman of colour artists. Whitney French is also the creator of the nomadic workshop series Writing While Black, an initiative to develop a community of Black writers embraced by communities in Toronto, Halifax, Detroit, Ottawa, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Vancouver respectively. She lives in Toronto, Canada and works as an acquisitions editor at Dundurn Press, while simultaneously writing her science fiction verse-novel.