At the center of a good story are the characters in it. In this course aspiring writers will discover how to build and bring to life complex, vivid and unforgettable characters. We will study the choices a writer makes to bring all characters to life on the page, and we will perform written exercises in order to develop a variety of writing and pre-writing techniques, in order to create a variety of characters. We will learn how to use our own life experiences, and the people we know (and how not to!). We will develop inner (thoughts and feelings) and outer (appearance, habits, behavior) lives for our characters and see how that can lead us to richer and more interesting stories. We will breathe life into our characters and let them surprise us.
This course is part of the Creative Writing Specialization
Offered By
About this Course
Could your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?
Try Coursera for BusinessCould your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?
Try Coursera for BusinessOffered by
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Discovering Characters from Your Life and Elsewhere
Creating Characters on the Page
Dialogue and Monologue
Set Your Characters Free.. and Give Them Somewhere to Go
Reviews
- 5 stars68.05%
- 4 stars20.83%
- 3 stars8.05%
- 2 stars2.11%
- 1 star0.94%
TOP REVIEWS FROM CREATIVE WRITING: THE CRAFT OF CHARACTER
I enjoyed Amy Bloom's guidelines and am keen to create some well rounded characters. Thank you for enabling me to follow along without having to pay ( no evaluation of the assignments).
This course was an excellent blend of basics and simple intense assignments to practice the concepts learned. I enjoyed every course in the Creative Writing Specialization. Thank you
I think the assignments are well designed, and I really appreciate the part in which we are asked to tell our peers which part would we like them to comment on; it really helps me improve my work.
The information I need to craft compelling characters. Wouldn't have learned this information just by reading books! Amy is an excellent instructor, and the work is challenging but not unreachable.
About the Creative Writing Specialization

Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
Is financial aid available?
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.