Interviewing Your Characters:
A TeleSeminar
Order the Audio download or the CD and save 25% on a one hour session of private interviewing of characters --known and unknown--who live within you! Now only $75.
January 16 TeleSeminar, The Art and Technique of Interviewing Characters with Janet King, turned out to be every bit as fascinating, fun and inspiring as I had envisioned. It was an in-the-moment experience of the creative process!
After discussing the interviewing process, I interviewed Katie, the heroine of Janet's novel, and although Janet and I know Katie well and she knows us, she gave us some new insights into her life and the denouement of the novel. We then invited TeleSeminar participants to ask Katie questions and, on the suggestion of one, I interviewed Katie's mother, Clara, who neither Janet nor I had interviewed before. It was a profound experience on several levels. Since Katie is in a antagonistic relationship with her mother in the book, we really didn't have a lot of sympathy for Clara. She always seemed an unlikable character. And interviewing her was no easy task. She was reticent and suspicious. (Who can blame her?) But gradually, through the technique of interviewing, she began to reveal herself.
Then
someone from the audience interviewed her and Clara really opened up!
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One of the participants, Carolyn Rowland wrote: "It was very helpful to hear the sequence of how you built on the questions to draw out the character, especially Clara when she didn't want to talk about a particular subject... It gave me some great ideas on how to approach things differently. I didn't realize the depth that could be reached through interviewing... So, I really enjoyed this TeleSeminar and look forward to the next one. I find the TeleSeminars are allowing me to grow as a writer as well as realize that although writing is solitary, I am not alone in the struggle and the fun." Susan Calvert wrote: "Thank you soooo much for a great TeleSeminar yesterday. It showed me that many of my thoughts and concerns are shared by others. Especially, the difficulty of merging myself, my experiences and those of my characters. Thanks again, Emily, I'm so happy for your energy, projects and your own personal growth. We are all benefiting." Louise Easton wrote: "I loved the seminar... I'm so busy trying to talk to Mae I haven't time for suggestions (can I talk to more than one at a time?)... I'm still trying to decide for myself whether I'm consciously pushing my character to say what I want or if it is authentically her, or the subconscious. I loved the idea of interviewing the Inner Critic... I plan to do that one tonight!" And Kari Kilgore wrote: "I thought the TeleSeminar was GREAT, one of the best ones I've ever been involved with. I was caught up in it from the first minute. Excellent job by you and by Janet, and of course by Katie and Carla! I've been interviewing my characters for well over a year now, but this has me eager to jump into it again!" |
Order
the Audio download or the CD
and save 25% on a one hour
session of private interviewing of characters --known and unknown--who
live within you! Now only $75.