PRECONFERENCE: CREATING MEMORABLE CHARACTERS
Friday, October 22, 2010
The Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This course will teach you how to create memorable characters. Characters can make or break your story. Creating a memorable and intriguing character is often the difference between an agent or an editor deciding to commit several days of her life to read 450 pages, or putting your manuscript down. Attendees are encouraged to bring excerpts of their work for reading aloud, comment and critique. Questions will be welcomed.

SCHEDULE

7:00-8:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:00-9:00 The Importance of Character in Fiction: What do the works of Shakespeare and Robert B. Parker have in common?
The writing of a novel can begin with a character as well as with story. If a character or characters are good, story inevitably follows, because every character has one. We will discuss the creation of characters, and the part intuition can play in the process. Think of it as an act of discovery rather than invention, as an actor searches out the character he or she plays. The discovery can be quite quick, or it can come gradually, as you write.

9:00-10:00 Action is Character: The surest, most effective way to write character
F. Scott Fitzgerald said this famously, and there is no better rule for writing memorable characters. Characters are what they do. They define and reveal themselves in every action and reaction, in every choice and decision. Attendees will be instructed in the difference between writing characters externally and writing them from the inside, and the uses of both in revealing character. When is it sufficient   to let a character’s actions speak for themselves, and when not?

10:00-10:15 Break & Networking Opportunity

10:15-11:00 Action is character, dialogue is action
Attendees will receive a crash course in the art of using dialogue to define and reveal character. We will    discuss the difference between dialogue in real life and the dialogue in fiction. The difference is enormous.

11:00-12:00 Idiosyncrasy: What Long John Silver, Sherlock Holmes, Ignatius J. Reilly, Augustus McCrea, and just about anyone in a novel by Charles Dickens have in common.
Memorable characters are unique, and uniqueness is very often comprised of idiosyncrasy. What is    idiosyncrasy, and what are its uses in writing fiction?

12:00-1:00 Lunch Provided With Faculty

1:00-2:00 Plausibility: He wouldn’t say that—or would he?
Implausibility can infect an entire work of fiction, like a virus. An implausible character is a failed one. What   makes a fictional character plausible or implausible? To what extent can the writer rely on the reader’s    willing suspension of disbelief? Know your characters. Know what they can, or cannot, do, say, or think.  

2:00-3:00 Ambiguity: Is his name really Jimmy Blevins?
Some characters, in some circumstances, must necessarily have a certain mystery about them. They are    written from the outside, obviously, and while there is doubt as to their motives, pasts, or truthfulness, they    must be vivid and alive, they must be convincing as characters. Is it necessary for the     writer to know the truth about them?

3:00-3:15 Break & Networking Opportunity

3:15-4:15 Harry Angstrom, Pea Eye Parker, Quoyle, Hawk, Roy Hobbs—What’s in a name?
Naming a character can be difficult and it can be easy, and there’s no set way to do it. Where do our    characters’ names come from, and what are the constraints on our choices? How is a character referred to    in the narrative, by his first or last name? It makes a difference. There is also the choice of the third person    pronoun—when is it the best choice? How do these choices affect your readers’ relationship with    your characters?   

FACULTY
John Hough, Jr. is the author of the novels A Two Car Funeral, The Guardian, The Conduct of the Game, The Last Summer and Seen The Glory: A Novel Of The Battle Of Gettysburg. He is also the author the non-fiction works A Peck of Salt, A Dream Season, and A Player For a Moment. He is a former speech writer for United States Senator Charles Mathias and a former writer for the New York Times while serving as the assistant to James Reston. John is an experienced writing teacher and coach. He resides on Martha’s Vineyard. John was the recipient of the prestigious W.Y. Boyd award for his novel "SEEN THE GLORY"

REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Tuition for each 1-day preconference is $495 and includes continental breakfast, lunch, breaks, and a seminar handbook.

HOTEL INFORMATION
A limited block of rooms has been reserved at convention rates ($149/ single/double) at the site hotel. These rooms will be assigned on a first request basis. To reserve your room, please call 866-828-9111 and mention the SEAK, Inc. Fiction Writing for Physicians. The Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis is surrounded by 52 totally private acres of beautifully landscaped grounds and offers an 18-hole par 54 golf course, a private patio or balcony for the 232 guest rooms, a complete fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, a whirlpool, a complete spa, and free parking. The Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis is conveniently located within walking distance of Main Street with its many shops and restaurants. Public beaches and the ferries to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are minutes from the hotel. A $12,000,000 renovation was completed at this property in June of 2008.

GETTING TO HYANNIS
The two major airports closest to Cape Cod are Logan International Airport in Boston, MA (70 miles) and T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island (80 miles). Barnstable Airport is a five minute drive from The Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis, but this is a commuter airport that has smaller planes and fewer flights. T.F. Green is preferred over Logan (if you can get a non-stop flight) as it is usually less congested. Rental cars, taxis and car service are available at all three airports.

CAPE COD
Cape Cod is a true destination spot that features beautiful beaches, warm water, great restaurants, historic towns, sightseeing, kayaking, whale watching, museums, numerous bike trails, shopping, nightlife, championship golf, and world famous boating. Cape Cod is also gateway to the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. For more information on what to do on Cape Cod, please visit www.capecod.com.

Cancellations
Conference cancellations received in writing prior to October 1, 2010 will receive a full tuition refund.