Course Overview

Memorable characters rarely fit neatly into a list of personality traits. They want things that conflict with one another. They behave courageously in one situation and retreat in another. They hold tightly to beliefs their own choices sometimes contradict. Like real people, compelling fictional characters contain complexity.

Creating Complex Characters is a focused fiction-writing course that explores how meaningful contradictions can make characters more believable, unpredictable, and emotionally engaging.

Throughout the course, you will examine the forces operating beneath a character’s behavior, including beliefs, desires, fears, motivations, and internal conflicts. You will learn to distinguish meaningful contradiction from simple inconsistency and discover how competing impulses can create opportunities for conflict, difficult choices, revealing relationships, and character development.

You will also explore what happens when story events place pressure on a character’s contradictions. When two deeply held desires can no longer coexist, or when a character’s actions challenge what they believe about themselves, contradiction becomes more than characterization. It becomes a source of story.

Whether you are creating a new character or deepening one who already exists on the page, this course will help you move beyond surface-level descriptions and develop characters who feel complicated, human, and capable of surprising both the reader and you.