October 14, 2023
Constance Hale is an American writer and critic based in San Francisco. Her journalism has appeared in metropolitan newspapers and national magazines, but she is best known for her books on language: Sin and Syntax; Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch; and Wired Style. She teaches writing and editing at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating from Princeton, Hale spent a number of years writing fiction and drama and performing her own solo pieces in San Francisco. She completed her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley
Deepening Character
Storytellers—whether they are novelists, memoirists, or narrative journalists—know that characters are key to any great yarn. Readers love people, and writers must deliver through short sketches to longer portraits to full-length biographies. Yet developing characters is trickier than you might think. Especially minor ones, where few words must make an impression. Or narrators, when a few devices must do the work. Connie Hale, who has made the profile her preferred form, expands on a previous workshop she gave to CWC/Mt. Diablo, adding readings and exercises, as well as prompts from her book Writing Character.
Skills you will sharpen in this workshop:
- Nailing character in three descriptive words.
- Rendering physical presence so that a reader might recognize a character on the street.
- Capturing inner life through observed behaviors.
- Understanding the paradox in the person.
- Treating yourself—author, narrator, first-person voice—as a character.
