Who Are These People? Lesson 2 is all about the characters in your novel. “Plot is what keeps you going when you read a story, character is what stays with you.” - Ann Charters

2. 1. Read your novel as if it was already a book. How did it go?
2. Reflect:
• What stood out to you about the overall WIP?
• What is the premise of the work? What set the story in
motion? How does the instability affect the protagonist?
How does the instability progress and change? Does it
resolve?
• What is the promise? What are the relatable themes?
What is different about this approach?

3. Barely coping with her brother's death, Dallas London refuses to ask herself if she truly was the
best sister she could have been in the face of Joey's alcoholism. Grief, after all, is hard enough without
all those pesky feelings.
While in a therapy session, Dallas begins to hear a voice—a whisper in the shadows. As her day
progresses, she is plagued by this voice, and is even attacked by a full fledged monster by nightfall.
Positive she's losing her mind, Dallas struggles to differentiate between reality and these new
hallucinations. At least, until Death pays her a visit. Dallas quickly learns not only are these creatures
real, they're hungry.
With Death by her side, Dallas is forced to fight for her life and ask the questions she so
desperately wants to ignore: Did she do enough to help Joey? Is she to blame for what happened? Do
they share the same fate?
Loosely based on my own experience of dramatically losing a sibling to alcoholism, this novel
grapples with the guilt that comes with grief and how denial can make trauma bite that much harder.

4. Paul and Marie dated steadily their last two years of high school. But what they thought might
be the path to marriage was interrupted in November of senior year. Both experienced a call to
religious service as priest and nun in the Catholic Church. Each followed that calling from God. Paul
thought of her often his first weeks as a Jesuit but that changed during a thirty-day retreat of prayer
and silence. After that, he was headed toward the priesthood except for a three-day period of time
where he could not get Marie out of his mind. When She left the convent after fifteen months, she
realized her romance with Paul was unfulfilled and wanted to do something about that.
Fate, accident, or providence intervened when they were unexpectedly reunited in 1965 by a
common venture, the Civil Rights Movement. That caused both of them to ask: What do I want in my
life as a young adult? For Paul it was priesthood or Marie. For Marie, it was Paul or another Jesuit
she was eyeing. Heart and conscience collide with commitment in the literary novel, Interrupted: A
Call to Selma. Courage waits for a cue to enter center stage.

5. “Plot is what keeps you going when you read a
story, character is what stays with you.”
- Ann Charters

6. Readers keep
turning pages
because we’re
invested in
seeing what
happens to
someone
specific.

7. 1.The Protagonist(s)
2.The Antagonist(s)
3.Secondary
Characters
4.“Walk-On” Extras

8.  Is each person necessary?

9.  Is each person necessary?
 How do we meet each character?

10.  Is each person necessary?
 How do we meet each character?
 Are they consistent throughout
the book?

12. • The Mary Sue
• The disillusioned man reaching
middle age
• The strong-willed heroine
fighting cultural oppression
• The orphan longing for family
• The betrayed wife
• Etc.

13.  What does this person want?

14.  What does this person want?
 What are the flaws and blind spots that keep
them from what they want?

15.  What does this person want?
 What are the flaws and blind spots that keep
them from what they want?
 Can you hear their unique voice?

16.  What does this person want?
 What are the flaws and blind spots that keep
them from what they want?
 Can you hear their unique voice?
 Are they actively involved in changing their
own story?

17.  What does this person want?
 What are the flaws and blind spots that keep
them from what they want?
 Can you hear their unique voice?
 Are they actively involved in changing their own
story?
 Can we see them change personally by the end?

18. This person thinks that they are the hero of the story.

19. 1. Make a list of all primary and secondary
characters.
What do you want the reader to remember
about each person? (Physically or
personally)

20. 2. Choose one scene in which we meet a major
character – the protagonist, antagonist, or a
secondary character.
Where does that first impression come from –
what that person directly says or does, or how
someone else (including the narrator) describes
them? If it’s not currently active, what can
change to let the person express themselves?

21. 3. What is unique about your protagonist, that
keeps them from being a genre trope or
stereotype?
Are there scenes where their flaws or mistakes
make them human and relatable? Is their
behavior consistent with the ways they’re
described?

22. 4. What is the antagonist’s goal (if applicable)?
Why are they seeking something other than
what your protagonist wants, and why do they
believe their actions are right?
If you’re not sure, choose a scene where they
interact with the protagonist and re-write it
through their perspective. Focus on the “want”
that’s driving them.

23. 5. How does your protagonist demonstrate
agency throughout the novel? Are there places
where things happen to them instead of
because of them? Do they drive the changes
that lead to the resolution?
If not, are there places where you can change
who takes initiative?

24. 6. How does your protagonist change
emotionally over the course of the book?
7. Does each secondary character serve a
unique role? Is the level of detail about them
appropriate to their role in the plot?

25. Next Class: March 9, 2024
1:00 – 4:00pm
bethjusino@gmail.com