Who cares about your characters, and why? Sympathetic or not, your readers must feel invested in the story arcs of your characters. This session will focus on honing in on your characters’ fears, flaws, and regrets — and we will explore techniques for ratcheting up your characters’ pain in order to enhance their internal struggles. Next, we’ll consider how to increase tension by introducing external threats posed by other characters, the outside world, or plot devices such as a ticking clock. Raising the emotional stakes for your characters –whether from without or within– will help propel your novel toward a satisfying and rewarding conclusion.
