MAKING PEOPLE

THE CHARACTERISATION MASTERCLASS

£20/month. Access all courses.
First month half price!

Part of the WHQ membership

Five part course, rolling access

Join our kickass community

Create characters who are original, real and memorable, right down to that bit of dried cheese sauce on their trousers and their fear of flip-flops.

Imagine if Lizzie Bennett had no sense of humour, or if Offred just gave up, or if Matilda wasn’t fussed about books. Imagine if Frankenstein had even the tiniest ounce of empathy. Without great and believable characters, stories don’t fly, plots wilt, worlds end and, worse, manuscripts get thrown in the bin.

Our one week long characterisation masterclass will show you how to turn your characters into people, how to stop yourself falling back on tropes and stereotypes, and how to avoid hashing out two-dimensional cardboard cutout figures instead of sculpting living, breathing people.

Prepare your loins to CREATE LIFE!

UNIT 1: WHAT DO THEY WANT AND WHY CAN’T THEY HAVE IT?
Tap into your character’s deepest desires to ramp up the conflict

UNIT 2: THE MANY ARCS OF CHARLIE BAXTER
Just one problem to solve? Too easy! Chuck everything you’ve got at them.

UNIT 3: WHAT YOU DO IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT YOU ARE
Why action is more important than description

UNIT 4: HISTORY AND ALSO HERSTORY
Get down and dirty with your character’s backstory for a fuller front-story

UNIT 5: INCREMENTS OF BASTARDRY
Give ’em hell

1. Enrol
Once you’ve joined you’ll get an email confirming your place and explaining how you access the course. Spoiler: you click a link. Super simple.

2. Read, watch, do
The lessons are a mix of text, images, videos and exercises. To get the most out of the course, try to give yourself at least an hour a day to read or watch the material and do the exercises. We’ve made them as bite-size as possible but also if you wanna do the thing you gotta do the work.

3. No rush
This course is written to be done over a week but if you miss a day or something comes up, don’t panic! Go at your own pace. We’ll be waiting for you in the community forums when you’re ready to catch up.

4. No money? No problem
Periodically we run this course as a freebie so please make sure you’re on our newsletter list to get notifications of that. Alternatively, if you can’t wait and have no cash, have a look at our bursary scheme.

5. Milk no sugar
Drink plenty of tea, stock up on biscuits, gin for later. Enjoy it. It’s supposed to be fun. Love you. Mwa.

A range of different approaches to characterisation to help you get down and dirty with the psychology of your fictional peeps
Discover your character’s motivations and work out how they react in any given situation
Daily inspiration, whip-cracking, writing exercises and prompts
Access to our private forum full of super cool people
Techniques to tease out the inner workings of your characters
Tools to encourage ideas to grow and bloom

Learn how to craft unique, intriguing characters who have their very own agenda, opinions, phobias and dreams.

Write backstories and memories and find out how to thwart your poor protagonist’s desires at every turn to up the stakes and layer your story with conflict.

Join our lovely little online community to support you through the braining process and beyond, plus peer and WHQ feedback.

LOVE FOR WRITERS’ HQ

Never done anything like this before and found the online format worked so well. Felt relaxed, and that contributed to creativity. Many thanks – will sign up for the next one next week!

Kathryn C

Journaling

Completed a first draft in 25 days! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For anyone still unsure as to whether the online writing retreats are worth your time, I say this: I hadn’t written anything significant in months and signed up for one retreat. In those six hours I planned and entire children’s fiction trilogy I’d been mulling over. Then the lockdown happened so I signed up for all the weekend retreats and I completed the first draft of the first book in 25 days! The motivation these retreats provide is an undeniable gift. Thank you Sarah and Jo and all the other retreat hosts, I am eternally grateful. ❤️💛💚💙💜

Matthew Parkes

Online Retreats

These online writers’ retreats are invaluable!
I don’t think I could be motivated to write without them. Most productive Sunday in a long time. I wrote 1300 words! Thanks Writers’ HQ.

Colin G

Online Retreats

Online Writing Retreat
This was my 6th online writers’ retreat since lockdown, and I can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow!

Therese B

Online Retreats