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Summer Youth: Create Compelling Characters (Ages 10-14)

Explore what makes a character memorable, then create your own memorable characters.

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Summer Youth: Create Compelling Characters (Ages 10-14)

Summer Youth: Create Compelling Characters (Ages 10-14)

Explore what makes a character memorable, then create your own memorable characters.

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Registrations Closed

About

Are there certain people you'll never forget? Why is that? Are they funny, cruel, cutting, generous, believable, and quirky? Do they have good and bad characteristics (round characters)? What makes you either love them or hate them, and what makes you root for them or against them?

Creating characters who trigger emotions makes readers want to turn the page to find out what is going to happen to them. Consider "The Wizard of Oz." Most people hate the Wicked Witch of the West. Most want Dorothy to succeed. Why is that? How did the writer make the reader care so much about their characters? You'll explore what makes a character memorable, then create your own memorable characters. The goal is to have fun while weaving writing techniques and skills into the creative process. By the end of the week, the hope is for everyone to have a few polished pieces of writing that showcase the characters they created.

Details

  • Ages 10-14.
  • Bring water and a snack.
  • Registration closes Monday, July 14.
 
Instructor
Bob Balmer

Bob taught for 25 years, designing and facilitating talented and gifted programs for grades 3-8, as well as teaching middle- and high-school English classes. He was an Oregon Education Teacher of the Year. Students nominated him for Who's Who Among America Teachers, a Nobel Teacher Award, the K103 radio teacher of the week. A parent nominated him for mainstreaming teacher of the year. He has taught in Upward Bound, and the Duke University Summer Tip Program, a three-week writing intensive summer school course. He has facilitated writing workshops in California, Washington and Oregon, and his writing has appeared in the Smithsonian, Golf Illustrated, ZYZZYVA, the Seattle Times, the Oregonian, Oregon Coast Magazine, and other print publications. It has aired on the Savvy Traveler, MarketPlace and Oregon Public Radio and Television.

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