September 16, 2008
Martha Engber

Our special guest, Martha Engber, delivered an undergratuate course in human understanding at our September 16 program meeting. Through the process of explaining her top ten reasons why developing strong, real characters in our writing actually helps us understand more about our own character as a person, Martha shared many of her own "Ah hah!" moments of enlightenment. While we all think we've drawn vibrant characters and know all about them, Martha suggests that in many cases we really haven't captured the truth of those characters. In order for a character to truly live on the page, the writer needs to intimately know how that characters thinks! and what makes him think that way. It is the character's consistent thoughts that drive his actions... and those actions, of course, propell the story.

The essence of the message on the 16th was that writers have a difficult time creating characters that truly live on the page and compel the reader to fall in love, or hate, with them if the writers doesn't understand what makes that character tick.

To get to this point, Martha convinced us, the writer must know what makes... the writer tick.

Observation, acceptance vs. judgement, and above all curiosity are the tools Martha recommends every writer have in the character-building kit. Honing these tools through practice will bring your literary characters to life. Beyond creating great characters, you'll be creating a better understanding of self in the process.

Thank you, Martha, for an inspiring evening.