character development decoded
A two-day workshop to breathe life into your characters
Your characters are evading you...
You’ve done the character interviews. You’ve completed the checklists. You know your character’s favorite color. You know their favorite foods, and their guilty pleasure TV show.
But you don’t know them.
You don’t know who they are at their core. When you’re writing, they feel like cardboard stereotypes. When you try to justify their choices, they don’t make sense. Because you can’t connect with them, neither can your readers.
The problem is simple: You’re missing clarity around what made them who they are.
👉 You’re missing their BACKSTORY.
A characters 'backstory' consists of the major events in your character’s past (successes, hurts, and relationships) that specifically influenced what they want, fear, and believe in the story's present. Backstory adds meaning and purpose to a character's thought processes, decisions, and viewpoints. Without understanding a character's backstory, you'll find it nearly impossible to bring them fully alive on the page.
In our Character Development Decoded workshop you'll develop the pivotal moments that shaped your character, and learn how to show their past on the page—without using flashbacks!
2-DAY WORKSHOP RECORDING
Character Development Decoded
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With a mix of presentation, published works analysis, and workshopping, we dive into the two stages of weaving backstory into your novel:
- Developing the important, relevant moments of your character’s past
- Wielding those moments effectively on the page without using flashbacks
You're going to build actual backstory scenes and practice weaving your character's past into your present story. By the time you're done, you'll have breathed life into your story.
Ready to get to know your characters intimately and learn how to bring their humanity to the page?
PART ONE
learn the power of backstory
During this presentation & QA workshop, we teach you exactly how to create complex and three-dimensional characters.
We’ll explore and build 3-4 specific events from your character’s past that have created their goals, fears, and flaws. Then we’ll answer ALL your questions.
PART TWO
weave backstory into the story present
In this session, we teach you how to use character backstory to make your character’s thoughts, emotions, actions, and reasoning clear in your pages. With tons of analysis, workshopping, and guided visualization, you’ll bring depth to your pages in an entirely new way.
This is a recorded workshop.
The live workshop happened on April 18th & 19th, but all pre-work, recordings, transcripts, slides, and workbook materials are included.
Plotter? Pantser? Doesn't matter.
We'll teach you how to develop character backstory in a way that works for your process, whatever it is.
Your character’s backstory is the secret sauce to their three-dimensional humanity.
your workshop instructors
Emily & Rachel from Golden May
Hey hey! I'm Emily.
Hey, there! I’m Emily. I’m your resident excitable, dirtbag, cat-lady coach. I’m a type-A perfectionist who played the hustle game for years, could never finish a draft, and burned out because of it. In my journey climbing out of that ditch, I tuned out the noise of what I should do, learned to love myself, and built a writing life that works for ME. As a result, my debut fantasy romance, Behind the Crimson Curtain, was published. Now I’m devoted to helping tenacious writers like you ditch the ‘shoulds’ and build a sustainable writing life that works for you, that brings you joy, and that fulfills you all the way to your bones. When I’m not writing, you can usually find me exploring the mountains of southwest Colorado with my husband and daughter, and sometimes our cats. @ebgoldenbooks.
Hey there! I’m Rachel.
Hey, there! I’m Rachel. I’m your mac n' cheese loving, neurodivergent, book fairy godmother. As a coach and writer with ADHD, I understand how downright confusing craft can be and how much those "rules" can feel limiting. I understand what it’s like to struggle with your process and get hung up with mental hurdles. Throughout my journey, I've learned how to break past creative blocks and merge craft theory with my unique brain and body–and that’s exactly what I’ll help you do, too. Because of this eye-opening work, I've published the first three books of The Shadows Syndicate series and I’m looking toward the future with huge heart-eyes. I live in Colorado with my husband and daughter, dream of the perfect slice of pizza, and love staying up way too late to read. You can find me on Instagram @bookcoachrachel and @author.remay.
