Success: "Getting to Know You" Workshop

What a wonderful workshop! After months of prayer and prep, the day finally arrived, and we truly enjoyed Getting to Know You. Here are just a few of the day’s highlights:

"You get to know your characters just like you get to know real people."

First, you learn their External Characteristics, who they are on the outside. Not only does this include what they look like, but also their strengths, weaknesses and… Undeserved Misfortunes (I don’t think anyone will ever forget what an Undeserved Misfortune is…).

Next, we learned about the Internal Characteristics, who a person is on the inside. Books are one of the few places people are able to truly see a man like God does, looking past the externals in order to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. In fact, we usually don’t really care what a character looks like. We want to know who they are on the inside. What is important to them? What are they willing to fight for? Die for? What does each of your characters stand for?

Later, we outlined the Three Tiers of Character and discussed the roles each character type plays within the novel. As we looked at picture prompts, students worked hard to create some incredibly, deep and compelling ‘people’. We met a journalist with a speech impediment, a teen musician searching for the brother he never knew, and a villain masked in the innocent guise of childhood (just to name a few).

Before we closed up a truly incredible day, we learned more about who God is and what character He wants to build in us. As it says in Colossians 3:17,