Learn how to use sensory details to bring important introspective moments alive for your readers and help them identify with your point-of-view character.

See how Casey McQuiston uses fictionalized primary materials to bring additional voices into I Kissed Shara Wheeler.

Examples from Tana French's The Searcher show how to give your descriptions additional meaning and resonance.

How to make sure your secondary characters are pulling their weight in your story.

Practical tips from authors about how to create names for your fictional characters.

Learn how Austen uses narrative layers to subtly savage the characters she wants readers to hate.

Learn how Austen introduces her characters in chapter 1 of Persuasion.

How characters work in the machinery of the novel.

How and why your characters and plot should work together to create a book that readers can’t put down.

Why crafting believable, engaging characters is central to writing a successful novel.

What can this classic study of the novel teach twenty-first century writers?