Character + Conflict = Plot
In this course, you'll learn how to design characters for young adult fiction. You'll start out by looking at originality and using your own unique experiences in your writing - including transporting yourself back into the mind of your teen self - before moving into the world of fiction. You'll looked at the ways in which character and conflict are intertwined and you'll get to know your characters by placing them in situations with conflict. You'll explore dialogue and subtext as a way to demonstrate the conflict in their relationship.
Finally, you will look at the ways in which voice and point of view affect the reader's relationship to your characters and their conflicts. You'll finish this course with a completed short story of up to 1,500 words, or the start of a longer piece of YA fiction.
How long does it take?
As a self-paced course it's up to you how quickly you progress through the material. You can binge it in a weekend or dip in and out alongside your work in progress.
How does it work?
Our courses can be accessed on your desktop Mac or PC , laptop, tablet or mobile. All you need is a web browser. You don't need to install any additional software.
When does it start?
Right now! This is a self-paced online course - you decide when you start and can go through it at any speed. You have unlimited access to the course so can return for a refresher at any time. What are you waiting for?
Course Curriculum
Meet Your Tutor: Chelsey (CJ) Flood
My name is Chelsey Flood and I write Young Adult fiction under the name C.J Flood. I graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2010 with an MA in creative writing. I've published two YA novels so far, both with Simon and Schuster. My first novel, Infinite Sky, won the Branford Boase Award and was written with funding support from the Arts Council. My second novel Night Wanderers was published in 2016.
When I'm not writing YA novels, I write about alcoholism and addiction on my website chelseyflood.com and you can find me on twitter @cjflood_author.
I'm based in Bristol, UK.
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