This was quite a class -- folks from varying places and backgrounds with one thing in common -- the desire to write a book.
Oh, and what an assortment of ideas and characters!
- A high powered, wise-cracking female executive with ninja skills and a house husband whose skills may exceed hers
- A creepy, affectless serial killer and a troubled young woman with intuitive profiling chops
- A man, facing his own mortality and determined to leave a legacy of family memories to his children and grandchildren
- An adult son struggling to come to grips with his relationship to his father and with the social mores of his small Southern town
- the first female captain of a mission to Mars, carrying a priest and a trio of nuns (all Korean) to minister to the settlers (there are also companion rabbits)
- and a single mother in a dead end job in a sewing plant, struggling to survive and to understand her coworkers
They had assignments like:
- Write about your main character from the point of view of someone who hates him/her.
- Show your character at an emotional low-point and make us aware of the problems facing him/her.
- Write the copy that will go on the back cover of your novel It should intrigue the reader without giving away the ending.
- Write a dialog in which one character's thoughts are at odds with his/her words.
- And lots more.