Creative Writing Foundations: Develop Compelling Characters
A course by Mark Boutros , Screenwriter and Author
Learn how to imagine and bring to life memorable characters with their own unique stories to tell
Learn how to imagine and bring to life memorable characters with their own unique stories to tell
Characters are the heartbeat of any story. Through them, we can explore and make sense of the world. For screenwriter and independent author Mark Boutros, watching characters come to life on the page is what he loves about writing. He’s written for some of the biggest channels in the UK including The BBC and SkyOne and published a book about writing called The Craft of Character.
In this course, Mark gives you the tools you need to develop a variety of compelling characters with their own storylines and adventures. Are you ready to write a protagonist you can’t wait to meet?
What will you learn in this online course?
14 lessons & 27 downloads
- 100% positive reviews (158)
- 4,274 students
- 14 lessons (2h 55m)
- 27 additional resources (11 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
Develop a character, write their first scene, and a one-page story outline that follows their journey.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone with an interest in creative writing with a focus on creating well-rounded characters.
Requirements and materials
No previous experience is necessary.
You will just need something to write with.
Reviews
A course by Mark Boutros
Mark Boutros is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and author based in London. Having grown up in a family of artists, he’s always been creative and was encouraged by his English teacher at school to pursue writing. He began his career working in television production, but his love of writing inspired him to study a master’s in creative writing at UEA. After graduating, he spent time sending out scripts, one of which was a comedy-drama that won him silver in the PAGE Awards.
Since then, Mark has won several more awards, received an International Emmy nomination, and written for some of the biggest channels in the UK, including The BBC and SkyOne. He is also the author of The Craft of Character as well as a fantasy novel series, and he hosts lectures on creative writing at universities and drama schools.
Content
-
U1
Introduction
-
About Me
-
Influences
-
-
U2
Growing Your Idea from Character
-
How to Frame Your Idea
-
Extracting Key Information
-
The Core of a Character
-
Character's Voice
-
Research Tips and Best Practices
-
-
U3
Your Character Lives
-
Character Questionnaire
-
Become Your Character
-
Other Characters
-
Obstacles
-
Character Descriptions
-
-
U4
The One Pager and First Scene
-
The One Pager
-
Your Character’s First Scene
-
-
FP
Final project
-
Creative Writing Foundations: Develop Compelling Characters
-
What to expect from a Domestika course
-
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
-
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
-
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
-
Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
-
Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
-
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
-
Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
-
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
camisplit
Es un curso excelente, aprendí muchísimo. De los mejores cursos que he tomado, lo recomiendo un montón. Además Mark siempre te da una devolución de tu proceso con la creación de tu personaje y creo que eso es muy positivo y anima mucho a continuar con el resto de las lecciones. Excelente curso.
View translation
Hide translation
guerrandresa
Curso muito completo e com diversos insights que vão me ajudar no meu método e processo de escrita. Clareou bastante a minha mente e me trouxe novos conhecimentos e percepções
View translation
Hide translation
lafleur
I got Mark's book "The Craft of Character: How to create deep and engaging characters your audience will never forget", it is so good - now I have to sign up for his class. Wonderful and very interesting person and writer to learn from.
nat_prz
100% recomendado
View translation
Hide translation
overtrees
Mark Boutros is an engaging and lively tutor with lots of interesting ideas and methods to encourage the writing process and to develop good practices. I am enjoying his course.