Constructive Compelling Characters in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Week 2

This blog post was written by Chana Porter, this month’s instructor for the Fantasy Writing Workshops
This workshop focused on building distinctive, engaging characters in sci-fi and fantasy worlds. To see our characters from a different perspective, the group explored an exercise in creating collaborative comics.
Writing Exercise: Pass the Character!

• On a blank piece of unlined paper, describe your character in great physical detail. What are they wearing? Describe how they look, how they stand, their expression. Do they have any objects with them?
• Pass the description to the right. Draw the character described in fullest detail possible.
• Pass the drawing to the right. Create dialogue and/or captions for the drawing.
• Pass the drawing to the right. Draw a background scene for the character.
• Give the comic back to the originator. Share your collaborative comics!

Check out the awesome characters Arnell Calderon, Nyasiah Colon, Katherine Ortiz, and Sharon Young created below!

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Chana Porter is a writer and teacher living in Brooklyn, New York. Her plays have been produced and developed in New York City by Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre, Primary Stages, PS122, Dixon Place, True Love Productions, The Invisible Dog, and the White Bear in London. She has led classes and workshops in “Writing From The Body” as an artist-in-residence at Cave and Space on White, and as a guest teaching artist at Hampshire College. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A at Goddard College in Creative Writing and writing a series of Young Adult Science Fiction novels entitled New Human Classics.