Psychology of Characters in Stories
A course by Cecilia Magaña ChávezWriter
A course by Cecilia Magaña Chávez, Writer
Learn to bring fictional characters to life with psychological writing resources and tell stories in the media of your choice
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk a mile in one of your character's shoes? Writer and teacher Cecilia Magaña takes this walk often by using her education in psychology to craft more realistic protagonists and tell fictional stories. For her, these individuals are the key to engaging readers and viewers and the cornerstone of any good story.
In this course, Cecilia teaches you how to bring complex fictional characters to life using psychological writing and self-discovery techniques. Learn how to create memorable characters and understand their development through past, present, and future.
What will you learn in this online course?
17 lessons & 38 downloads
The character's profile
16 minutes, 0 seconds
How character 1 is born
19 minutes, 34 seconds
Character, theme and emotions 1
19 minutes, 7 seconds
Character, theme and emotions 2
10 minutes, 24 seconds
Autobiographical resources and research
6 minutes, 7 seconds
The character is the story
12 minutes, 2 seconds
Capture the character and his story
7 minutes, 37 seconds
What's included in this course?
As a forward to the course, Cecilia Magaña tells you a bit about who she is, what she does, and the stories and authors that have influenced her creative process. She also explains how she builds characters for her fiction stories.
In the next chapter, identify some of the features that give a character substance by observing your surroundings and what comes from within you. Start outlining a character that you can use to approach a topic you want to discuss and define their personal tone to elicit certain emotions.
Then, add depth by using autobiographical resources and what you uncover through research. Answer a set of questions to establish their age, physical appearance, and surrounding context. Explore their inner self to determine what drives them and analyze their relationships with the other characters present in their life.
As a final step, complete your character profile by adding a synopsis of your work–the foundation of your story. To wrap everything up, Cecilia explains how to present your character and their story in different mediums other than literature and encourages you to customize and share your final project.
What is this course's project?
Create a character profile that contains all the aspects that give them substance and make them unique, as well as an outline of their story that you can use for a future project if you'd like.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Anyone interested in creating literary characters or character concepts for a range of mediums, from picturebooks, comic strips, and graphic novels to audiovisual projects. This course is also great for actors who want to use this approach to add depth to the roles they're currently playing or hope to work on.
Requirements and materials
No experience in character creation is necessary as this course is an introduction to the art, but you do need to be familiar with online music sharing apps like Spotify and other similar platforms.
As for materials, all you need is a notebook and a pen or a computer with a word processor and basic online search tools.
Reviews
- 11 days ago
muy bueno
- 1 month ago
Buen curso, con muchos recursos y explicado de forma cercana y práctica.
- 2 months ago
Muy buen curso.
- 3 months ago
AME ESTE CURSO! Cecilia es muy practica para explicar sus procesos creativos y todos los pasos fueron sencillos de entender, aplicarlos fue un reto, mas con las paradojas, pero me ha servido muchisimo, me ha inspirado a escribir algo mas concreto. Algo que si noté es que tal vez el orden en el que Cecilia hace las cosas, no es el orden en el que yo las haria, pero me inspiró mucho a seguir explorando personajes. Gracias Ceci. Aprendi mucho.
- 6 months ago
Me ha gustado mucho. Me ha parecido un curso muy completo. Cecilia te va guiando en todo momento sobre su proceso de crear un personaje a través de la psicología. Te ayuda, incluso, a descubrir partes de ti misma que no habías visto y, con esas partes, a crear personajes completamente sorprendentes.
Her work as co-founder of Atypical Editorial has led her to advise and edit various authors, guiding them in the creation of their own short story collections. In addition, she has shared her knowledge as a teacher in the degree in Digital Filmmaking, where she has advised projects for anthology series and short film trilogies.
Cecilia's passion for reading and analysis has led her to delve into the narrative of books and collections by admired authors, as well as to understand how stories are constructed in audiovisual media. Her focus on finding unity and meaning in stories, as well as her ability to explore personal curiosities and obsessions, make Cecilia an exceptional guide for those seeking to bring their own story collections to life.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- Presentation
- Influences
- U2
The basic elements
- The character's profile
- How character 1 is born
- How character 2 is born
- Character, theme and emotions 1
- Character, theme and emotions 2
- U3
Give depth to your character
- Autobiographical resources and research
- The outer life of character 1
- The outer life of character 2
- The inner life of character 1
- The inner life of the character 2
- The character and his dynamics with other 1
- The character and his dynamics with 2 others
- U4
The character and his story
- The character is the story
- Capture the character and his story
- How to publish your story?
- FP
Final project
- Psychology of characters in stories
What to expect from a Domestika course
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FAQs
You’ll learn how to build complex, realistic character profiles, apply psychological and narrative techniques, analyze motivations and contradictions, and develop protagonists, supporting characters, and antagonists for your fiction stories.
The course is intermediate level, perfect for those with basic storytelling knowledge who want to dive deeper into crafting complex literary characters.
All you need is an interest in writing, internet access, and a device to complete practical exercises. No advanced skills are required.
The course teaches you how to use psychological, biographical, and narrative tools to give your characters depth, consistency, and believable motivations, with examples and hands-on exercises based on your own writing.
Topics include character-building techniques, motivation analysis, creating internal contradictions, using autobiographical resources, designing transformation arcs, and strategies to differentiate protagonists and antagonists.
Yes, the course features exercises to develop profiles, build backstories, apply irony and tragicomedy, and create characters inspired by details, objects, and personal experiences.
Yes, you’ll learn how to design your characters’ transformation arcs by identifying their motivations, conflicts, and internal changes throughout the story.