Emotional Impact & Meaning

Psychological research shows that reported character emotions have zero emotional impact on readers. So, what does? This master class explores creating impact through surprise, depth, higher emotions, midpoint definition, catalyst/catharsis, defeat, moral stakes, change, as well as hidden theme, protagonist/antagonist justification, story importance, goodness and meaning. This is a hands-on workshop for experienced fiction writers, presented by longtime agent, author and teacher Donald Maass.

Note: Each session is fully stand-alone. You can take this class independently without enrolling in the other parts.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

A literary agent in New York, Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 200 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas.  He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009), Writing 21^st Century Fiction (2012) and The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2016).  He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.