Fiction | Master Class

1-Day Fiction Master Class: Writing Complex Characters

There is nothing more magic in fiction than a compelling, complex character we love, whose life we want to follow. But as writers, before we can render our characters as alive on the page, we have to first get to know them. Consider this class an intensive character development bootcamp. Through reading excerpts, activities, discussions, writing prompts, and on the spot workshops, we will work to deepen our understanding of our characters and the stories we want to tell. 

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

- A deeper understanding of how to write compelling, complex characters

- Writing prompts and tools that will help you develop characters in your future stories

- A better understanding of the craft of character and the role it serves in writing fiction

- Access to Catapult's list of writing opportunities and important submission deadlines, as well as a 10% discount on all future Catapult classes

Please note this is the same character master class that Fatima taught in January and April 2019.

Fatima Farheen Mirza

Fatima Farheen Mirza is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow. She has taught creative writing and fiction courses at the University of Iowa and at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Awarded the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship in 2016 and The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research/Creative Achievement from The University of California, Riverside, she has also received residencies from The Marble House Project and The MacDowell Colony. Her debut novel was published by SJP for Hogarth in 2019. 

Testimonials

“A PLACE FOR US is a radiantly envisioned, beautifully achieved epic about nearly everything that matters: love, family, faith, freedom, betrayal, contrition, absolution. Fatima Farheen Mirza is a magnificent new voice."

Anthony Marra author of A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA and THE TSAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO

“This extraordinary, piercingly wise novel examines as profoundly as any book I know the threads of injury and grace that stitch together a family. Fatima Farheen Mirza has the passionate intelligence and moral vision that announce not merely an excellent writer, but a great one. I felt such gratitude reading this fiercely compassionate debut, and such joy at discovering a voice I will follow for the rest of my life.”

Garth Greenwell author of WHAT BELONGS TO YOU

“Fatima Farheen Mirza’s A PLACE FOR US is a radiant debut. It accretes its power, beauty, and insight through its tender witnessing of private and family life. With her deeply compassionate view, Mirza dignifies terrain often desecrated by contemporary culture: maternity, faith, the bonds of community, the yearning for goodness, and our duty to others. She shows us the destructiveness of our doubt in those we love, and the mercy of forgiveness. Most wondrously, with this felt and moving novel, Mirza creates a place in which rebellion and reverence seem to embrace.”

Charmaine Craig author of MISS BURMA

“Fatima Farheen Mirza’s A PLACE FOR US is a work of extraordinary and enthralling beauty. It is so deeply imagined, so intimately attentive to and solicitous of the lives it follows, so artful in describing the inseparable human experiences of pride and resentment, humility and loyalty—and, most of all, love—that it feels not as if we are reading a novel about this Muslim-American family struggling with tradition and culture, but as if we become actual members of the family. It is that immersive, that brilliant, that true.”

Paul Harding author of TINKERS and ENON

“To be taken hostage by Fatima Mirza’s heartrending and timely story is a gutting pleasure. It allows her reader to better understand what it means to reconcile one’s love of family and culture with a desire to find one’s own path, and one’s own faith. Ms. Mirza painstakingly details the life of an Indian Muslim family in America and their children’s search to feel whole, fulfilled, and content. She captures your mind and heart with an urgency that defies you to stop reading. I guarantee you will be different when you close the book.”

Sarah Jessica Parker

“I’ve been lucky to have the chance to work with several writers, but no one comes close to Fatima. Her ability to capture the truth on what it means to be human is incomparable, and she conveys this to her students in a caring and dedicated way. The care she takes in every piece is like that of a surgeon, and the passion she brings to teaching has changed my life. With her as your teacher, you’ll learn how to use your unique voice to the best of your ability, and she will make you give every detail meaning.”

former student

“Fatima's mind is built for storytelling. She pushed me to explore my characters for a depth and complexity I did not know was there. Working with her has improved my fiction without question.”

former student

“Fatima is the most encouraging and good-hearted teacher I’ve ever had the pleasure of learning from. As an instructor, she is encouraging and kind, allowing room for students’ creative individuality while still guiding them through the writing process. Through helping young authors like myself create beautiful pieces of writing, she has an innate ability to foster a sense of confidence, creating lifelong writers. In the classroom she is confident and supportive, going out of her way to edit student writing and lend an ear. Her critique always gives way to stronger, more detailed writing pieces, and I feel any student would be beyond fortunate to have Fatima in the classroom.”

former student