“How Competing Character Agency Amps Up Your Plot”

with Amber Royer

Character agency is a character's ability to take actions and make decisions that have a lasting impact on the story's plot. When multiple characters in your story exercise agency, and when they have their own agendas (so important in mystery!) which clash, things really get interesting. Learn how competing agency can intensify tension, and how to reveal it without resorting to summarizing or having it feel forced.

Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series (FREE CHOCOLATE and PURE CHOCOLATE available from Angry Robot Books). She teaches creative writing in North Texas for both UT Arlington Continuing Education and Writing Workshops Dallas. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes.