Readers invest in your story, in part, because of their attachment to the characters in that story. In nonfiction these are you, the protagonist, aka the I-character, and the people that the I-character cares about. But just because you are writing about real people doesn’t mean the characters in your nonfiction will feel be compelling or even feel real to the reader. In this seminar we will work on ways to build complex and interesting, yet still believable, characters. Through close reading of work by Alison Bechdel, Jesmyn Ward, and Tim O'Brien, and in class writing exercises, we will explore the difference between round characters and flat characters, and discuss the importance of character arcs and the different forms these arcs take.