Character Development in Magical Realism

Course summary: Create complex characters whose daily lives include the extraordinary. Develop culturally grounded profiles, distinctive voices, a story concept, and a revised scene through close reading, guided practice, and constructive review.

This course teaches character through work, desire, relationships, place, and encounters with the extraordinary. You will distinguish literal marvels from figurative language, examine how narrative voice treats them, and build a character who makes consequential choices. Magical realism is treated as a literary mode with varied histories and practices, not a checklist that makes every unusual story the same genre.

Intended students and prerequisites: Adult beginning and developing fiction writers who can draft a paragraph and save revisions. No prior study of literary theory is required. Necessary terms are explained before use. The exercises use invented people and communities. Literary case studies provide short, sourced descriptions and craft interpretations; no purchase of a complete novel is required to complete the labs.

Outcomes: Distinguish narrative stance from character reaction; connect ordinary needs with an extraordinary condition; develop backstory, motives, relationships, and a proportionate arc; use concrete detail and recurring objects to develop meaning; research cultural context without reducing a community to one belief; compare selected craft choices in literary examples; give evidence-based feedback; revise and present an original character-and-scene portfolio.

Workload and pathway: Allow about 50–70 hours over ten to twenty weeks. Save all forty labs under their lesson numbers. Modules 1–4 establish the mode, character, craft, and context. Module 5 studies selected writers. Modules 6–7 develop scenes and themes. Modules 8–10 support workshop, project assembly, revision, and assessment. Earlier exercises are experiments; later work develops one selected project. Reuse and revise your own material rather than adding every exercise to the capstone.

Final portfolio: One original character profile of 700–900 words; two supporting profiles of 200–300 words each; a 400–600-word story concept with a beginning, middle, and intended ending; one polished scene of 1,200–1,600 words; a 250–350-word cultural-context and source note; a 300–400-word craft reflection; a review and response record; a log of at least two substantial revisions; and a 5–7-minute presentation or 600–900-word script with a timed rehearsal note. The scene may be part of a longer planned work. The source course’s character, concept, scene, feedback, and reflection project remains the capstone; you are not required to finish a novel.

AI collaboration and privacy: You originate the material and decide what belongs. Optional AI activities request comparisons, questions, or consistency checks, with manual alternatives. Online AI processes submitted text off site; remove confidential material and obtain permission before sharing another person’s work. Do not invent traditions, quotations, sources, interview responses, or peer feedback and present them as real. Disclose substantial retained AI wording in the reflection and follow any eventual venue’s requirements.

Assessment: Complete all forty labs and the portfolio. Use each self-check’s answer guidance to revise. The final 100-point rubric appears inside Lesson 10.4 Self-check. This course’s completion standard is at least 75 points, all required components, and two documented substantial revisions. Missing work or a lower score requires targeted resubmission. Assessment rewards supported artistic choices and readable scenes, including deliberate uncertainty; it does not demand a prescribed moral, cultural identity, or transformation.