All Pennwriters Courses are conducted in a “live” presentation format utilizing the Zoom platform. If a conflict arises based on the required meeting times, please contact the instructor and Online Courses Coordinator to find a possible solution. ALL sessions will be recorded. Recordings are available to participants for 1-2 weeks after each recorded session.
PLEASE NOTE:
You should receive a confirmation email upon registering for the course from both Club Express and the Online Classes Coordinator. If you do not receive either emails, please reach out to the Online Classes Coordinator immediately so you do not miss out on information for your class.
Make Your Characters Memorable
Course Information: What every agent, editor, and reader is looking for is a story that makes them care. And, good characters are the secret to success in commercial fiction.
Learning what really motivates your characters and how to then weave it into your plot will ultimately create the emotional tension in your story to keep your reader turning pages and create characters your reader will never forget.
Author Benefits/Takeaways—Participants will:
- What are your characters' goals?
- What are their deepest fears?
- What drives them toward their goal?
- What drives them away from it?
- What is their biggest misbelief?
Instructor Bio:
Kathy Otten is the published author of a young adult paranormal mystery and multiple historical romance
novels and short stories. Her Civil War romance novel A Place in Your Heart was a 2016 RWA
Northwest Houston Chapter, Lone Star Winner and her western novel Lost Hearts, was a 2008
Utah/Salt Lake RWA Hearts of the West finalist.
Her newest historical romance novel, The Whisper of a Kiss was voted by Still Moments Magazine
as one of the ten best novels of 2025.
Kathy is also a certified fiction book coach, trained through Author Accelerator and now helps
clients bring their writing vision to life.
She is a regular presenter at the Pennwriters Area One Writers Road Trip mini-conference and was a
presenter at the 3-day Pennwriters Conference in Pittsburgh in 2025. She also presented workshops
for the Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference in Isling, NJ in 2019. Online venues such as Savvy
Authors, Pennwriters, and RWA's Hearts Through History Romance Writers have all had her teach
workshops.
When she’s not writing, she enjoys walking her German shepherd through the woods and fields near
her home or curling up with a good book and her cat.