According to Sherrilyn Kenyon, “The strongest steel is forged by the hottest fires. It is pounded and struck repeatedly… The fire gives it power and flexibility, and the blows give it strength. Those two things make it able to withstand every battle…” This is such an apt metaphor for character development—in life and in stories. When we make things difficult for our characters, then throw them into the fire—both in terms of the story’s physical demands AND its psychological/emotional ones—we give them the tools they need to evolve and to ultimately succeed at missions they might have found impossible to carry out at the beginning of the story.  In this class, we’ll look at ways to make the best choices for your story by making things worse for your characters, and even worse still. We’ll look at all the possible avenues for conflict—practical, interpersonal, psychological—and how to determine which decisions you make for your character will lead to the most fruitful journeys.