The History of Us with Shannon Sanders
June 14, 2025
4-5:15pm ET
Virtual (Zoom)
$25
The next lecture in our 2025 Lecture Series takes place Saturday, June 14, from 4-5:15pm ET with Shannon Sanders, author of OS #263, “The Everest Society.” Shannon will be lecturing about character.
The History of Us: Building Four-Dimensional Characters Through Formative Relationships
As writers, we work hard to build characters that feel three-dimensional by giving them preferences, strengths and weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, and physicality. We can make our characters—and thus our stories—even richer by considering the fourth dimension: time! What’s more, we can learn a lot about our characters by exploring their oldest and most foundational relationships, be those with siblings or childhood friends. Often, these old relationships hold the key to characters’ pressure points and deeper vulnerabilities, and inform their present actions.
In this lecture, we’ll talk about how to mine characters’ formative relationships to make those characters feel four-dimensional and human, and how we might use what we learn to create conflict and story. We’ll do close readings of stories that introduce us to characters by way of these relationships. And then, we’ll work together on a generative exercise that will help us understand our own characters more intimately—and maybe plant the seeds for a new story!
This is part of our 2025 Lecture Series. You can purchase the entire series by going here.
About Shannon Sanders:
Shannon Sanders is the author of the forthcoming novel The Great Wherever (Holt, summer 2026) and the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was named a Publishers Weekly and Debutiful Best Book of 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere, and received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband and three sons.
How It Works
When you register, you’ll be enrolled in a portal on Thinkific, our online learning platform, which will give you access to the Zoom link for the lecture along with any reading you’ll need to complete in advance of the class. This is also where the videos will be uploaded after the lectures take place.
FAQ
When can I register for this class?
Registration is open now and will remain open throughout the year.
Will I be able to interact with the lecturers?
Yes. Students will be able to ask questions and chat with lecturers during the live lectures. There will be no instructor engagement once the lecture concludes.
How much time will the class take?
Each lecture runs between one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes.
Can I take the class on my phone?
Yes, the class can be taken on a phone.
Do you offer financial aid or scholarships for this class?
If the cost of the class is a significant burden, please email edu.support@one-story.com
Will the lecture be recorded?
Yes. Visit the Thinkific portal to watch a recording of the lecture once it concludes. Students will have access to the portal with the recording for one year after the purchase date.
Discounts & Policies
Our online classes are designed to be safe spaces for all who participate. One Story will not tolerate hate speech, bullying, or harassment directed toward instructors or fellow students, and reserves the right to remove participants who engage in such behavior from our classes.
Refund Policy: One Story class payment is non-refundable after the class’s start date. For this class, refunds are no longer available after June 12, 2025. For questions about the refund policy, or if you are unable to take the class after you have registered, please contact maribeth@one-story.com.
If you have any questions, please contact edu.support@one-story.com.
