FREE Webinars for 2026!

That's right, every month the Plot Dude will offer a free webinar, each on a different topic related to writing craft. Tune in LIVE, and stay for chats and conversations afterward. Recordings will remain available for a limited time after each session, and there will be worksheets and other resources for further learning. Check out this months webinar, and register below.

January: World‑Building and Character Identity — How Settings Shape Who People Become

Great characters don’t emerge in a vacuum.

They are shaped, pressured, constrained, and ultimately revealed by the world they live in. Too often, writers treat setting as decoration—something added after the “real” work of character and plot is done. In reality, setting is one of the most powerful tools you have for defining who your characters are and why your story unfolds the way it does.

In this live Plot Dude webinar, World-Building and Character Identity, we’ll dig into the craft-level mechanics of how setting actively shapes character identity—and how that identity, in turn, drives plot.

This session is not about building encyclopedias, drawing maps, or writing pages of description. Instead, it focuses on how environment creates pressure, how pressure forces choice, and how those choices reveal character in ways readers believe.

Register Here

You’ll learn how physical environments, social structures, and even time periods condition characters long before page one. Scarcity, safety, surveillance, isolation, power, and culture all teach characters how to survive—and those lessons show up in their beliefs, flaws, and decisions. When writers understand this relationship, plot stops feeling artificial and starts feeling inevitable.

During this webinar, we’ll explore how to:

Use setting as an active force rather than a passive backdrop
Understand the difference between backstory and conditioning
Identify beliefs your characters formed because of where they live
Create conflict that exists only because of the setting
Apply a simple “pressure test” to strengthen scenes and plot turns
Revise scenes so setting directly influences character choice

You’ll also see how setting can function as an antagonist—whether that’s a harsh environment, an unforgiving system, cultural expectations, or history itself. When the world pushes back, characters are forced to adapt, resist, compromise, or break. That is where story lives.

This session is ideal for fiction writers at any stage who want stronger character arcs, more organic plot movement, and stories that feel grounded and cohesive. While the principles apply across genres—mystery, thriller, romance, fantasy, science fiction, and literary fiction—the focus remains firmly on craft, not trends or marketing.

All attendees will receive a fillable worksheet PDF designed to help you apply the concepts directly to your current work-in-progress. You’ll walk away not just inspired, but equipped with tools you can use immediately.

Whether you’re outlining a new story or revising an existing one, this webinar will help you answer a critical question every reader asks—often subconsciously:

Why does this character make sense in this story?

Join the Plot Dude live and learn how to make your setting do real narrative work—shaping identity, driving plot, and deepening the emotional truth of your fiction.

Register Here

“Plot Nihilists believe in nothing. Don’t be like them.”