Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155447 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Discusses back stories, psychology, research, relationships, supporting characters, stereotypes and character problems, and offers advice on writing dialogue.

Customer Reviews

OK but plods in places - 10 page distillation required!
The approach that this book takes is to present an idea eg "The Inner Backstory Defines Character". There's an all-too brief discussion, then possibly some reports of what Freud, Jung, and/or some other lesser-known writers might have said to support the idea, and then we're into the case studies.

I have to admit that this approach is not really my cup of tea. I want to get to the meat that the author has to offer, and avoid the flabby case-study filler. Perhaps if it was written in a more engaging way, I might feel differently, but as it is, I'm tempted to skip long tracts looking for the useful bits. At least the summaries at the end of each chapter help in this - I quickly concluded that the book would be more useful as a set of reference cards pasted up from the introduction to each idea, and these summary pages.

I'm currently reading "Characters and Viewpoint" by Orson Scott Card, and thinking comparatively about the two books is what prompted me to write this review. I'm finding Card's approach to be far more engaging and usable. Even his section headings are directly informative, as opposed to the simple descriptions used in Seger's book.

In short: check the Card book out before making a decision on this one.

Comprehensive - but clunky
Well, it certainly covers a lot of ground. This book covers *almost* every involved in creating characters, but omits some of the most basic things, like naming them (something which I, as a writer, find very difficult). The book also feels rather longer than it is, and could probably have been shortened by 10-15% with no effect other than becoming easier to read.

If you have the patience, this is certainly worth it. But you'll get no help with getting the beginnings of your characters, just the bits that round them off.

The 2nd most valuable guide in my collection!
As an aspiring writer, I have quite a collection of reference material, and outside of my Thesaurus, this is the most important book I have. Ms Seger gives a fantastic guide to character development, which in my mind is key to great writing. No one will care about the plot if they don't care about the characters, and following this book, the audience will care about the characters.