Customer Reviews

10 Steps to Creating Memorable Characters

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Without good, in-depth characters to begin with, even the most exciting premise can stall, as you just don't know about the people driving it forward. While writing out the kind of detail that 10 Steps asks you to put in for each character at the front end -- that is, before you write -- may seem onerous, it makes the actual novel writing process much quicker and easier. I didn't say easy (novel writing is about as easy as childbirth). Just easier, and a lot more likely to actually get done.

Although the book isn't large, it does pack a surprising amount of information, including a range of informative sideboards, lists, references, tables, and anecdotes from the considerable body of work -- at least 30 published books between them -- created by the authors. Each of them is generous with her knowledge - providing honest, down-to-earth advice about how they write and work, and the way in which their characters move forward. There are "words of wisdom", information about genre, and even advice on dealing with minor, "walk-on" characters. There are innovative, rarely seen tips throughout the book, including such ideas as the keeping of an alphabet chart, or how to pull together a family and friends mind map.

You don't have to go the whole hog either. The examples they provide are actually fairly brief, and a good character can be outlined quite well in a few days, though I tend to work much more slowly and spend a long time on each section. One of the bits that I found most useful was step 9 - The Character Diamond. This is really a plotting exercise, but it's done with the character specifically in mind, looking at what they want and the drivers of those wants. It's simple, but works like a charm.

Not only does this kind of extensive outlining help create better characters - it gives you an almost ready-made synopsis for sending out later. 10 Steps to Creating Memorable Characters a terrific workbook, whose simplicity belies its power. It has been designed to be effective for both screenwriting and novel writing. I'm well into my second novel, and despite this book being ideally used at the front end, I found it a terrific tool for gaining a much better sense of my characters and helping me make the plot much more directly driven by them. Although many of the examples are basic ones relating to romance and science fiction, I recommend to any writer who wants an effective roadmap through the foggy and often inchoate haze that constitutes pulling together a fully-fledged fictive dream.

Magdalena Ball is the author of Sleep Before Evening.

Until I read this book I had no idea how far a person can go in creating characters. At first glance, it looked as though a lot of the material was unnecessary (for each character: skills and talents, pet peeves, friends, successes and regrets, just to name a few).
The further I went, in creating a character or two just for fun, and also in thinking of the characters in the novel I'm writing for 8 to 12-year-olds, the more I realized the true importance of this material.

My characters are the better for the extra work I'm doing. They're more rounded out. This will make for a better book.

I'm glad a friend recommended this book to me.

Give it a look. It may be just what you're looking for, even if you DIDN'T know that until now.

Writers serious about learning how to create and develop memorable characters will relish 10 Steps to Creating Memorable Characters: A Writer's Workbook. It packs in forms, checklists, and exercises to help both screen and fiction writers develop personalities, teaching the basics of building multi-layered protagonists and showing the foundation keys to possible success. It's a 'must' for any public library lending collection strong in writer's guides, as well as for many a high school or college-level collection catering to student creative writers.

After many many pages the authors end up with:

a heroin who lacks self esteem but desires independence (and had Cinderella's childhood. ie A step mother (and two step sisters) who disliked and isolated her.
A hero who is the strong silent type hiding an abused childhood
and a villein who is a control freak on the surface and a drug addict underneath.

The entire first section seems to encourage the reader to create characters that can be judge by their apperence. This is followed up by a list of subject headings which are largely self explanatory. So much so that the page of text each is given seems redundant. In most cases the short summaries at the start of the section would have been sufficent.

More than half the time the Authors are hard pressed to come up with anything new for their sample characters, and simply repeat facts that had already been added under previous headings.

Add to this the workbook format which means that every other page is left blank and you have a phenomenal waste of paper on your hands. I'm not saying that filling in a character template is a bad way to start designing a character but the technique does not need to be explained at book length.