138 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great book in a must have series of books, March 30, 2007
This review is from: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints (Write Great Fiction) (Paperback)
I picked up what I thought would be a rehashing of old material covered in other books on the same subject, but The Great Fiction series of books continues to impress and surprise.
So many books on creating characters speak to their physical description, wants, motives and give the character a background. This book goes a step further and tells you how to do those things and hits the key point of showing emotion.
In addition, chapter Eight titled "Talking About Emotion -- Dialogue and Thoughts" was worth the price of the book alone.
Other great topics were "Showing Change in Your Characters" and "Frustration -- The Most Useful Emotion in Fiction."
Like the other books in the series, Appendix A recaps the author's critical points. Thus for the impatient reader, jump to this appendix and read what the book is about. For those of us who enjoy the journey of the reading the previous 200+ pages, the appendix is a nice summary.
Overall, this felt like the first book that brought all the concepts of characterization into one place and provided me with an easy to follow roadmap to creating, deepening and SHOWING my characters off in my story.
My recommended characterization plan:
1) Read this book as a guide on how to breath life into your characters and what you are trying to accomplish with your characters. (Characters are not there by accident!)
2) Pick up The Marshall Plan of Novel Writing by Evan Marshal or First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Weisner. Both of these books take many of the concepts listed in this book and put them into templates and forms you can fill out to plot your novel
3) Write. Write. Write.
Don't do what I did and spend the last ten years reading more on writing than actually writing. Get that first 1 million words written asap!!
While you are doing it, read this book, which has found a permanent place on my book shelf as a handy reference and reminder of what makes a successful cast of characters.
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61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely well delivered advice, May 28, 2005
This review is from: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints (Write Great Fiction) (Paperback)
As a beginning writer working on my first novel I'm constantly searching for "the book" on a particular facet of writing. As a general book for beginners, Gotham Writer's Workshop is great. However, this book takes its subject topics and provides insights that can be immediately applied to one's writing. Her chapters on point of view (POV) provide explanations that I have not found in other books. The chapters on character emotion are also very well written.
Buy this book, read it once through without doing the exercises. Then read it again, doing the exercises. You won't regret it.
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58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should become a standard text for writers, April 22, 2005
This review is from: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints (Write Great Fiction) (Paperback)
Nancy Kress has raised the bar on fiction instruction with this book. Each chapter is thoughtful and clear, with examples from recent works and loads of concrete advice for solving problems. Her sequence moves logically from characterization to depicting emotions, finishing with the most complete and intelligent discussion of viewpoint that I have found anywhere. She examines such difficult issues as when to use certain viewpoints and how to make them more effective. Her discussion of emotion shows how to make the characters deeper and richer while avoiding cliche and other pitfalls, all with good humor but demanding standards. This is among the best books on writing fiction that I've found anywhere. Writers and teachers of writing should all check it out.
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