Customer Reviews

Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up: A Thorough Primer for Writers of Fiction and Nonfiction

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Martha Engber's book is insightful and inspiring. Ms. Engber instructs with practical exercises and examples, as well as humor. She suggests creating a Think Log to jot down thoughts prompted by your character's development; what a fun way to emote about the daily challenges or triumphs when in the process of creating a character! There are many important lessons in this book. My favorite is how and why to introduce a character via his or her defining detail because "everyone has a reason for being who they are." Which reminds me why I write: to know myself.

The most intimidating (and essential) part of writing a story is making your characters, however minor, consistent and believable. Setting the groundwork for each character's role in a story is a daunting enough task to make even the most seasoned writer freeze up. Thankfully, Martha Engber has created an easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to painlessly develop characters. She gives organization strategies that help a writer to brainstorm, encouraging us to experiment in order to flesh out the people who will occupy our story. She offers up things like the "one-sentence test" along with other invaluable exercises, tools, and examples of how to create the best possible character for your particular story.

"Growing Great Characters From the Grown Up" is written as if by a close friend offering up some pointers. Its easy style and readability is a huge plus as one will be inclined to refer to it over and over again.

This is a great book for fiction writers. I received it as a gift and found it really useful. In so much fiction the characters ARE the story, and this book makes you write believable, motivated, gripping characters. I particularly liked Ms. Engber's use of uncommon examples to illustrate her points, like little Ralphie from Jean Shepherd's novel, A Christmas Story, the narrator Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird and King Kong. Also, the chapter on picking a name for your character was a standout. Who can forget character names like Huckleberry Finn and Ishmael?

Alas, I had already finished writing my novel when "Growing Great Characters from the Ground Up" was published. How much easier and fun my work would have been if I had had this resource to guide my efforts! Comparing the development of great characters to the planting of a successful garden, Martha Engber takes the writer through the entire creative process step-by-step. Using lots of exercises and examples, we learn how to germinate the seeds of our ideas, the best ways to cultivate and nourish the development of our characters, and, most importantly, how to prune away the excess in order to create human beings that are well-balanced, believable and entertaining.
Martha Engber's approach is that of a good neighbor with a prizewinning garden who wants to share her secrets for success. She gives practical advise, warns against potential dangers and pitfalls, offers encouraging pats on the back and enlivens her work with lighthearted stories and perfectly chosen examples from familiar literary works. She uses the gardening comparisons that form the basic metaphor for the book in such creative ways that I found myself looking forward to the next chapter to see what parallel she would come up with next. I was never disappointed. When I begin my next novel, "Growing Great Characters from the Ground Up" will definitely be sitting on my desk along with "Elements of Style" and my dictionary. If you can't tell yet, I really dig this book!

They're the animating force for any kind of story. This book is a practical guide for making characters more credible and interesting.

I've been reading it with my daughter, a budding author. The text is aimed at more advanced storytellers, but even my 9-year-old has found it to be very valuable. Does your story have a catalyst character, someone who can't help but to shake things up? It ought to. This book helped us discover a catalyst and help all of our characters cope with her.

Its a great resource for writers of all sorts.

Martha Engber advises the writer: Get to know your characters. How else can you write convincing dialog? How else can you make their responses fit situations in your story? Learn to make readers love or hate your characters. If you know your character, so will your reader, and he'll keep on reading. Martha shows you how.

A good story without good characters is an impossibility. Characters are the people that the audience relates to, that the audience connects with to get themselves involved in the story. "Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up: A Thorough Primer for Writers of Fiction and Nonfiction" is a guide for writers to develop these characters to be the best they can be, by evaluating the character piece by piece. To make them truly great, author and freelance writer says, a character needs to be consistent, believable, and admirable. "Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up: A Thorough Primer for Writers of Fiction and Nonfiction" is highly recommended for any aspiring writer to be and for community library writing/publishing shelves.

As a Canadian, any book I order from the United States is subject to high shipping costs and exchange rates. Consequently, when I finish the book, the number one question is always: am I satisfied?

I read Martha Engber's "Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up" in one day. By page 60, I had a pencil in my hand, a notebook on my lap, and knew without a doubt that I would come away a better writer for having read her book. Yes, I was satisfied! And I may never look at gardening the same way again.

Ms. Engber separates Growing Great Characters From the Ground up into three parts: Part One - The Groundwork, Part Two - The Right Seed, and Part Three - Growth, Cultivation, and Care. Part One has three chapters that explore what a character is, how to gather ideas, and how to narrow your selection. Part Two has two chapters that deal with planting the right seed and letting it sprout. Part Three has eight chapters that teach you freedom to grow, growing with your character, first impression, cultivating credibility, revealing your character, and lastly opening your character to critique. The book is complete with eleven exercises so that you, whatever your level, can capture the essence of what Ms Engbers teaches long before you begin the first draft of your fiction or non-fiction work.

Although she advocates completing her book before you ever write that first draft, do yourself a favour if you're a write-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-writer, don't pass this book up. No matter your experience, there is a lot to be learned by reading this book. And if you're an old-timer who needs some inspiration because you've been looking at a blank screen for too damn long, know this: Read Ms Engber's book, try a few exercises, if not all eleven, and when you're finished and have applied what you've learned, I promise "[your]readers will understand what makes your character unique."

Martha Engber's book, Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up is destined to become a must-have for any writer keen on improving his craft and writing great characters. I highly recommend it. Now I'm off to rename my character.

Character IS destiny! That mysterious internal mechanism which makes us saint or sinner is the essence of every story. Without a character thinking, planning, estimating and struggling towards her goal, there is no story. You are what you love, what you eat, what you see and what you choose. Red hair is not a coincidence.

Plot, schmot! Character rules and this book will focus your attention on it.

Delivers on the title's promise "a thorough primer" by providing tons of practical advice, memorable examples and images. Totally helpful and it's actually fun to read!