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Writer's Guide to Character Traits Paperback – August 9, 2006
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What makes a person commit a white-collar crime? Who is a likely candidate to join a cult? Why do children have imaginary friends? How does birth order affect whether or not a person gets married? When does mind over matter become a crippling problem?
Writer's Guide to Character Traits, 2nd edition answers all of these questions and many others. With more than 400 easy-to-reference lists of traits blended from a variety of behaviors and influences, you'll gain the knowledge you need to create distinctive characters whose personalities correspond to their thoughts and actions - no matter how normal or psychotic they might be. In this updated and expanded edition, you'll also find:
• Comprehensive instruction on how to use this book
• New statistical information to help you create true-to-life characters
• Corresponding exercises that show you how to put the material to work in your stories
• A quick-reference index to make cross-referencing a snap
• Idea sparkers to get your thoughts out of your head and onto the page
Plus, you'll learn about common - and not so common - psychological, physical, and relationship disorders; delve into the minds of criminals; find out what it takes to be a professional athlete, scientist, and truck driver; discover what life is like for a gang member, suicidal teen, and alcoholic; and more.
In Writer's Guide to Character Traits, 2nd edition, note psychologist and author Dr. Linda Edelstein takes you beyond generic personality types and into the depths of the human psyche where you're sure to find the resources you need to make your characters stand out from the crowd.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWriter's Digest Books
- Publication dateAugust 9, 2006
- Dimensions6 x 0.92 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101582973903
- ISBN-13978-1582973906
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Product details
- Publisher : Writer's Digest Books; Second edition (August 9, 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1582973903
- ISBN-13 : 978-1582973906
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.92 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #554,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #711 in Authorship Reference
- #1,263 in Writing Skill Reference (Books)
- #2,372 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)
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The book does make a point. Take for example (this one I found in the first chapter) a mother who recently lost her son to an accident. While one mother may return to work and seem otherwise normal, another mother may break down completely and finds it interfering with her job and yet another mother may be upset, but she might try to talk it through with her friends and family but at work her grief may not interfere as greatly as the previous one. Yet they all share on thing: grief over the loss of a child.
Its the same with this book: not everyone will have all the traits listed, and not everyone will experience the traits to the same degrees (think of a sliding scale from 1-10 for example). The author specifically states that while this book gives us information she has personally seen, experiences or researched from reputable sources (and generally agreed upon in the field of psychology) this book is not meant to tell us how to write our characters or tell us who they are. This is mearly a handy reference guide, or a crash course of Psych 101, if you will.
In order for characters in movies and books to seem real is that they need to have a basis in reality; they need to seem real and react in a matter that also feels real. Even police units sometimes utilize a criminal psychologist to help catch "the bad guy". The expert psychologist is trained to help the police get into the mind of the criminal, what his habits and fears might be, the type of person his is - detailed information based on the criminals known "facts" or "elements".
This is why I love this book. While writers generally have a good sense of character, sometimes it helps to have a guide that helps one get into the mind of a certain type of person, relationship or criminal act. A writers job is still and has always been on the ability to create real characters a reader can related to. A character that is interesting, keeps us guessing and a person we want to know more about.
This book helps is a great starting point when creating a character. A writer will probably want to research more about a certain topic - for instance, if they have a certain mental or physical disease, additional research helps to paint the complete portrait of what life might be like for that person.
This book is extremely handy and really, really useful. Just remember, it does NOT create a character for you. It just tells you about what might motivate someone, or how people in general tend to react to certain events, be it aging, mental or physical trauma, love and relationships or whatever. FIVE stars. This deserves a place on my bookshelf for sure. Recommended for beginning writers, and those who need just a little push if you have a writer's block during the character creation process.
Now, you want to put a name on it and come up with the plausible cause/effect chain of events that got him there, right? And you think you can find the answer in a book, right?
If you've read Lajos Egri, you know it's not about the author/writer talking thru characters - it's about the characters taking for themselves. If you're not hearing voices in your ears and visualizing dialogue, sequencing, and scene imagery during character development, a book won't help write the novel, screenplay, or stageplay.
Interview your character - when he's drunk, and then again when he's sober. Put him in a corner and make him tell you why he pulls the stunts he does, demand the truth - accurate truth. Go hot and cold - good cop, bad cop... you want to see him in every light and dark place he will live in your story.
Once you have it all in the character profile, then go to the book to see if you missed anything; if necessary, interview him again. Psychology is but one component available to view the human condition - and it is most certainly not the last word.
Sometimes, you can get more psychology from reading one chapter of Kurt Vonnegut, than any ten reference books.
You might find The Mask of Sanity an interesting read (see Wiki)... there's a PDF out on WWW, somewhere.
I sent Writer's Guide back and ordered: Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process - by Nancy McWilliams.
Amazon was great thru the return process - went down like a three foot putt. Thx Amazon.
It is very well written and contains quite a significant amount of information, facts, suggestions, etc. It explains human behaviors and types in an easy-to-read format and organized according to specific points. After I have a general idea of a character in mind, I pull out this book and start skimming the table of contents to see what I want to add to them.
It has become quite an invaluable tool, I would definitely recommend it.
The very first chapter makes clear that NO CHARACTER SHOULD POSSESS EVERY TRAIT LISTED. The author insists on mixing and matching to create a new person.
It's one thing to say "I have a character whose Dad died when he was 5."
But it's another when you have a reference guide that tells you how children tend to deal with death depending on their age. For instance, if it weren't for the book I might think a 3 year old and a 6 year old would act similarly to death.
This is a resource, not a list of characters. At the most, the author looks at some archetypes, and unless you think JUNG was stereotyping as well, you aren't on solid ground.
The information in this book is comprehensive but cursory, and it wouldn't take very much work on a writer's part to find the exact same information by doing a few google searches, or checking out a more thorough book at their library drawn from the psychology section.
Here's the bottom line: if you use the information presented to create your entire character, you will not sell a single book. you will have a book littered with stereotypes, some of which will be dead wrong. I've already returned the book, and the two examples that caught my eye (examples of incorrect information) have escaped me.
Writers are supposed to be keen observers of the human condition. If you're not, why are you writing? Plots don't make stories, characters make stories, and the more complex and unpredictable the character, the more realistic your fiction will be.
If you're determined to buy this book, do so knowing that this is only a springboard. You'll have to do more work.
Excellent Reference manual for writers of all levels.











