Books by Writers, for Writers: Writer’s Digests Books Creating Characters
Creating Characters: The Complete Guide to Populating Your Fiction, From the Editors of Writer’s Digest (Cinncinati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 2014) $13.29 ISBN: 978-1599638768, 352 pp.
Creating Characters from the Editors of Writer’s Digest concerns itself, first and foremost, with passing knowledge to the younger generation of aspiring writers. It is a collection of essays written by award-winning authors from varying disciplines who are all passionate about the art of their skill. These authors range from James Scott Bell, a bestselling author of four Writer’s Digest Books, to the well-known science fiction author of Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card; the articles range from 1988 to 2013. Creating Characters is a valuable field guide to making impactful and memorable characters within any form of fiction writing, and it focuses almost entirely on creating a diverse cast with imperfections, realism, and empathy. In each chapter are examples of excellent character writing across various genres and media forms, anywhere from classic literature to modern-day cinema. These examples are informative and thought-provoking, and they serve as insights for complex and gripping characters who are still admired today, such as Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise. As it comes from a wide array of informative sources, the text draws on the idea of imperfect realism and characters who will inspire empathy within readers' minds based on relatability, likability, and textual prevalence.
The intended audience is anyone interested in writing fiction, from experienced writers who want to brush up on character-building to newer writers trying to break into the field. The book attempts to push the boundaries of character writing, which often produces poorly motivated villains and stereotypical heroes who fall into the genre of mediocrity. Thirty-five chapters are divided into nine parts: Getting Started, Point of View, Dialogue, Protagonists, Antagonists, Supporting Characters, Conflict, Motivations and Relationships, and Characters Arcs. These parts, along with their coinciding chapters, serve as the basic structure for how to create meaningful characters from scratch, starting from the very beginning, moving into character perspective and the impacts of the storyline, and then following through with more intense character development, such as relationships and the inevitable character arc. This simple and mindful process helps ease readers into writing characters step by step, which is particularly useful for newer writers trying to learn where to begin. Point of View, Conflict, and Characters Arcs are specific parts in which the overarching themes of the fiction novel are addressed as a way to help bolster character development throughout the story: “The first third of your narrative is all about establishing the nuts and bolts of characters and their basic conflicts and plot problems, and setting in motion all the seeds for conflict and challenges to comes… the reader is meeting your character just as if they were new guests over for dinner. Their words, actions, and reactions… will all serve as introductions” (211).
The overall tone of the articles is casual yet informative. It doesn’t flair up any language to seem more academic at the risk of losing the comprehension of non-academic writers. Instead, all of the information is provided steadily, and the more complicated analysis of the characters toward the end is thoughtfully delivered with the idea that newer writers are reading for the first time and attempting to understand. Such simplicity of complexity is found throughout the book, but especially in Chapter 20, “Sympathy for the Devi,l” in which the author, Jessica Morrell, explains, “When you sleep with someone, you know what he or she is like the first thing in the morning… now, start asking yourself how you can bring this level of knowledge into your story and characters… the point is to imagine your character with the same depth that you can imagine your husband, wife, roommate… in a variety of situations” (176). All 352 pages felt easy to read, and the book was an engaging and often humorous page-turner. The various perspectives on the art of writing served as a library of knowledge, as each editor had something new and incredibly engaging to learn.
However, the information can often seem overwhelming or contradictory with so many voices throughout the text. Though the chapters flow together between writers reasonably well, there is something quite jarring about reading Orson Scott Card’s large blocks of older and more prestigious instruction, initially written in 1988, and then immediately switching over to a more recent perspective of character written by Chuck Wendig in 2013, which uses modern examples and hints of casual profanity. Though the perspectives offered a glimpse into the author’s setbacks in writing characters, it often felt like too many cooks were in the kitchen and some opinions stepped over each other. Some focused heavily on character motivation, while others stated that the plot should be the main thing that drives a character forward through reaction. With 20+ editors engaging in the same topic, there are bound to be mishaps in exchanging information and differing opinions.
Creating Characters is a step-by-step guideline for the academic processes involved in writing characters. The text concerns itself with all functions of meaning and aspects of a book that define the impact of a character. Anything from point of view to conflict and meaningful plot construction will impact the audience's perception of a character, and Creating Characters stresses the importance of having a well-rounded story to complete the arc of an equally well-rounded character. It is a perfect book for first-year writing courses in college to teach newer, less experienced writers the art of creating characters.
