Creating Characters: A Writer's Reference to the Personality Traits That Bring Fictional People to Life

by Howard Lauther

Book Overview

A frequent problem area for fiction writers is characterization. If writers jump headlong into a story with only a fuzzy notion about the people who are in it, the result is a collection of characters... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786405694
• ISBN13: 9780786405695
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great Reference Tool on Character Traits / Inner Drive!

This book will Not teach you how to create a character, but it will give you the tools of giving you, the creator/writer, the awareness of all your options in terms of traits, likes/dislikes, personalities, fears and the such, along with questions, so that you can delve into the inner creation of your character's psyche. I don't think I would recommend this book to a beginner as it might overwhelm some, and perhaps at that stage, a beginner may not see the value of this book's content. But as you read up more about the importance of how a person's inner character drives their external behavior, then you will value this book as an excellent starting point in making your character more 3 dimensional. I bought my book used, so you may want to wait until the price goes down or you can find a used copy that's cheaper.

A must-have for all fiction story writers

Well-organized, examines many angles of a character. This book will help you dig into your characters to make them stand out, to make them more interesting and believeable. This book is more useful to a story writer than many story writing books. What's more important, the character, or the story?

Creating The Perfect Character Portrait

OK so there is no such thing as perfection. However, this book is pretty darn close.Warning though. It does read like a college text book. But if you can get pass that. It will be a great tool for you to use.I've been having a hard time writing that novel. Like many I've had it in my head for year and have been revising it since forever. This is a very well researched and groomed book. It makes you really think about your characters. Just not about how you see them, but also your readers, and eve the characters in the book.I've never read a character trait book that is so wonderful. I have only gone through the first fourty something pages. However, it's all ready been helping me out a great deal.

A must-have for all screen and story writers.

Well-organized, examines many angles of a character. This book will help you dig into your characters to make them stand out, to make them more interesting and believeable. This book is more useful to a story writer than many story writing books. What's more important, the character, or the story?

A Wonderful Writing Tool

I discovered this book at my local library and quickly determined it to be a tool best owned, not borrrowed. It is a reference that I will access repeatedly while I interview future protagonists or minor characters for my stories and learn how each character will perceive the other, or what psychological effects they will have on each other. Author Howard Lauther takes a savvy inventory of character traits as if they were stocks in a cook's pantry. He tells us about closely related traits and suggests possible mental or physical actions which might accompany those traits we choose for our character. Lauder does not supply character recipes. He merely tells us what to expect readers or other characters within the story to perceive. For example, if we join traits akin to salt and baking soda we can expect our character to expand or rise. Each chapter title is a question about the character being created. An introductory summary expands or explains the question before an array of possible ingredients is set forth for our consideration. Lauder wants to know what our character's internal and external traits are, what he/she wants, needs, dislikes, believes, and fears (to cite a few of the questions). He asks about background, strengths, weaknesses, adversaries, and habits. And for each question there are numberous possibilities shown in a well organized, easy to access format. This is a marvelous reference tool that I will treasure for years to come.