Writer's Guide to Character Traits

by Linda Edelstein and Linda N. Edelstein

Book Overview

From Sex to Schizophrenia: Everything You Need to Develop Your Characters 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582973903
• ISBN13: 9781582973906
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Resource!

This is an excellent reference book, especially for genre fiction writers whose characters often need to fit a "type." This book's incredibly clear lists and excellent organizational layout, help the writer to sketch out the history and details of their characters. (i.e. My villain's a violent control freak, what kind of a mother would he have? or My heroine's a quiet librarian type, what's she like in a relationship?)Since the book is formed primarily from lists, without much extensive text, it is even more helpful to a writer who doesn't want to impede the flow of working on character sketches (or whatever) by reading something extensive.This is a really nice resource.

I love lists that I can reference...

1) I love lists that I can reference when I need them and that is how this book is organized. It isn't meant to be read from front cover to back but for you to jump around and use the sections you need.2) I'm sure this book could be the size of six volumes but the areas the author chooses to focus on are well selected and very helpful3) I'm finding that to keep some of my character true I can reference different aspects that make up a person and cut & past them into something that makes sense, people can relate to and has some consistency.4) Better understanding what drives an Obsessive personality or an Adventurer is opening up more plot options during my brainstorming session. This is a nice "research" book on people and what makes us tick.

A Truly Unique and Valuable Resource For the Novice Writer

This is a wonderful tool for beginning writers who are struggling with their characters. The character profiles in this book are like the skeletons of people; they are stock, but they provide a foundation for adding the unique personal idiosyncrasies or personality quirks that the writer fleshes them out with to create one-of-a-kind characters. I also found this book a handy tool in trying to understand the behaviour of people in real life that I have come in contact with.

The Writer's Guide to Character Traits

THIS BOOK IS GREAT! I'm a new writer and it gave me tons of information, quickly and simply. I've also enjoyed using it as a quick reference guide for different personalities among people I know as well as potiential characters. I highly reccomend it, for writers and those looking for some psychology written with the novice in mind.