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The "Writer's Digest" Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters (Paperback)

by Marc McCutcheon (Author) "Most writing how-to books give the opinions of only one writer ..." (more)

3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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This item: The "Writer's Digest" Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
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The Writer's Guide to Character Traits by Linda Edelstein
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Dynamic Characters: How to Create Personalities That Keep Readers Captivated by Nancy Kress
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Product details

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; New edition edition (1 Mar 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1582970270
ISBN-13: 978-1582970271
Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 14.7 x 2.5 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 630,362 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Using this reference, readers can create characters who think, hope, love, cry, cause or feel pain, save the day - and seize readers by emotion. Mark McCutcheon eases the process of building convincing characters for stories and novels. He starts by conducting an inspiring and informative roundtable where six novelists reveal their approaches to characterization. Next, he provides a character questionnaire more detailed than the nosiest survey. Readers will fill it out and they'll know fictional people as though they'd grown up with them. Finally, there is a thesaurus of human characteristics - physical and psychological. Fit them together artfully and characters will climb right off the page.

From the Publisher

This book helps writers create unforgettable characters.
Professional tips and a huge thesaurus of human traits helps writers create unforgettable characters. Six novelists reveal their approaches to characterization and a fill-in-the-blanks questionnaire probes characters' backgrounds, beliefs and desires. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Most writing how-to books give the opinions of only one writer. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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	70% buy the item featured on this page: The "Writer's Digest" Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters 3.4 out of 5 stars (7) �12.99
	14% buy The Writer's Guide to Character Traits 3.1 out of 5 stars (7) �8.08
	12% buy Dynamic Characters: How to Create Personalities That Keep Readers Captivated 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) �7.60
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Buy a thesaurus, 23 Sep 2002

By	"thomasvye" - See all my reviews

I was really disappointed by this book. It's largely just a collection of word/phrase lists describing facial features, vocal quirks, clothing types, etc. If I wanted this, I would have bought a thesaurus. Don't bother.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worse than useless, 17 Sep 2006

By	K. C. Ash (Warwickshire, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The main problem with this book is not that it's a waste of your money or doesn't help in character creation, but that much of what little real information it gives is plain wrong. For example, the section describing how to write in regional/foreign accents is laughable, many of the translated phrases are wrong, and any decent fiction writing aid will tell you exactly the opposite: not to try and spell the sound of a dialect as it's distracting and simply old fashioned. There are many utterly useless lists clearly added to pad out the pages - why exactly would any English novelist need seven pages of Russian vocabulary? 25 pages of lists of names: why? Especially when names such as Charlene, Carly, Carol (with no final e!) are claimed to be French, and so it goes on, clich�-ridden junk. Tellingly the only redeeming pages are where the author quotes other fiction writers, although these all repeat each other (of course, what they're saying is obvious), and you'd get far more depth and clearer explanations from other books on the subject. Avoid this, or you'll feel as had as I did.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Padded and disappointing, 21 Feb 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: "Writer's Digest" Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters (Hardcover)

Supposedly a "thesaurus" for character development, McCutcheon's book seems like a sure-fire guide to creating cliched, stock characters. Chapters cover topics like personality traits, facial expressions, and dress, but they are simply lists of words anyone could extract from a conventional thesaurus or dictionary. Worse, his phrases are stale and hackneyed. For example, under "Personality/Identity (Happy/Jovial)", he lists chestnuts like "face aglow with good cheer" and "eyes are like mirthful crescents." Since most pages are simply lists of words, averaging about 30 words per page, there is a LOT of white space. Most disturbing to me was his listing of "Dialects and Foreign Speech." According to him a Southerner would sit in a "cheer" and "drank" some "Co-Cola" or a "bare." Or a Cockney would say, "Bloody well roit, mite." If you were an ethnologist you might transcribe speech in this manner, but this dialect style has been passe in fiction for 50 years. Overall, I found the book to be of little value and a disappointment compared with some of Mr. McCutcheon's others books.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A great help to writers!
I have read this book and it has helped me bring 1D characters to 3D characters easy! Being as young as I am most books like this are hard to understand and when I am through... Read more

Published on 22 Jul 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential tool for the novelist
Use this for every important character in your novel and you'll have living, breathing people on the page. The character questionnaire is worth the price of the book.

Published on 27 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars You need this book.
To any and all up and coming writers out there, you need this book. I got this book a few weeks ago and my characters have improved SO much. Read more

Published on 8 Mar 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars This book greatly increased the quality of my writings!
It used to be that I would sit down, and I would write a story. At the beginning of the story, the character would be a 30 year old female with brown hair, green eyes, and a... Read more

Published on 26 Oct 1998

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