Vivid and memorable characters aren't born: they have to be made.
This book is a set of literary tools to pry your character out of the place they live in your memory, your imagination, and your soul.
Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing, and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options-the choices you’ll make in creating fictional people so “real” that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families.
You’ll learn how to:
Draw characters from a variety of sources
Make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual “style”
Develop characters readers will love-or love to hate
Distinguish among major characters, minor characters, and walk-ons, and develop each appropriately
Choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling
Decide how deeply you should explore your characters’ thoughts, emotions, and attitudes