Creating characters : how to build story people

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Year: 1991,2008
• Leaves: 195
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

A jargon-free manual on the basics of developing interesting fictional characters

Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In Creating Characters, Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along.

“The core of character,” he says in chapter 1, “lies in each individual story person’s ability to care about something; to feel implicitly or explicitly, that something is important.” Building on that foundation—the capacity to care—Swain takes the would-be writer step-by-step through the fundamentals of finding and developing “characters who turn you on.” This basic but thought-provoking how-to is a valuable tool for both the novice and the seasoned writer.

✦ Table of Contents

Content: The core of character --
Searching out your characters --
Labels, labels --
Fleshing out --
The world within 1 --
The world within 2 --
The breath of life --
Bent twigs --
Wild cards --
The role of roles --
The light touch --
The right words --
The things they say --
Variations on a theme --
The character out of time --
The dynamics of disbelief --
The search for zest.

✦ Subjects

Fiction -- Technique. Characters and characteristics. LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Composition & Creative Writing. LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Rhetoric. REFERENCE -- Writing Skills