Customer Reviews

Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, this book is very readable. I have now read two books by Orson Scott Card, both non-fiction, and they were both very enjoyable. Which is a good thing - who wants to take advice on writing when their writing is horribly boring?

More importantly, this is perhaps the only book you'll ever need on writing characters. Not only does it talk about characters, but it talks about your story too.. For instance, how much characterisation is needed within your story may depend on the type of story you are writing.

I was also pleased to note that from his chapter on creating humorous characters - The Comic Character, Controlled Disbelief - I was already doing the right thing. What a relief!

Another part of this book I really enjoyed were the two chapters How To Raise the Emotional Stakes, and What Should We Feel About the Characters?

Very enjoyable!

Orson Scott Card, a well-known, successful sci-fi writer, master of the craft of characterization, gives us with this book one of the few writing-reference volumes that flawlessly delivers everything it promises and more. Whether you want to write fiction of any genre, or scripts and plays, and whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, this book has tons of essential, useful and solid information to offer.
Written in a clear, engaging style and organized in a user-friendly format this thoroughly informative volume is divided into three parts (Inventing Characters, Constructing Characters and Performing Characters) that cover everything you need to know to breathe life and believability into your characters and mold them to accurately fit your story, including among others:
*The factors that make a good character
*How to come up with ideas for your characters
*How different types of stories relate to the characters
*How to give emotion to the characters
*The different types of characters
*Transformations in the lives of characters
*The pros and cons of each point-of-view
The author's suggested exercises reinforced by the excellent examples that illustrate his exposition are helpful additions that allow the reader to immediately apply the lessons learned. Humorous anecdotes and important advice on general storytelling (sources for ideas, plot twists, story structure) are an added bonus.
With this book, you will not only learn how to create great, memorable characters, but you will also attain a greater appreciation of fiction, whether in book or film format, by gaining understanding of the processes required in all aspects of characterization.
With a great binding, sure to resist constant rereads and quick consultations, and a modest price this book is the best value on the market for the advice offered.
--Reviewed by M. E. Volmar

Really excellent book gave me three questions to answer, to avoid having the reader throw my book against the wall:
1. So what?
2. Oh yeah?
3. Huh?

Orson Scott Card takes a very personal, story-telling approach to instructing us in writing better characters. His anecdotes are humorous and get the point across.

I do wish he'd spent a bit more time discussing viewpoint and especially issues surrounding changing viewpoint, but what he does give us is some excellent advice. I highly recommend this book to anyone who writes fiction.

If you're interested in developing a character who's interesting, believable and belongs in your story, look no further. This book is a veritable gold mine of ideas, things to try out, pitfalls to avoid -- it is extraordinarily useful. I particularly liked the good and bad examples that are presented as story fragments throughout the text. There'll be a paragraph or two that isn't written badly, just not very well -- and then the author pulls it apart, explains what's wrong and shows how it could be improved. It's a humbling experience when you recognize your own writing style in the "mediocre" paragraph, but ultimately dazzling when you realize what you should have done instead!

The section on Character -- which is most of the book -- is excellent. Unfortunately, I actually bought the book for the section on Viewpoint, and frankly it's weak. Seems as if it was tacked on as an afterthought. It does cover the essential elements of first and third person, and the part on penetration (how deeply you're involved with your viewpoint character's mind) is worth reading, but I would have liked to read more on alternative viewpoints and especially on switching viewpoints.

Overall, the book didn't answer the questions I had on Viewpoints, and raised more than it did answer. But I'm happy to have it for the Character section.

[Added later] -- if it's viewpoint you're interested in, read Nancy Kress's "Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint".

Reading a work of fiction (and some works of non-fiction) is an experience that allows you to meet a host of new people. Each of the characters in the book that you are reading will illicit a response from you - do you love them or hate them? More importantly, do you care about them at all?

The mark of a poorly written character, as Card shows us, is not that the readers don't like him - it's that the reader doesn't care about them at all. If the reader doesn't care one way or the other what happens to the characters, what they do and who they deal with, then they don't care about your story. They will put it down and move on to read something else.

In "Characters and Viewpoint", Orson Scott Card shows us how to find the characters that we care about as writers, and then how to bring our excitement about them to the reader. Card tells it simply, because he knows - for a great example of characters that come alive and draw the reader into their lives, look no further than Card's own works of fiction.

Perhaps most pleasing about the book is the engaging, fun-to-read tone and style that Card brings to all of his written work. If you are a writer, this is a valuable, excellent book to read.

Danny Iny

Author of "Ordinary Miracles - Harness the power of writing and get your point across!" (ISBN 1-4116-7252-6)

I have been struggling to write fiction for some time now. I have read countless books on style, character, dialogue, grammar, and so forth. Then, I finally purchased Characters & Viewpoint. Wow, what a great book. I have learned so much from this book. Orson presents the material in a very intelligent manner. He has so many insights and yes, rules and directions. Well, at least guidelines and then he supports these guidelines with logical arguments. This has been the most insightful book that I have read on writing and I am very much looking forward to reading some of his other work. This book has made Orson a mentor to me and I am sure that a little bit of him will be in everything that I write.

I'll just be upfront: I love this book. It gave me just the kind of information I needed on making great characters and chosing the right viewpoint and penetration. As an added bonus it also gives you a few pointers on good storytelling. Basically, it's real theme is "how to thrill the reader". The book is filled with excellent examples as well, which really illustrates the point the author wants to make. I have made a dozen pages of notes...

The only minor nag is the continuous recycling of the character names Pete and Nora in all self-written examples! Eventhough the characters themselves fulfil different roles in each example, their names are always the same. Of course, it takes a great book to even notice this slight hiccup.

Card is a great writer, especially if you are a SF/F fan. But this book does a good job of staying with general writing, be it literary, fantastic, or even script writing. He illustrates his points well with his anecdotes.

I found the last couple chapters -- the viewpoint chapters -- to be invaluable. Pros and cons are given for first person, third person limited (both deep and light penetration), and third omniscient as well as introducing the third person cinematic narration. He presents a clear preference for third limited with varying levels of penetration while challenging authors to try the others and warning of the pitfalls they might encounter in doing so.

This book makes me want to attend any seminar or workshop that Card ever puts on. I am yet to discover any, but this book is better than any I have attended by anyone else. If you have trouble with characters, read this book. If you are good with characters, read it twice.

This is the second book I have read in the series and I was very impressed with it. I'm working my way through the series writing reviews of each. The thing I liked best about this book is that Card does not talk down to you. He is informative without being insulting. The book was also filled with allot of great info and direction, especially the section on viewpoint. He explains the common problems with first person writing and how its much harder than is generally thought. This was a big help for me and made me realize why I have been having so much trouble with first person views.

The majority of the book is on characters of course and there is no shortage of solid advice here either. He gives you a very simple and direct group of subjects that you can address to help make you're characters more life-like. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to any beginning writer. Just remember that when you read any instructional book on writing, it should always be taken with a grain of salt.

95% of the book is excellent, but several pages need correction.
Card's undeniable error is in his chapter on Third-Person Narration. He writes of various "penetration" levels of Limited Third-Person. It's complicated enough that he uses illustrations to make his point, but THE FIGURES DON'T MATCH HIS REFERENCE. For example, his text says, "Figure 4 shows deep penetration," when the title on figure 4 states it's illustrating light penetration. Things are also reversed with figure 3 and we can't know what he is talking about. Readers should skip this section or else be led astray.
When Card wrote the last six pages of the chapter on First-Person Narration, he must have been angry. The first six pages of this chapter provide helpful information on using first-person, but in the last six, he goes on an attack of anyone amateur enough to use it. If this book is meant for new writers, he offends them in these pages. Then in the next chapter, he says first-person is excellent for some situations. Those six pages are also contradictory with the rest of his book in other ways.
Other than this, I wish I could memorize the book.