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A review by allisonjpmiller
The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV by David Corbett
4.0
Incredibly helpful. The first two chapters had me worried that this was going to be more of an abstract treatise than a practical guide (Corbett's prose can sound a bit pretentious off the bat), but as I got further in I started scrutinizing my own characters so much that the margins were soon overflowing with hasty scribbles. I even filled up the four blank pages in the back of the book with walls of text – I just had to think things through with a pen. Certain sections made me panic a bit too much: I would think "Oh no! My story is missing this KEY ELEMENT" only to realize that yes, that element exists, I'd just forgotten about it – or failed to draw it out. But that's what made the book so invaluable: it really forced me to step back and assess things as objectively as possible (even though I know that's always an oxymoron when you're talking about your own work).
Since so much of the character building process comes from understanding how people tick, Corbett naturally delves into some more philosophical questions about human nature, and I found myself appreciating his point of view more often than not. I especially liked what he had to say about politics, religion, and the other hot-button issues that so commonly tangle people up, but are an inescapable part of who we are and why we behave the way we do. Judging the antagonists in your story prevents you from understanding them (as in life), and turns them into caricatures – you need to be willing to see the world through their eyes, as abhorrent as their actions or viewpoint might be to you. As Chesterton put it: "A good novel tells us the truth about people; a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."
Each chapter ends with a series of exercises, some of which were more helpful than others. But I definitely intend to return to a few of them once I'm in the revision stages of my own beastly manuscript (God help me).
Since so much of the character building process comes from understanding how people tick, Corbett naturally delves into some more philosophical questions about human nature, and I found myself appreciating his point of view more often than not. I especially liked what he had to say about politics, religion, and the other hot-button issues that so commonly tangle people up, but are an inescapable part of who we are and why we behave the way we do. Judging the antagonists in your story prevents you from understanding them (as in life), and turns them into caricatures – you need to be willing to see the world through their eyes, as abhorrent as their actions or viewpoint might be to you. As Chesterton put it: "A good novel tells us the truth about people; a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."
Each chapter ends with a series of exercises, some of which were more helpful than others. But I definitely intend to return to a few of them once I'm in the revision stages of my own beastly manuscript (God help me).