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Breathing Life Into Your Characters: How to Give Your Characters Emotional & Psychological Depth
Employing these methods, readers will begin to create more interesting, unique and realistic characters--story people that make their fiction more credible and interesting.
Hardcover, 242 pages
Published
October 21st 2003
by Writer's Digest Books
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As a fiction writer, I'm charged with creating characters that my audience will enjoy. Ballon's book takes writers thru the process of creating well-rounded characters using various psychological techniques. She describes lots of ways to make quirky, real characters by allowing yourself to examine them as they interact the real world. This books has lots of exercises and does get into how to make villians (shadow characters) as well. It was a good read and I'll be using many techniques in my own...more
Creating characters based on psychology sounds like an interesting premise, but Ballon's theory is that to truly connect with a character you must connect with your own emotions. Many of her exercises have the reader asking themselves how they feel and memories to arouse certain situations.
You're either going to buy the idea that to create fully fleshed characters you need to be one with your emotions or you're going to believe the whole concept to be hokey.
I kept a middle of the road approach,...more
You're either going to buy the idea that to create fully fleshed characters you need to be one with your emotions or you're going to believe the whole concept to be hokey.
I kept a middle of the road approach,...more
Rachel Ballon helps writers make their character more realistic. She emphasizes that our characters' emotional and psychological side comes from within the writer.
I liked this book because it helped me shed some of my writer's block. I was able to sit down and understand who my characters are. Just like reality, no one is perfect or completely evil- writers have to dig deeper! I was able to feel my characters' pain and joy. It is amazing to know that I've created someone with such great persona...more
I liked this book because it helped me shed some of my writer's block. I was able to sit down and understand who my characters are. Just like reality, no one is perfect or completely evil- writers have to dig deeper! I was able to feel my characters' pain and joy. It is amazing to know that I've created someone with such great persona...more
In this book, Ballon, a psychotherapist, stresses building characters from the inside out through the use of psychology, emotions, internal conflict and motivation, childhood experiences, family life, and personality disorders.
My experience in reading this book was very 50/50.
Some chapters I found immensely useful, in particular the chapter on creating villains, which I think is one of the hardest parts of being a writer. Ballon really writes in-depth on what makes a person a psychopath or a cr...more
My experience in reading this book was very 50/50.
Some chapters I found immensely useful, in particular the chapter on creating villains, which I think is one of the hardest parts of being a writer. Ballon really writes in-depth on what makes a person a psychopath or a cr...more
I took my time with this one and should probably go through it again. It reads like an overview on Psychology — call it Psych 101 — and less like a book on writing. That is precisely what I was looking for.
There are exercises throughout the book, none of which I followed. But they are there. Perhaps on a second pass.
What I really wanted from a book like this was the idea of melding dialogue with subtext, emotions and mannerisms, and ideas on the escalation of a psychological issue along with all...more
There are exercises throughout the book, none of which I followed. But they are there. Perhaps on a second pass.
What I really wanted from a book like this was the idea of melding dialogue with subtext, emotions and mannerisms, and ideas on the escalation of a psychological issue along with all...more
This book goes way beyond the normal character development strategies. The author is a psychotherapist who consults with authors. She has many valuable insights!
Ballon's book is almost more about psychology than writing, which was what I was looking for. The need to add detail to layer your fictional creations is driven home time and again...in fact, once or twice I thought I was rereading the same chapter. I don't know that this book is what every writer needs, but as long as what you're writing includes human characters, reading it can only be an asset.
Jan 24, 2010
Cynthia
is currently reading it
A friend just gave me a boatload of encouraging writing books. I could cry. Ask if you want to borrow any.
This is one of the two best books that I've read on character development for writers.
Great book to get into your character's head when writing.
Breathing Life into Your Characters has been a terrific help to me in improving my WIP (work in progress). The information was laid out clearly with great examples, and exercises followed every section so you could try out what you just learned. To the very end I was returning to my manuscript to use what I had learned. Without a doubt, my characters will be fuller, more real creations because of Ballon's book.
Not comprehensive but with some strong points, especially the sections on psychological and personality disorders.
May 10, 2013
Penny
marked it as me-want-now
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Robin Graves
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