10 Steps To Hero: How To Craft A Kickass Protagonist: Workbook

by Sacha Black

Sacha Black's book, 10 Steps To Hero - How To Craft A Kickass Protagonist, showed writers how to create their ultimate hero in an easy and humorous, step-by-step guide.

This workbook puts those lessons to use by building on each chapter in 10 Steps To Hero and guiding you through the development of your indisputable hero. It's time to cut through the charm, get to the core of your character, and supersize that hero.

Inside the workbook you'll find hundreds of thought-provoking questions, exercises, and creativity boosting prompts. This resource will help you to:

+ Develop a killer character arc
+ Weave your web of story connectivity seamlessly through your book
+ Design page turning tension and conflict
+ Build market knowledge to help you create a hero that sells

Craft your characters through easy-to-digest exercises that empower you to master your heroes.

Read the 10 Steps To Hero Workbook today and start creating kickass protagonists.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Crafts

142 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

If you'd like a FREE villains mini course to help you master superbad villains go here:

https://sachablack.co.uk/newsletter

Sacha Black is an author, rebel podcaster, and professional speaker.

She has five obsessions; words, expensive shoes, conspiracy theories, self-improvement, and breaking the rules.

Sacha writes books about people with magical powers and other books about the art of writing.

When she’s not writing, she can be found laughing inappropriately loud, sniffing musty old books, fangirling film and TV soundtracks, or thinking up new ways to break the rules.

She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.

Reviews

[Tim Seabrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for bringing your heros to the fore especially after they had been bashed down by 13 Steps to Evil.

The book provides great insight into how to make your heros shines by opening up their faults and making them as human as possible. Each step guides you in crafting your character with examples from film and other books allowing you to make your hero more dedicated to defeating the villain than primping himself.

After all, you want your protagonist to win, naturally! And with the aid of this book, you'll be able to craft him into a character that your readers will be able to relate to and identify with.

It's time to make the hero equal to the challenge of the villain!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writers looking for a solid recipe on character creation should pay attention: 10 Steps to Hero serves up a plateful of epiphanies on how to turn your lead into a psychological tuning fork for the human condition, capturing the hearts and minds of readers. This book, and the powerful idea of the web of connectivity, will make you a stronger storyteller. Be prepared for salty language...and cramping fingers as you make notes!

[Lee Hopkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saving me several novels of trial and error

I’ve just finished writing my first novel and am outlining my second. This book and companion workbook have saved me writing several dull novels while I learn the ropes. Sacha is a godsend and I've just bought her villains book and workbook as a result of this excellent book. Love her sense of humour (Australians have the same sense of humour) and the book is peppered with examples that make her point. I'm excited.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me with writing my own. I was stuck, I didn’t know what to do about my protagonist, why she felt so bland when she should be a hero.

I was afraid the book would be a quick checklist to create a comicbook hero, but nothing could be further from the truth.

If you want to create a 3D likeable character that advances your plot this is the book for you.

[Vendela · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started revising Visions of Ravens I came to a point where I really didn’t like my main character. She felt a bit like a whiny bitch. I did get past that. I think I salvaged it (please, beta readers, tell me if I didn’t) and now I’m on good terms with her. When I first started receiving feedback from my critique partners, even before the revision stage, a lot of them asked me what my main character’s want was. And while I thought I new this, I clearly hadn’t really understood her on a deeper level.

When I started plotting for Project Codex I wanted to nail my main character from the beginning since I want my characters to drive the plot, not the other way round. Having read part of The Anatomy of Prose: 12 Steps to Sensational Sentences by Sacha Black and liking her clear cut advice I decided to get hold of her book 10 Steps to Hero: How to Craft Kickass Protagonists to help me along this protagonist hunting journey.

And I loved it. Black has a very distinctive voice when she writes non-fiction. If you don’t like swearing and blunt language, then this is not for you. I personally don’t mind it, I think it gives the book a bit of character (pun not intended) compared to some of the very dry books out there on the craft of writing.

Her chapters are clearly laid out and easy to follow. Chapters are written in bite size chunks and divided into subtitles which are easy and satisfying to absorb. I will say some subtitles are called things like Pinch of salt, a sprinkle of pepper and leave to boil which doesn’t say a lot about that section’s content. I struggle with this a little bit, simply because, although catchy, it makes it a little hard when I look through my notes, because that subtitle doesn’t tell me of what notes follow it. But I can overlook that.

Speaking about notes. I took a f**k ton of them. I highlighted close to everything, because I just felt like, even if the information wasn’t new to me, it was phrased in a way that gave me ideas or made me have light bulb moments.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a beginners book on craft, but it’s not an advanced one either. Most of the stuff I knew, or had been told at some point. However, something about how it was laid out and Blacks’s voice and her constant reminder to link back to the theme (the THEME, guys) made me understand this whole character creation business.

This book has been immensely helpful to me. I took so many notes that I will go through and address when I make characters in the future. In hindsight, I probably should have gotten the workbook, but I have enough to play with at the moment. I even used this book to craft four of my side characters and my cast feels so much stronger than my list of characters did for Visions of Ravens when I started writing its first draft.

I was so gripped by how well everything was laid out and how much I took away from such a short book, that I bought Black’s 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains and 8 Steps to Side Characters: How to Craft Supporting Roles with Intention, Purpose and Power. I haven’t gotten to them yet, but I’m sure they’ll be super useful once I do, and I’ll definitely review them once I’ve read them.

I also highly recommend Black’s podcast The Rebel Author Podcast that always features amazing guests and that always leaves me motivated and excited to keep writing!

[Ritu Bhathal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really not one for reading texts for how to improve your writing.

It’s not that I don’t think I need them, but I often feel that if someone is telling me how to write, then what I churn out is not really my voice, but that of another…

Having said that, I have read a few recently, by trusted authors, some who I feel I know, some whose name I have grown up with… Stephen King, Karen McQuestion, Bryan Cohen, Nicola Morgan, Sacha Black…

And they haven’t been telling me what to write, rather how to go about the process, sometimes how they started off, in order to reach the heights they have climbed.

Sacha Black is definitely one of those authors.
Hers was actually the first ever writing craft book I read actually.

When she released her guide to creating villains, I had to get it. Partly because I had been with her step by step, via the blog, as she wrote it, and partly because she always sounds like she knows what she’s talking about!

And I wasn’t disappointed!

So…

Did it help me?

I gotta say YES!

For the first time, since reading these kinds of books, I was inspired to get a pen and paper, any paper, and jot down ideas to hopefully improve my characters, and their reasoning behind doing some of the things they do in my own book!

I’m weaving my own web of connectivity, creating character arcs, looking through my hero lens… (you’ll need to read it to get what all those are!) And all with the help of this rather cool guide that is rather funny too. Sacha is like me, she tends to create her own words, to describe things. She’s not afraid to say it like it is either.

And would I recommend it to other aspiring writers?

Absolutely!!!

[Kristin Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacha Black has written a writing craft book that covers every aspect of writing a hero or heroic protagonist. And I do mean every aspect. This includes such thought provoking exercises as: Connecting your hero’s traits with your story’s theme, the psychology of imperfection, and how creating a character that lies to themselves can be an opportunity for that character to confront the truth about themselves.

As a writer, what I found most useful was a unique writing theory described perfectly as the Web of Connectivity, based on the intricate patterns of the spider web. I used this while editing my latest draft and found that the method highlighted problem points that I knew were there, but couldn’t quite put my finger on.

What’s important to note is that Sacha Black is making suggestions here, and sharing valuable tips and know-how. She is not prescribing absolutes. And that, along with her cheeky humor, make her a refreshing and vital addition to the vast field of writing craft books.

Note: I find that this book was most helpful when I paired it with its companion workbook. It saved me a lot of ink and paper and time!

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Though there is a lot of redundant information in here that Black wrote about in her "Villain" book, there was still a hefty amount of new material to keep me reading. In particular, the web of connectivity, archetype, and conflict chapters were useful and offered great tidbits for crafting characters. I probably would've liked the character arc chapter more though I believe the "Save the Cat" novel by Jessica Brody explores the subject more thoroughly and effectively. Again, even though it's a bit repetitious with its material, I think this is a good companion to Black's "Villain" book.

Also, though I stated it when I read her first book as well, I'm still not a big fan of Black's voice. Her humor is over-the-top and overdone, to the point of being grating. It can be fine in moderation, but in every other paragraph, it's a LOT. This book also would've benefited from some more editing.

[Mylee J. Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 10 Steps To Evil by Sacha Black, the creation and crafting of heroes is explored by the author. Writers are taught how to make authentic, realistic heroes alongside their motives, their goals, and their personality. Devices are shared to explore characterization, as well as character relationships.

I went into this writing craft book SUPER excited to see what Black could tell me about writing heroes. And while the content of the book was excellent (thus the four-star rating), I did find it a little bit disappointing that ninety percent of the book focused on information already shared in her first writing craft novel, 13 Steps To Villain (thus the four-star rating). In the end, it felt like I could read just on or the other of the two books and still get the same information. I hope that this series improves, as I really do love Black's descriptions and tips, but this does make me wary of reading the other books I've bought by her.

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the book about side characters I wanted to read the other books by this author as well and eventually got around to reading this one. I really liked 10 Steps of Hero, although because I already read the side characters book I felt there were a few passages that overlapped. This makes sense, but I did feel that the side character book felt more fresh due to that as it was the first book by this author I read. I assume the same will happen with the villain book once I get around to reading it. The good part about this is, that no matter which book you read they work great as standalone as each concept that's relevant gets explained. I thought there were some great tips and ideas on how to craft your hero and that it can easily be adapted to most book genres, even though some tips seem more fitting for some specific genres.

[Bre Krahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 Steps to Hero definitely created a sense of “urgency” in me. It re-sparked my need, my want to write. The book filled my head with new ideas and ways to escape previous plot holes and malfunctions in my own work; however, it did leave me wanting more. While the advice was sound and lighted a fire under my ass, some of it was generic (which is to be expected in any advice book) but also there were passages and examples that I am almost 100% positive were used near word for word in this book and the authors Anatomy of Prose (in particular a story about a macaron shop in Paris stands out), which is really way I dropped my rating to 4 stars. I still really admire Black’s series of writing craft, because it’s honest, thoughtful, and doesn’t beat you down by telling you you’re wrong and your writing sucks if you don’t do it “my way” like many other craft books (and let’s be honest MANY authortubers). I’m excited to start her flagship writing craft book soon - you know the one about villians (insert devilish smirk here)!

[Lucy Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came to me at the right time. A few weeks ago I was stuck on my draft novel. There was something wrong with my main character, she felt flat and a little dull. So I avoided my draft like the plague. Then I read this book wow - after a few chapters I was racing back to my laptop to start writing again. Before long I had transformed my draft novel with the help from this book. I am so glad I bought it and I also got it in hardcopy so I am already filling it with post it notes. Going to carry it around with me. Read this book - it’s like the Gok Wan equivalent for character transformations!

[Susan Gerberding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful!

This is a very helpful guide to creating a hero that will be effective, memorable, and relatable. I really enjoyed how creative she was in using well-known books and pulling examples from them. I also feel like I have a better understanding of how to make the book work as a whole, with the hero at the steering wheel. It’s also a fun read, which can’t hurt!

[Sarah Lapalme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Sacha Black’s writing style in this book! It’s so easy to read and I love her sense of humor and the way she explains how to write kickass protagonists. I’m excited to apply what I read to my main characters. I’m also looking forward to reading her other books.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

AS always I enjoyed Sacha Black's work. Though this volume was short and simple. Sometimes that is best. She has laid out a simple but intricate path to creating strong protagonist heroes. SHe is always funny, thoughtful, and one of my favorite authors on writing.

[Servel Nixa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful!

I'm very happy I reached for this book. I've always thought"let's write a book" but I was always stuck in 1\3 of the story,and now I know why!

[Zachariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need a cast for how badly these protagonists have kicked my ass.

[Shelley Chamberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for writers to help better develop characters.

[Willow (Taylor's version) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most aspiring writers would be better off reading the many advice books sourced throughout '10 Steps to Hero' instead of reading this specific book.

[Aime Sund · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 Steps To Hero: How To Craft A Kickass Protagonist has been extremely helpful in developing my characters. The exercises in the workbook are fun, yet challenging to complete, and I find that after finishing one I have a better idea about some aspect of my character. I have even applied them to characters other than my hero with equal success.

I enjoy the casual style and voice of the author Sacha Black, her humor and occasional "bad words" lend levity to a subject like writing craft. The successive steps build upon one another to help the writer construct a character worthy of caring about; one whose story is compelling to read.

When used in conjunction with its evil twin book, 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains, 10 Steps to Hero provides a solid framework to build characters from and shape stories around. New ways of looking at the craft of character arcs, motivations, and emotions are always welcome. If you enjoy colorful humor while you create, give this series a go. You won't be disappointed!

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread - 11/2024

I decided to reread the book because I felt as though I was struggling with the protagonist in my own work. While I did enjoy the book overall, I found that I wasn't getting more information out of it. Most of it mirrored just a superhero, which is great, but I found it harder this time to see the helpfulness of my own story personally. I do recommend it for people who are struggling and want to have a better understanding of heroes.

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Actual rating is listed.

I enjoyed this book. Not nearly as much as The Anatomy of Prose but a fair amount. It was one of those books though that wasn't as useful as I hoped.

There were lots of good points throughout the book and helpful tips and tricks but I found myself getting a bit bored after about page 100. It was mostly because I felt that some of the information was for those who had never written a hero, watched any type of show or movies with analysis or studied anything about heroes and needed a bit of a hand hold. Overall again not a bad book. Just not my favorite from Sacha Black.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This workbook is a perfect compliment! It makes you really get into your characters and connect them to your theme. I’m sure I’ll use it over and over through time. I loved this.

[Sarah Lapalme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as great as the 10 Steps to Hero book. The prompts really made me analyze my story's hero.