2010: #54 – Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (Nancy Kress)

Book #54 was Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints by Nancy Kress. The back of the book reads:

How do you create a main character readers won’t forget? How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)? How do you plant essential information about a character’s past into a story?

Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by award-winning author Nancy Kress answers all of these questions and more! This accessible book is filled with interactive exercises and valuable advice that teaches you how to: Choose and execute the best point of view for your story, Create three-dimensional and believable characters, Develop your characters’ emotions, Create realistic love, fight, and death scenes, Use frustration to motivate your characters and drive your story. With dozens of excerpts from some of today’s most popular writers, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint provides you with the techniques you need to create characters and stories sure to linger in the hearts and minds of agents, editors, and readers long after they’ve finished your book.

This book was more textbook-like than most of the writing books I have, but I found it quite useful, even if it was slow reading (But not dry! The writing was entertaining.). The parts I found most useful were about using humor and emotion, and the differences between types of point of view. I often get confused between the various types of third person and omniscient, so it was nice to have it explained and see some examples.  There are also writing exercises at the end of each section.  I haven’t done any of them yet, but I like to know that they’re there in case I need some review in the future.

Page count: 231 | Word count: 78,853

2009: The Black Tower (Louis Bayard)
2008: Plum Lucky (Janet Evanovich)
2007: Grave Peril (Jim Butcher)
2006: Twelve Sharp (Janet Evanovich)
2005: Hot Six (Janet Evanovich)

Used in these Challenges: 2010 100+ Reading Challenge; Pages Read Challenge Season 2; TwentyTen Challenge;