Characters & Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing)

A must read for any author of fiction. Regardless of your skill level, this book will improve your storytelling and characterizations.

I'd already heard much of the advice in this book, in part because Mary Robinette Kowal of the Writing Excuses podcast is a fan and refers to it often. It was still worth reading, as it takes the reader through a number of important considerations about characterisation and allied subjects: not only how to use the techniques, but when and why. I highlighted a great many useful and well-considered passages.Card's basic view of writing is that in telling stories, we are influencing people to expand their understanding of the human condition; that by presenting fictional characters we can help our readers understand them more than they have ever understood a real person, and to understand themselves. This involves making the reader care about, believe in, and comprehend the story that you're telling and the characters in it. In order to do this effectively, we need to understand the techniques of characterisation.Along the way, he considers the question of the epic hero versus the ordinary person; the comic character and the serious character; the hero and the villain; character change; voice; and viewpoint. Throughout, he explains the techniques in terms of the likely effect on the reader.The Kindle edition has been scanned from a print copy, but competently, and there are only a few small errors (such as a missing blank line after the sentence "This is what a line break looks like").All in all, worthy to stand alongside its series-mates Scene and Structure and Beginnings, Middles & Ends.

An easy-to-read book full of tips and examples. It explains how important it is to know your characters well as you write them, and what viewpoint options are used in popular fiction. The examples of those viewpoints and hints about how to master them are very helpful. Recommended for writers looking to learn new skills or to brush up on their existing ones.

I liked this book. The author goes into depth about characterization and viewpoints and gives lots of writing examples of different topics he's discussing, which made it a fun read also.

Books like this on writing by authors that are as well known and successful as Orson Scott Card are fairly rare. It's written by a prolific author who teaches instead of a teacher with a book or two published that no one has heard of before.Practically a textbook, this is not a memoir, it's not about life as a writer, and it's not even about how to get published.It is more than just developing characters, though. It's about developing a story about those characters. It's about how to tell that story about the characters you develop. There are some great methods in here of developing a story.Like any good book, you wish there was more when you finish. Ti's a decent sized book and there is no fluff. Card covers the subject very well but that does not mean that this book covers everything about writing. There is more to learn after this book.Lots of great advice. Lots of examples of both good and bad. I suspect those that would give this book a bad review only skimmed it and saw the bad examples. That's the only reason I can see that someone who is not already a successful author could give it a bad review.If you are not already a successful author, I think you would find something useful to learn in this book.

This book has been great fun to use. First I just like the way Orson Scott Card writes. He gives very good advice on where to come up with unique characters. This is part of the fun of fiction--we have the unique opportunity to fabricate an individual that is a mish-mash of our life experience, our imagination and other influences. Mr. Card teaches how to do this and yet still have someone believable that the reader wants to invest their time with on their journey. He also helps us to determine how well developed the character should be -- are they the crux of the story or just a walk-on that adds to the tension or inserts a bit of humor? How to use characters to raise the "emotional stakes"? Mr. Card has suggestions for this as well. Finally Mr. Card gives us some solid suggestions on which voice to use and why that will influence the quality of our story. I like this book, its positive, and writing still feels fun.

I have purchased 3 books dealing with similar topics. This is the first I was able to read all the way through. A testament to Mr. Cards prowess as a writer. The examples in the book are not disguised advertisements for the authors works. There are a wide range of examples given, all spot on to illustrate the current topic. My only complaint is that some of the novels mentioned as examples of a certain type of viewpoit are now out of print or at least in very limited supply (to expensive for me to buy as research). I will be going back through this work in a few months with a more practiced eye, hoping to gain a deeper understanding of Character and Viewpoint.

I chose a five star rating because the book greatly exceeded my expectations.So much so that I will shop for the rest of the series as soon as I'm done with this review.I loves how the author doesn't speak down to the reader, uses examples from novels as well as movies, and demonstrates how he uses these tools in his own writing.I highly recommended this book because it covers aspects of characterization that I hadn't read about or heard discussed in writing class.

Zum Lernen und Verbessern der eigenen Schreibfähigkeiten.Sehr zu empfehlen!

Fabulous book! Clear, concise and informative. Enjoyed the plethora of examples, and ease of reading.

It was quite insightful on how to create characters, their world view, their manner of speech and bad examples. It covered the viewpoint which is difficult to understand at first but appears the be true.In essence, there is a lot of factors to think about when creating the characters. The only downside of the books is 'Pete' and 'Nora'. The examples could have just used random other names. I decided on buying the book from an Amazon recommendation of another similar book, Linda Serger's Character something.Thank you, author. This is one of the most important books I own.

Elements of Fiction Writing is a series of instructive books on the craft of writing, each written by a different author. Characters & Viewpoint is an installment by Orson Scott Card, and I found it to be a great educational read.The book covers in great depth a range of topics, from inventing characters through to portraying them on the page. It looks at understanding what characters you need, how to develop their identity and history, the roles they should play in the story, and how to make it come alive. It also looks at the types of stories you may be telling, how that might affect which characters you choose to focus on, and the points of view you may want to use.If you’ve ready Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, then you will notice some overlap between the two books. However, the overlap is in the basic information on story construction, and this book dives much deeper into writing believable and engaging characters.I found this book to be clear and engaging, written in a style that made me feel I was sitting in a comfortable chair across from the man himself, listening as he talked about the topic. At the same time, it’s well structured, making the advice it provides easy to digest. This is important, as the pages are dense with techniques, hints, and tips.The bottom line? I knew I needed to work a little smarter (and harder) on creating deeper characters, which is why I turned to this book in particular. It delivered, giving me a new outlook on the process and (I hope) more believable and engaging characters in my stories.

Come già nel precedente "How to write Science Fiction & Fantasy", di cui questo è un'integrazione (e di cui riprende alcuni punti, come l'insistenza sul MICE: Milieu, Idea, Character, Event, quale struttura portante di ogni romanzo che voglia catturare l'attenzione del lettore), Scott Card fornisce, nei vari capitoli in cui è articolato il libro, una serie di validi e chiari consigli di scrittura, focalizzati sulla costruzione del personaggio e sui vari modi per farlo agire e parlare.Linguaggio chiaro, esempi calzanti: anche se non parlasse di scrittura, il libro meriterebbe di essere letto per come è scritto.Consigliato sia per gli aspiranti scrittori sia per chi vuole capire i meccanismi narrativi, in particolare della SF e del Fantasy.