Creating Unforgettable Characters

Before I read this book, I have to admit - my characters were all pretty lame. Then, hey, I read this book, and boom! Ok, so they still need work, but this book made me understand how to keep characters exotic, good, and believable. The first part of this book didn't interest me as much, because it was advising on how to make sure your characters are good on their background - of people who live in this world. This wasn't 'really' helpful for me, because I write fantasy in other worlds, but I picked up a few helpful things. Then came a section on Dialogue, which was good too - at the time I was reading it I didn't realize it, I thought it was a bit dull, but then I realized I had started taking the advice unconciously. But then came along the next part of the book, and I could hardly wait to pick it up each time. It explains greatly how to make sure your characters aren't hollow, and how they should respond in situations according to their attitudes and past life. This book I highly recommend to any author who feels his characters aren't to their full potential (or if they don't want to admit that, this book was fun to read as well).

This book is phenomenal for nearly any writer, because of the wide range of characters Seger uses as examples. She offers sage advice on making your characters unique and leaving a lasting effect on the reader/viewer. Readers of this book will undoubtly recognize every character referenced from movies, television and novels. I keep returning to this book repeatedly, trying to find an idea, a thought, a quality to give my characters. And it always works.

Linda Seger provides a wonderful gift to aspiring writers in her book CREATING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS. The book is a hodge-podge of Linda's own observations--plus, it is interlaced with interviews with world-class writers. Linda also throws in examples of characters and dialogue from movies, books, TV and stage that we've all heard of (Rain Man, Moonlighting--TV, Broadcast News, Casablanca, Ordinary People, Cheers, etc.). The book is a quick read--I read one chapter a day for a week and a half, but it is chock full of tidbits and insights that make it invaluable.Dr. Seger encourages the aspiring writer to 'research, research, research' that character (Chapter 1). She then encourages us to consider the dimensionality of a character by introducing motivations 'and' paradoxes (Chapter 2). She explores creating a backstory, a pre-history to a character, and how this can open the writer up to new insights and plot exploration (Chapter 3). The chapter on psychological types (Chapter 4) was helpful in exploring human psychology and abnormal behaviors. Ron Bass's comments on how RAIN MAN's characters (Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman) evolved in the writing phase are terrific. Chapter 5 explores creating character relationships, which includes a section on 'the triangle' and the section on replacing characters in the TV sitcom 'Cheers' was a fun read.Other chapters follow (Supporting Characters, Writing Dialogue, Beyond Stereotyping, and Character Problems), but my favorite section was the one on Creating Nonrealistic Characters. This chapter on fictional, 'unreal' characters, with Linda Seger's contrast between the symbolic (for example, The Joker=evil), nonhuman (Lassie/animal...), fantasy (Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast, Jolly Green Giant--advertisement), mythic (Batman), was worth a full-day seminar of screenwriting.The book also shares from Linda's interviews with other writers some of the frustrations that they have had in writing. It was nice to read how other writers, proven and successful, struggled to improve their craft.A quick read, insightful, and full of great stories.

Creating Unforgettable Characters is a wonderful tool for writers because it goes into details about the amount of backstory that is appropriate and how to set it up and the traits and characteristics that should breathe life into the characters. This book has been extremely helpful to me and I have read it three times.

This is one of the finest books I've ever read on the crafting of fiction. It's not just for screenwriters, but also for those who develop any form of creative writing. Along with 'Making a Good Script Great', I'd highly recommend Dr. Seger's books as a terrific asset to any fiction writer's shelf.