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The Craft of Character: How to create deep and engaging characters your audience will never forget
“The most complete and comprehensive guide to character I've ever read." Adam Croft
Character is at the heart of every story. We love stories because we fall in love with characters, we want to see what happens to them and we want to see them experience hope and despair.
International Emmy nominated writer, Mark Boutros, offers a guide to creating characters who are engaging, emotionally driven and memorable. With experience as a screenwriter, novelist, creative writing teacher and mentor, Mark shares a mixture of theory and exercises to get you thinking about the questions to have in your mind during character creation.
A lot of stories are perfectly functional, hitting all the right beats, but often fall short due to a thin or obvious character. Problems people think are related to plot are often symptoms of a deeper issue with the characters. Mark highlights what is at the core of character, the importance of motivation, trauma, obstacles and how every little detail can enrich an experience for an audience and ultimately make people care.
How do you get to know people? By asking questions and getting to know them so you move past the shallow. Do the same during character development and your story will be so much more engaging for it.
Each chapter focuses on an aspect important to character development and ends with exercises so you can apply the concepts to your work.
The book
Goals, desires, lessonsStakes to your character’s goalCharacter flawsDeveloping your character’s voice and world viewGenerating truthful obstaclesHow to write anti-heroes and compelling villainsCharacter and personality traitsCommon mistakes in character writingCharacter researchA character questionnaireThe majority of the ideas originate from the author’s screenwriting experience, but they apply to all forms of story, whether it be fiction writing or playwriting, because the focus is on what really makes a character stand out and memorable.
The job of the writer is to deliver an emotional experience. Character is the heart of that. This is an invaluable tool for beginner and experienced writers.
Praise for The Craft of
“Would 100% recommend not only for beginners, but also for experienced writers looking to get to know their characters better. A bit like writer-character therapy.” Amazon review
“Both the chapters and the exercises are easy to understand and get through. Mark Boutros’ clearly knows his stuff and seems happy to be able to help the reader, rather than becoming lecturing and elitist. The structure of the book also means that it is easy to dip back into, when you come across a specific problem, and as such it is a great little reference book, which any aspiring storyteller would benefit from.” Amazon review
“Normally, I find myself arguing with the author of craft books, but here I would say 90% of what I read were things I either found helpful, or flat out agreed with whole heartedly and just needed a reminder on why these things are important. The exercises were a excellent touch, especially as someone who is teaching writing, it gave me ideas on what to do for my students.” Amazon review
Character is at the heart of every story. We love stories because we fall in love with characters, we want to see what happens to them and we want to see them experience hope and despair.
International Emmy nominated writer, Mark Boutros, offers a guide to creating characters who are engaging, emotionally driven and memorable. With experience as a screenwriter, novelist, creative writing teacher and mentor, Mark shares a mixture of theory and exercises to get you thinking about the questions to have in your mind during character creation.
A lot of stories are perfectly functional, hitting all the right beats, but often fall short due to a thin or obvious character. Problems people think are related to plot are often symptoms of a deeper issue with the characters. Mark highlights what is at the core of character, the importance of motivation, trauma, obstacles and how every little detail can enrich an experience for an audience and ultimately make people care.
How do you get to know people? By asking questions and getting to know them so you move past the shallow. Do the same during character development and your story will be so much more engaging for it.
Each chapter focuses on an aspect important to character development and ends with exercises so you can apply the concepts to your work.
The book
Goals, desires, lessonsStakes to your character’s goalCharacter flawsDeveloping your character’s voice and world viewGenerating truthful obstaclesHow to write anti-heroes and compelling villainsCharacter and personality traitsCommon mistakes in character writingCharacter researchA character questionnaireThe majority of the ideas originate from the author’s screenwriting experience, but they apply to all forms of story, whether it be fiction writing or playwriting, because the focus is on what really makes a character stand out and memorable.
The job of the writer is to deliver an emotional experience. Character is the heart of that. This is an invaluable tool for beginner and experienced writers.
Praise for The Craft of
“Would 100% recommend not only for beginners, but also for experienced writers looking to get to know their characters better. A bit like writer-character therapy.” Amazon review
“Both the chapters and the exercises are easy to understand and get through. Mark Boutros’ clearly knows his stuff and seems happy to be able to help the reader, rather than becoming lecturing and elitist. The structure of the book also means that it is easy to dip back into, when you come across a specific problem, and as such it is a great little reference book, which any aspiring storyteller would benefit from.” Amazon review
“Normally, I find myself arguing with the author of craft books, but here I would say 90% of what I read were things I either found helpful, or flat out agreed with whole heartedly and just needed a reminder on why these things are important. The exercises were a excellent touch, especially as someone who is teaching writing, it gave me ideas on what to do for my students.” Amazon review
- GenresWritingNonfiction
163 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2020
56 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 1, 2021
I really enjoyed the thoughtfulness of this guide. As a writer myself, crafting character is something that I find to be both an opportunity of mine and a strength (when it’s the right character). This helped me tease apart the WHY behind that and has already begun to influence my writing of my current novel.
Before I eventually start a new story, I plan on using many of the checklists, questions, and exercises here to flesh out my main characters.
Before I eventually start a new story, I plan on using many of the checklists, questions, and exercises here to flesh out my main characters.
September 26, 2021
An ideal book about how to craft a character. I'll be honest, in the introduction I found his style rigid. However, after the introduction it boasts and is spot on for this book.
He goes through all the major points, but articulates there importance, whilst providing good examples.
He really does highlight, without character, you're story ain't s$#t.
Easy, concise and clear; a great read for both newbies and intermediate writers
He goes through all the major points, but articulates there importance, whilst providing good examples.
He really does highlight, without character, you're story ain't s$#t.
Easy, concise and clear; a great read for both newbies and intermediate writers
December 22, 2021
I would give this book 4.5 stars. It gives clear and helpful examples about how to create characters that a reader will want to engage with. Each chapter covers a principle and is followed by a practical activity to get you to put the principle into practice. Definitely recommend to anyone struggling with Character development in their writing.
August 30, 2022
One of the most useful writing craft books I’ve read. Will refer back to this often.
January 11, 2024
A useful resource on how to create memorable characters. It uses examples from popular shows and movies to illustrate the points, and provides exercises to help create these characters.
August 12, 2024
Easy to follow exercises to build characters. A lot of plugs to his website. Can't blame a guy for trying.
January 24, 2025
In terms of the lessons taught in this book, I have no qualms. If you're an experienced writer, you may know and understand a lot of this already. Having a screenwriting degree, I didn't have any major "aha" moments, but I did like how the lengthy character questionnaire gets you thinking about your character beyond what the pages you write may include. I do think I'll go back to those in the future.
There seem to be a few differences between the screenwriting format I've seen here in the US versus the UK-based format included in this book, so just keep that in mind (ie. I'd never seen time stamps on scene headings before; and I've always been told you only need to capitalize the character's name at introduction, not every single time).
In terms of the literal writing in this book, there were a couple spelling errors, many grammatical errors (or maybe they're just preferences of mine), and many many run-on sentences. I read the whole thing assuming he must not have had an editor, but when I got to the acknowledgments, I saw he did. The prose can be difficult to read at times, repetitive, just unclean. It reads like a first draft that needs a thorough polish of the copy. It's written in the way that would make sense in a lecture or speech setting, so I understand where it comes from, but it reads very clunky. I found it distracting when I first started and just wanted to pull out a red pen. Ironic, of course, in a book about writing that the writing drove me crazy.
There seem to be a few differences between the screenwriting format I've seen here in the US versus the UK-based format included in this book, so just keep that in mind (ie. I'd never seen time stamps on scene headings before; and I've always been told you only need to capitalize the character's name at introduction, not every single time).
In terms of the literal writing in this book, there were a couple spelling errors, many grammatical errors (or maybe they're just preferences of mine), and many many run-on sentences. I read the whole thing assuming he must not have had an editor, but when I got to the acknowledgments, I saw he did. The prose can be difficult to read at times, repetitive, just unclean. It reads like a first draft that needs a thorough polish of the copy. It's written in the way that would make sense in a lecture or speech setting, so I understand where it comes from, but it reads very clunky. I found it distracting when I first started and just wanted to pull out a red pen. Ironic, of course, in a book about writing that the writing drove me crazy.
March 11, 2023
Ok let's be clear my problem with this book is not so much the advice; it's the exercises after each chapter. I buy a book like this for advice and to learn, not to do homework. That may work for others but not for me. Also, the author assumes that all writers sit down and work out a plot line, character sketches etc; some of us just write, re-write, and re-write and see where the muse takes us. Both are valid processes, but this book only addresses the pre-planner author. Saying all that, there is good advice here to be taken on board.
January 24, 2024
This one was a quicker read but definitely packed a punch! The exercises got my brain thinking and better words flowing.
I know that I now have stronger characters in my writing that will elicit more emotion from my readers.
I know that I now have stronger characters in my writing that will elicit more emotion from my readers.
January 8, 2024
Wonderful road map for creating characters and kicking bad writing habits! Highly recommend
November 27, 2024
Great exercises, great well-known examples. I recommend for any level of writer that wants to write compelling characters.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews