Characters Make Your Story

By Maren Elwood

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871160196
• ISBN13: 9780871160195
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Writer
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book/buy

Loved the book. I've read many of the reviews and didn't think much of it. To be honest, the only reason I bought it was because my favorite author suggested it. I'm glad I listened to her advise. Loved it! Probably the most helpful I've read. The book was published first way back in 1942, so there is a definant past feel to it. As in, it's not written the way these types of books are in the present. Not sure if I'm even saying it right. Just got this tone to it that sometimes can be hard to follow. Overall: Really glad I bought it. It's really got me paying attention to other author's stories and the way they portray there characters. Has helped me with my own tremoundously. If you don't own it, BUY it. It's worth it even if it is outdated a bit. Better then reading 100 books written in the present on the same subject. Trust me, I've read many of these.

If you can only get one book on fiction writing, get this one

The five dollars I spent on the hardcover version at a used bookseller five years ago is the best $5 I ever spent on a fiction writing resource. In an engaging, easy to understand manner, the author explains the importance of characterization and how to do it well, providing vivid illustrations of her points. The book focuses on Character, but covers the topic so thoroughly that it addresses other aspects of story writing, including plotting, conflict, dialog, short stories, novels, children's stories, radio, movies, etc. Tips from this book can rescue a manuscript that is falling flat and revive an author who is getting stuck at some point. Skip the forumulas, the 20 great plots and the writer's ego boosters. I have found in this book a challenge to write well, a resource to know how and flint to spark my imagination. Read it through, then put it on your reference shelf, near at hand. Over 60 years later, this book is still readable and relevant for novice and experienced writer alike: Characters Make Your Story is an unparalleled classic.

The Best Book on Characterization Ever Written!

This book was given to me on my birthday over twenty-seven years ago. I glanced at it briefly, and since that time it sat on my bookshelf gathering dust. What a mistake. Just the other day I was having some trouble with a story character, and piled it up with some others covering the same subject for later use. What a gold mine of incisive instruction! I can't put it down. Although written in 1942 (ironically the year of my birth), absolutely everything Ms. Elwood presents today is right on target. Writtten with step-by-step perfection, she teaches "show not tell" better than any "live" instructor I've ever sat under. You must have this book!

Time Invariant

I got more out of the first thirty pages of this book than I did from every current book that I have read on characters combined, and that includes at least scanning most of them.It matters not that Characters Make Your Story was written over sixty years ago; the differences in fictional presentation between then and now do not affect the technique of characterization. Mrs. Elwood tells exactly what is required, how to attain the skills, and how to incorporate them into your own writing, and she does so in a direct and clear way, with no superflous or wordy paragraphs. No fill, no self-aggrandizement on her part. Her presentation is sharp and to the point.Maren Elwood not only tells us in a straightforward way how to make characters come alive, how to make them intrigue and captivate the reader, to make him or her care about them, but she does so in a dynamic way that makes learning her methods stimulating if not exciting.