‘The Science of Writing Characters’ — Craft Book Review
The Science of Writing Characters: Using Psychology to Create Compelling Fictional Characters by Kira-Anne Pelican
I read this book recently as part of the CIEP fiction editors book group. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t even heard of it before it was chosen as the next book, but I quickly found that it was very different to a lot of character-based craft books that I’ve read in the past, so I thought I would give a very brief review here, discussing the pros and cons, in case anyone was interested in reading it.
Pros:
✅ - At less than 200 pages (and the last 20 or so pages taken up by endnotes, glossary and index), this is a quick read.
✅ - It uses findings from psychological research to break down personality into 5 different dimensions, and includes useful tables of various personality traits and how they might be depicted on the page.
✅ - It discusses how characterisation also impacts dialogue, motivation, character development and change, emotional character arcs and the importance of characterisation in secondary characters.
✅ - It includes many examples from popular culture to help demonstrate how different characterisation might look.
✅ - The final section is a character workshop that shows the reader how to pull the information from the book together to create a new character.
Cons:
❎ - It is considered an academic book (published by Bloomsbury Academic), so some people might find it to be quite dry (although I wouldn’t say the writing is impenetrable, maybe just not as conversational as some others).
❎ - It was noticeably more expensive than many craft books (probably because it is an academic book) - I paid £18.99 for it from Amazon UK.
❎ - Kira-Anne Pelican works mostly with screenwriting, and this can be seen in the examples she chooses, which are mostly from films.
❎ - Some of the different dimensions of personality that she talks about include some rather stereotypical examples.
❎ - As this book is quite prescriptive, I think that there’s a danger that some people might take this to heart and become quite rigid with how they create their characters, and not allow for the elements of nuance that inevitably come into play when we’re creating fully rounded characters in all their wonderful unpredictability.
So would I recommend it?
Yes, and no!
If you are the type of person that becomes frustrated by the way most craft books talk about character, and feel that the information is vague or non-specific enough, then I would definitely recommend it, but I would caution you to consider this a jumping off point instead of a comprehensive ‘how-to’ guide.
My overall thoughts…
I really enjoyed this book, and I have actually used some of the information in it to add to my character sheets for my own writing. That being said, I definitely don’t think it is for everyone!
Some of the other editors in my book group expressed a dislike of how prescriptive this book is, and I think this is a very valid argument. My writing tends to be very character-focused in general, and I can be incredibly introspective, not only about my own personality, but the personalities of my characters as well.
Sometimes this causes me to get a little lost in the weeds when I’m writing, and so I really appreciated the very succinct, rather clear-cut tone of this book, and I certainly think that it makes a change from the majority of craft books that I have read, which are often rather nonspecific and generalised.
As I said above, I don’t think this book should be used in isolation, but I think that it is a very useful book that delivers a great deal of ‘top level’ characterisation information quickly, clearly and succinctly. If that’s what you’re looking for, then I highly recommend it!
Hi, I’m Alexandra.
I’m a developmental editor specialising in helping authors of fantasy, sci-fi and all kinds of speculative fiction bring their worlds to life, and make their books as immersive, compelling and enjoyable as possible!
Follow my blog for writing craft tips specifically tailored for speculative fiction authors.
