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. Yet a lot of storytelling books focus on structure and plot, when those things are worthless without a character who we want to go through that structure and plot with. International Emmy nominated writer Mark Boutros offers a guide to creating characters who are engaging, emotionally driven and memorable. With experience as a writing mentor, character consultant and comedy, drama and novel writer, Mark shares a mixture of theory, exercises and pitfalls, getting you thinking about the questions you should always have in your mind during character creation. You’ll learn about what is at the core of your 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 the questions and getting to know them so you move past the shallow. Do the same with your characters before sending them on a journey and your story will be so much better for it. This is an invaluable tool for beginner and experienced writers of screenplays and novels. “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