Book Review: Build Better Characters

Bibliographic Citation:

Cook, E. (2019). Build better characters: the psychology of backstory & how to use it in your writing to hook readers. Slough, UK: The Creative Academy

Author:

Eileen Cook is a Vancouver based, award-winning author, with over thirty books published. Cook is a lecturer at Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio. She studied at Michigan State University where she earnt a Masters in Vocational Rehabilitation Counselling.

Summary:

Cook applied her joint knowledge and experience of counselling, psychology, and rehabilitation to deliver an informative book about how to break down a character’s background, goals, motivations, and all aspects of human behaviour. Her delivery supplies an array of practical questions that help dive deeper into your character’s psyche. She dissects stages of change; personality structures – introducing emotional intelligence versus intellectual intelligence; how this may lead to conflict; and how to help a character through conflict. Her goal here is to help make characters three dimensional. There are practical tips, examples, and exercises.

Analysis

Three important aspects of this text applied to my own writing. The first was the concept of a character understanding what their goal is, and what their motivation is to obtain that goal. If a reader understands the what and why, they are more invested in the character achieving said goal.

The second was not to rush to put words in a character’s mouth. Cook reiterates that we must think about what a character is wanting to communicate and choose words that they would use to convey it. It is important to remember that what a character doesn’t say is just as important as what they do say, and the body language used to either counter or confirm their words. I.e. If a person tells you they are excited about starting a new job but at the same time they are fidgeting, or they are perspiring heavily.

The third was reputation. The concept here was what other characters think of your main character versus what the main character thinks of themselves. Knowing how the main character view themselves can identify if how other characters see them, is not who they truly are. It can highlight if the main character is hiding their true nature, they have a secret, or their reputation is deserved.  

Application

Knowing what a character’s goal is, and their need or motivation to complete it was a complete revelation and transformed my approach to the dimension of my characters. I knew Danielle’s goal, but I never conveyed why she needed to do this. The same applied to Jamie and Gabriel, I had them meandering through the book. We knew what they wanted, but not why they wanted it or what happened if they failed.

Taking a step back, I examined the need and consequence for everyone. It was not only important for me as the author to understand their reasons, but critical for the character themselves to know what’s at stake. It raised the level of conflict for the reader.

Example from my writing:

Before

‘In this world, a gargoyle is destined to be with one human female. A healer. Finding her before something evil does, that is the race, the fight they had on their hands. If she died before he found her, he would remain cursed for all eternity. This weighed heavy on Gabriel’s heart.’

After

‘Finding her before something evil did, that was the race, the fight he had on his hands. Gabriel knew the consequences if he didn’t find her. If she died or had her heart possessed by evil, it was a fate that shook him to his very core. Death in stone. Stuck, buried unable to break free from the cold prison that bound him during daylight.’

The speech patterns used by each character before reading this book, were all blending as one voice. Babe was used by more than one character for example. There were no identifying factors to each voice, except Jamie calling Danielle by her last name, Stone. Creating an identity by dialogue alone was something I found hard, but the result was successful. Gabriel’s background is that he is millennia old, and having him use colloquial language or slang, didn’t fit his character; nor did using indecisive language for Jamie, a dominant male.

Reputation is key to only one character in my manuscript. Jamie is depicted as a heartbreaker or uncatchable by women, but that label was applied by those around him, including Danielle. But Jamie does not see himself as such, although the title is deserved from his past behaviour. To him, it does not matter, because it is no longer applicable, and his behaviour needed to reflect that. Given that Jamie is an alpha male, it posed an interesting aspect to the dimension of his character.  Re-writing his point of view brought a new strength to his character, and he became a more likeable character.