Good Advice on Creating Characters...

I just visited the MediaBistro Toolbox and they linked to an article on creating good characters by Elaine Marie Alphin on the Writer's Digest magazine website. Elaine's a wonderful writer who writes great characters and her advice is useful. The WD mag piece is based on information from Elaine's book Creating Character's Kids Will Love, which we published in 2000. It's a few years old, but it's chock full of solid, timeless advice from a solid writer. So if characterization is getting you down, buy yourself a copy of CCKWL for Christmas. (And also check out Elaine's book Counterfeit Son which won an Edgar Award.)