It's a pleasure observing OSC's mastery of writing in action. With other how-to-write books, whether they were relying on excerpts from well-know works or making up their own examples, I could sort of see what they meant, but it wasn't always convincing. OSC writes his own examples (often the same scene is rewritten in multiple ways to illustrate his point), and they show exactly what he's talking about. Learned a lot.

This book helped me understand so much about the characterization process - I will return to it many times for reference. Incredible resource for fiction writers.

First and up front, I've never enjoyed an Orson Scott Card book. I could never get into them. They didn't interest me. When a reviewer favorably compared my n  The Augmented Mann to Card's Ender's Game, I scratched my head. Grateful, of course, and still confused.
However, Card's n  Characters & Viewpointn?
Another story (forgive the pun) entirely.
Although titled "Characters & Viewpoint", the subtitle is "How to invent, construct, and animate vivid, credible characters and choose the best eyes through which to view the events of your short story or novel." Tear that subtitle apart and you get (or, at least I got):

t Character
t  General story building elements
t  Story concept
t  Scenes
t  Story structure
t  POV
t  Narration
  
I so dog-eared this book my folded pages made it twice as thick as normal.
Card's book goes way beyond most teaching books I've read. He's not a lecturer such as I remember from college days. I believe he teaches workshops and I'll have to find one and suggest you do the same.
I've written more on my blog. Enjoy

I did not like the examples used, but I learnt something new or got a new perspective out of most chapters. Not bad at all.

2.5*

This book had some good ideas on characterization but overall it complicated topics far more than I'd prefer and I found myself skimming as a result.

It wasn't a waste of time but there are books that covers the same ground while also being A. More concise or b. Having more thought provoking content.

There are better books on fiction writing and for it's topics characters and viewpoints it didn't do much in the realm of expert ideas for me.

Solid book on writing--

While some information is pretty basic and somewhat outdated (I'd have to disagree with the author's contention that the present-tense first person doesn't work), this book offers a whole range of invaluable advice on characters. The book is divided into three parts, not all of which provide the same quality of advice and information.

The first part has only some useful tips and advice, covering basic grounds like where we should get ideas for characters and naming them. His advice to always treat real-life models as only STARTING POINTS and NEVER full characters in themselves I thought was a great piece of advice.

The second part is golden. It deals with specific traits that make us love or hate characters, ways to raise the emotional stakes and use flashbacks effectively, and the differences between comic characters and serious characters. If you are a storyteller, this is something you MUST know.

The third and final part deals with telling vs. showing, voice, and viewpoint. While some of the information is helpful (such as the specific strengths and weaknesses of different viewpoints), most of it is straightforward and commonsensical.

Overall, I thought this makes a great companion book to Donald Maass's books in that it complements it where Maass's books overlook or fail to cover in enough depth.

Recommended.

Bad dude, decent advice.

Characters and Viewpoint
By: Orson Scott Card
Writer’s Digest Books

Tools for Creating Vibrant Memorable Characters

In “Characters and Viewpoints” Orson Scott Card provides the writer with the tools for constructing colorful credible characters.

Card grabbed my attention as I scanned the table of contents. I immediately followed this by perusing the bold headings within the chapters.

The book is divided into three parts. Card begins with pointers on inventing characters, where they come from, potential audience, and choosing names.
He moves on to help the reader/writer construct characters, including the protagonist, supporting, and minor characters. I particularly needed help in the area of voice, presentation, and person. Card included illustrations from well-known authors to reinforce the writing principles presented throughout the book.

“The Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters and Viewpoint” is an important tool for new writers. The book is filled with definitive techniques for creating vibrant memorable characters.

This has got to be one of the best books about writing. It discusses characterization in depth, with practical tools you can actually use in your fiction.

Other articles I've read about characterization inevitably instructs you to create a complete profile about your character, sometimes giving you a form to fill out, with prompts like favorite color and such things, but they don't really show you how to make these details alive in your story.

n  Characters and Viewpointn shows you just that, how to craft characters through their actions, reactions, motivation, etc, with good examples throughout.

I've just remembered that I read the noted homophobe's writing guide back in my early teens. Even then, I could tell that a lot of his advice was bollocks - I especially remember the bit about how erudite types were inherently unsympathetic, and a smart hero would have to punch a couple of guys for every time he demonstrated his brains. Yep, as demonstrated by the lamentable obscurity in which characters like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes have long languished, right? Pillock.

A book to help you choose your POV. Whose story are you really telling? And what POV would be best for it? Plus examples (same bits of stories told from different POVs), rules, conventions, pitfalls and advantages of one or the other POV. Also, if you want to learn what melodramatic writing is and how to avoid it (my case), these are a few excellent examples here that will make you "get" it (I certainly "got" it). "If your characters cry, your readers won't have to; if your characters have good reason to cry, and don't, your readers will do the weeping."

Not my cup of tea when it comes to writing advice. This WD book was very basic and most of the guidance on characterization is focused on creating characters before you start writing and not fleshing out those characters on the page. Toward the end of the book when Card does finally begin to address what happens to characters in the actual novel/manuscript he gets a bit preachy and theoretical and makes more than few statements that I do not believe are accurate around POV and tense.

Overall I felt this book was incredibly dated and failed to address key areas of characterization. If you're just starting out, it is a quick read and good basic info to be aware of but more advanced writers may find it less than satisfactory.