The Psychology Workbook for Writers: Tools for Creating Realistic Characters and Conflict in Fiction

best read from the perspective of being the therapist of the people in the story your writing in my opinion

This workbook provides excellent tools and information for developing writing skills and writing a book.

Interesting. Definitely gave me things to think about for my characters. I like framing these things in terms of psychological theories. I also appreciate that these theories can be used together or individually.

This book was invaluable when I was writing by debut novel, Peg Leg Annie. Creating believable fictional characters really depends on understanding what makes them tick: why they think, speak and act the way they do. I highly recommend this book for any writer of fiction.

I love this so much! It’s helped me with blogging on Medium!

Ehh could find better, it’s small, probably not even a hundred pages, was packaged awful its was wrinkled to holy hell I had to add heavy books on it for a few days to make it flat again. The information is very veg like very veg

I read this book the day I got it—it was easy to pick up and read through. The book is only about 80 pages but it is insightful and helpful. I’ll be using the questions at the end of each chapter to help me write and develop my characters. Although it’s short, the concepts in the book are valuable to think about when writing a book. I’ll be referring to it and using as a reference.

Started reading it and already getting insights. Great assistance for character building sheets

Helpful resource

Esta guía, elaborada por Darian Smith, es una herramienta muy útil para todo escritor o escritora que desee crear personajes realistas. A pesar de ser un libro bastante breve (apenas 80 páginas de contenido real), se divide en distintas secciones en las cuales Darian explica conceptos psicológicos que determinan la personalidad a largo plazo, y cómo incorporar estas ideas en nuestros propios personajes y a través de la trama, sirviéndose también de ejemplos del mundo cinematográfico para mostrar aplicaciones reales. Lo recomiendo a cualquier escritor, ya que te aporta una perspectiva muy interesante y, sea cual sea el género con el que trabajes, te permite ver otros posibles conflictos que van más allá del argumento y se adentran en el espectro psicológico y emocional. Darian ha hecho un gran trabajo escogiendo los términos y teorías que pueden resultar interesantes en la creación de dichos conflictos, y es muy directo y claro en sus explicaciones. Volvería a comprarlo e intuyo que lo utilizaré a menudo como herramienta.

a most informative little book. I have always had positive comments from my readers about the depth and realism of even my secondary characters, and now I know that I am doing the right things for the right reasons, and with more tools at my disposal to improve my work. An instinctive understanding of people is all very well, but a little bit of aid from this excellent little book is welcome, short enough to read easily in an afternoon and detailed enough to dip back into, so I can add to the depths of my characters. Some people have said they would like more, but personally I thought it said what there was to say, and then stopped, which is my definition of a good book of instructions. I don't care who thought of which psychological theory, I don't want case studies; a brief literary example is plenty.

This book offers a great starting point for writers aiming to benefit from several decades of research in psychology in a laguage that is friendly to fiction writers that know nothing about it. However condensed, the book offers lots of insights that can really be applied to a story to make it better while offering sources for further reading in case the reader wishes to dig deeper. For that, I would go as far as to say that this is an indispensable read for writers in formation.

Lots of good information to go back to