I’m not a huge craft book consumer, but I wanted to give myself a refresher course on certain topics before I shift genres for my next series. The Amazon algorithms fed me this option, and I snapped it up based on the price point and author.
This book is an easy read that I devoured during two plane flights. The writing style is conversational but informative, allowing me to highlight lines that jumped out at me without covering half the page. Maass does an excellent job of keeping the work centered on the concept of character itself rather than character type, so that this book can be applied to all genres. He shares personal anecdotes but primarily gives examples from works published within the past 20 years. The examples are always tailored to show exactly Maass’ intent, but they also cover a wide array of genres and styles.
Maass distills much of what he shares into specific exercises sprinkled throughout the text. I may not find all of them applicable to my current needs, but I would dismiss none as useless. I plan to employ over a dozen in the revisions to my current project and during the characterization and outlining process of my next series.
I recommend this book to any writer looking for a crash course in developing three-dimensional characters. The best craft books also serve as inspiration, and I was able to immediately apply much of what I read to existent character arcs and ideas still in the brainstorming stage.