TL;DR
7/10. The most useful Writer’s Digest compilation, because focusing many strong contributors on the single most important craft element, character, produces depth through accumulation rather than the shallowness of the everything volumes. Strongest on motivation and interiority. The anthology unevenness applies but matters less given the focus. The pick of its siblings.
Creating Characters is the Writer’s Digest compilation focused on the single element most readers actually remember from a book: the people in it. Like its sibling anthologies, it gathers material from many authors and craft books into one volume, here trained entirely on character, building people who feel real, who readers care about, and who carry a story. As a focused compilation, it is more useful than the everything-at-once volumes precisely because it stays on one subject deeply enough to be worth owning.
Character is arguably the most important craft skill, since readers forgive a great deal in a book whose characters they love and forgive nothing in one whose characters they do not believe.
Many angles on one subject
The compilation’s breadth works better here than in the broader volumes, because focusing many contributors on a single element produces depth through accumulation rather than scattered coverage. The book gathers approaches to the core character problems, building three-dimensional characters with consistent psychology, creating believable motivation, writing characters who change across a story, distinguishing protagonists from the supporting cast, and revealing character through action and dialogue rather than description. Different contributors come at character from different theories, psychological, structural, intuitive, and the variety gives a writer several routes into the same skill, increasing the odds that one approach clicks.
Keep reading
A guide to character development: 8 steps to success — the many angles on character this compilation gathers, in one working method.
Motivation and the inner life
The strongest material in any good character collection is on motivation and interiority, why a character does what they does and how to make a reader feel their inner life, because this is where believable characters are actually built. A character is convincing not when they are described in detail but when their actions flow from a coherent, knowable inner life, and the contributors who address how to root behavior in psychology and history provide the book’s most valuable lessons. Wherever it gathers strong material on the want-versus-need tension and on making interiority felt rather than stated, it earns its place.
Keep reading
Why your characters feel flat: psychology-first character development — rooting behavior in a coherent inner life, the heart of believable character.
The familiar compilation caveat
The anthology limitations apply, though less damagingly than in the broader volumes. Assembled from separate sources, the pieces can overlap, repeat, or vary in depth and quality, and the book does not build a single progressive method, leaving the reader to synthesize. Because the focus is narrow, the repetition is more tolerable, several good treatments of the same character problem reinforce rather than scatter, but a writer wanting one coherent, authored approach to character may still prefer a strong single-author book on the subject over a gathering of many.
Verdict
It is the most useful of the Writer’s Digest compilations, because focusing many strong contributors on the single most important craft element, character, produces real depth through accumulation rather than the shallowness of the everything volumes. It loses a little for the inherent unevenness of the anthology form and the synthesis it leaves to the reader. For a writer working specifically to deepen their characters who wants many expert angles in one place, it delivers; for one who wants a single coherent method, a focused single-author character book may serve better. A strong, well-targeted compilation, the pick of its siblings.
Explore the hub
The Psychology of Writing Hub — character, motivation, and the mental side of craft, gathered in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Creating Characters?
A Writer’s Digest compilation gathering material from many authors and craft books into one volume focused entirely on character: building believable, three-dimensional people who carry a story and who readers care about.
How does it compare to the broader compilations?
It is more useful, because focusing many contributors on a single element produces depth through accumulation rather than the shallow coverage of the everything-at-once volumes. Staying on one subject makes it worth owning.
What is its strongest material?
Motivation and interiority, why a character acts and how to make a reader feel their inner life. Believable characters are built when actions flow from a coherent, knowable psychology, not from detailed description.
What are its limits?
The anthology form means pieces can overlap, repeat, or vary in depth, and the book does not build one progressive method, leaving synthesis to the reader, though the narrow focus makes the repetition more tolerable than in broader compilations.
Who should read it?
Writers working specifically to deepen their characters who want many expert angles in one place. Those who prefer a single coherent authored method may favor a focused single-author character book instead.
