Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In Creating Characters, Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along.

The core of character, he says in chapter 1, lies in each individual story person's ability to care about something; to feel implicitly or explicitly, that something is important. Building on that foundation - the capacity to care - Swain takes the would-be writer step-by-step through the fundamentals of finding and developing characters who turn you on. This basic but thought-provoking how-to is a valuable tool for both the novice and the seasoned writer.