1,000 Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories and More (Story Prompts for Journaling, Blogging and Beating Writer's Block)

The media could not be loaded.  I can see this as a useful writing tool in my daily writing life but I will need to spend a great dealOf time going through item by item in order to find what I need.The premise is wonderful and well thought out. I’ve added a video to display what I mean. Item number twenty is prime example of a wonderful concept that is buried under villains, which is sorted by archetype. I have to read the entire section to know it was a woman.I love the way the table of contents are organized and I can look for characters by personality traits. I placed my pen there to give you an idea how small this type font actually is.Don’t get me wrong, I’m an avid reader, but this book could seriously use some pictures.On a positive note, I spent a day and went through the writing prompts and found some amazing story ideas that could easily tie in or create a more in-depth character profile.What I truly appreciated in this book is that the author included story concepts for pets, aliens, zombies, werewolves, nerds, bankers and hit men. It doesn’t matter what your story concept may be, there is something in this book for everyone.

Bryan Cohen is "known" for his creative writing prompts. He has several books (with similar covers to this one) on the market that give you those writing prompts to help you with creativity, to help you get your imagination going. They are a useful tool for people who write, for creative writing classes and for people who journal. If you do a Google or Bing search online for "writing prompts," what you will see are many websites set up to give you just the kind of things you will see in this book - story ideas, character ideas, leading questions - all things for you to elaborate on, for you to put a lot of thought into - things that help very much with the freewriting and journaling process.I have worked for a long time with schoolaged children to help them be better writers and even encouraged them to write on their own and to keep a journal. I wish that his books had been around when I originally started this because his are far better than the ones that I found on the internet. Reading through these, I found myself thinking about the "writing prompts" and coming up with stories and ideas in my head. That is what "writing prompts" are for.The prompts in this book would work really well with middle school children, high school children and even adults. A lot of them could be adapted to use with older elementary school children. I know that I will definitely be using this book (just like the other two that I have read) with my kiddo-os.Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. (A funny thing happened on my way to writing this review - I realized that I had, in fact, purchased it a few weeks earlier. I remember putting it on my wish list ... but still, I did receive a copy and I did write the review ... just goes to show that I would have read the book whether I got it for free or not.)

This book falls into the category of "could have been great" books. The major problem I personally had with this book is that it tends to weary the eyes after a while of reading. I noticed, as I went along, that each prompt on average, was consistently 8-9 lines long. There was no 1 sentence prompt/or even a 2 or 3 line prompt.This apparent monotony in execution was just visually fatiguing.I understand its a case of different strokes for different folks, but, a 5 star rating, this book is not. That said, there are lots of ideas to glean from. The author offers differing genre prompts, differing archetype prompts (mad scientist, aliens, zombies)etc. These, in themselves, can serve as fodder for the imagination.So, it's a good book, not a great one.Recommendation: Story starters by Clifford Fryman. This author really mixed it up while often times keeping it lean e.g. 1) The dog looked up quizzically at his owner, the arm dangling in its mouth where a frisbee should have been.This is a one sentence prompt. Fryman's book has its own flaws, but it does get to jump start your juices.But like I said earlier, different strokes ...

Problems:This book is full of well-written but long-winded suggestions for character creation, not a book of what most people would consider prompts - i.e., pushes - quick notations under clearly identifiable headings. It could benefit greatly from clearer graphic design organization to help actually prompt a busy creator to come up with solutions. This is more of a tome (174 pages of very small print) on the subject fit for a course in writing - not a quick reference that you’d expect from the title. The writer seems more intent on showcasing his writing talent than on organizing a quickly useful reference.It would be more helpful to have character types/tropes clearly listed as major headings, then subheading of variations - all easily searchable through clear graphics - e.g., larger bold lettering in caps for headings, with subheadings in smaller print with a mix of caps and lowercase letters, then the paragraphs of “prompts” as written. Otherwise, you’re left with a general chapter title, then headings such as “Children”, “Activists”, “Zombies”, then you have to read through each paragraph in order to figure out for yourself what the character described in the paragraph is about - it wouldn’t kill the writer to have a subtitle for each paragraph summarizing who the character described in the “prompt” is (e.g., “Washed-up Athlete”, “Opinionated Blabbermouth”, “Quiet Accountant”, etc., especially in a book billed as “time-saving” (back cover).In summary: if you’re super-busy, not a speed-reader, and impatient with puzzling out the organization of someone else’s REFERENCE guide, this probably isn’t the book for you. There’s a reason why technical writers and editors were born - to help organize information like this - it’s a shame because this would be much more useful with such edits.Plus: the cheap price.

I write biography of scientists so I'm aware of the necessity of writing about character, particularly in a manner that gets the reader sympathetic for the subject (I do not write about villains etc). There are many good ideas here, so the book repays careful reading. I certainly found it helpful, but slightly predictable / formulaic after a while

When constructing your main characters, this book is often useful when combining different character traits in order to add some depth. For secondary characters, just flip to a page, put that character into your story and see where it leads you. If you don't like it, reset and go again.

I wasn't too impressed with this book because i felt it was too American in approach. I will re-read it and see if my opinion changes for the better

This came recomended but doesn't quite hit it for me, perhaps my expectations were too high. It would be great for those with 'writers block' but I prefer to let my immagination take control.

helpful and well written