Entertaining the Alien

2. Characters & Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card

Where has this book been all my life? Holy shit there's some useful stuff in there. This is one of those writing books that I read thinking, "Why have I never read this before?"

I tend to dwell over whatever my major project is whenever I read a book on writing, trying to take what I'm reading and apply it to the problems I'm dealing with. This book hit the nail on the head. I was able to spot several ways to strengthen some characters in The Exile's Daughter. Also, I finally got what Mer meant when we talked about various POV issues in certain scenes--and I see how to improve things.

In short, Card's book left me geeked about writing and eager to try and apply some of the ideas he talked about. There are a few points where he's a little too "this is how X should be done" for my tastes, but he's far less guilty of it than some others I've read. Definitely a book I need to own, and soon.