This isn't a bad book on writing. A Writer's Guide to Characterization... is, however, a book rendered pointless by other good books on writing.There's nothing here that can't be found in a dozen other writing guides, other books with depth and analysis that put this one to shame. Schmidt's extreme repetition feels like a lazy attempt to flesh out pages without really saying anything new, and her suggestions for "twists" and new approaches fall flat, themselves being overused and no longer unexpected by even casual readers. The author does a good job of touching on different character archetypes and how they interact, but the interpretations presented are shallow, just barely touching on the subject before moving on.
Handy for reference on the animal archetypes, there's not much else to recommend this as more than something to flip through once, and writers looking for groundbreaking guidance on character development would do well to look elsewhere. Everything in this book can be found for free with a 30 second Google search.
