The Secrets of Character

Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love

By: Matt Bird

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

An insightful and actionable guide to creating a hero that listeners will fall in love with, from the author of The Secrets of Story

The hardest yet most essential element of writing great fiction is character—specifically, creating a central hero who is relatable, compelling, and worth the audience's precious time. In this entertaining and practical guide, popular blogger, writing coach and screenwriter Matt Bird breaks down what makes characters embraceable and unforgettable, and presents insider tips and tricks for writers of all levels and genres.

Generously packed with examples from popular books and movies analyzed with engaging specificity, this expert guide reveals what makes audiences believe, care, and invest in great characters—and how to bring your own characters vividly to life.

©2022 Matt Bird (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“There are plenty of books on the craft of writing. But there’s only one Matt Bird, the ultimate writing coach: smart, funny, insightful, and armed with a toolbox of innovative tips for creating characters readers will love. Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned pro, you need this classic-in-the-making.”—Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award winning author of The One and Only Ivan

“Secrets of Story instantly became one of my favorite writing guides. This follow-up dives under the water to take an even more in-depth look at the iceberg of character development. Meticulously researched and brimming with examples, it offers advice that is both precise and actionable. It reveals the genre-spanning patterns of memorable and resonant characters in an easy-to-access reference format that makes for both fun reading and a great tool to keep on your desk for easy thumb-through inspiration.”—K. M. Weiland, author of Creating Character Arcs and Structuring Your Novel

“Matt Bird has done it again! The Secrets of Character is a book you want next to you when you write. From revealing what gatekeepers look for in your first ten pages to sharing powerful writing tricks from 150 years ago through today, this is a book to read with your laptop nearby. You'll see what your writing needs and it's sure to inspire you to write!”—Torrey Maldonado, author of What Lane? and Tight

Just okay

Basically, do your research behind the kind of character you want to write, then write it. Or proceed to the authors website for a plethora of available resources which is listed at length throughout. There are nuggets here and there, some worthy info sprinkled in, and the narrator was great. Learn what you can from it.

He did it again.

Just as insightful as secrets of story, and I can’t recommend Matt Byrd enough. If you like this check out his podcast too!

Great help to writing better characters

Matt Bird really delivers in this well-researched study of a wide range of memorable characters.

Read it now!

If you’re a writer, read this now. I would recommend you reading this to your aspiring writer toddlers.

Leave politics out of it.

We get enough opinions about who a person should like or not. Putting a definite slant alienates people who just want to create better characters.

Another winner

I find Matt Bird’s books to be wonderful, helpful, and entertaining. I love the voice of the narrator and the conversational style of the writing. Excellent! I listen to them multiple times.

Great follow up to Secrets of Story

I like his approach to writing advice and the many good examples. Lots of good ideas and clear guidance.

I can't take writing advice from someone like this

I thought this would be a fun listen, since I normally love breakdowns of characters in fiction like this, but within mere minutes, this author has already managed to offend me enough that I had to return a purchased book for the first time in 7 years. His first chapter is just a long winded explanation of why he wrote the book and how it differs from his previous book, which I haven't read, so this chapter was pointless to me. When he finally gets started in Chapter 2 with the book's main topic of examining how to write good characters, he instantly makes such a flawed assertion that I couldn't help but simply stop right there and give up on this book. He makes a simple minded blanket criticism of DC superhero characters, saying "Much has been written about everything DC does wrong," as if what he's assuming everyone already agrees with him, then he goes on to praise the Marvel Cinematic Universe as if every one of their character choices has been perfect, saying a big reason Marvel's heroes are better characters is because they have friends. This is such a shallow approach to writing characters, failing to recognize that for some characters, it actually makes perfect sense that due to the nature of their characters, they wouldn't have friends, such as the dark, brooding character of Batman, for instance, who I'd consider to be far more compelling than any of the Marvel movie heroes. After that segment, I'd already lost all trust in this author, so there was no reason to continue with the book.