Recommended

This book is intended to show the reader how to construct interesting characters. It does this, but it succeeds on a very narrow scope. The author seems to assume that you already have created a character - in fact, quite a good one - and you merely need to add some touches to polish it up. I feel that if you've already gotten a good character under your belt, you probably already understand, either explicitly or intuitively, most of what she teaches.

The book talks about backstory, psychology, relationships, dialog, and other components that make up a well-rounded character. This is actually quite similar to the character-building process followed by Method actors when they devlop a part, even when it already exists on paper. But I don't think this material can really be taught in the form of this book - you can't simply lay out the idea that psychology is important, and expect the reader to walk away understanding how to see the complicated relationships inside a person's head, much less balance them and find a good compromise.

So a better title for this book, I think, would be "Making A Good Character Great", which is the title of the author's other book with the word "Character" replacing "Script." I haven't read that book, but I think this title gets closer to the mark. If you're still trying to develop a character from first principles, I don't think this is the right place to start. But if you have a really good character established, andhe or she needs a nudge to become fully rounded, this book might set off some new sparks.