What Do You Think?

A fair number of you have now purchased Create a Character Clinic.

If you’ve had a chance to read it, I’d love to have some feedback. Is it useful? Clear? A different approach to developing characters?

(Admittedly, I’d also love to have a couple of cover quotes for the print edition.)

And a query: I designed the e-book version to be easily readable in Adobe Reader full-page mode onscreen on a 15″ or larger monitor, so that the writer could flip straight from the ebook to the work in progress, and not have to spend money on toner or paper. This is what the print is so large when you print it out on the page.

For those of you who know you’re going to print the thing rather than read it from the screen, and who don’t want to pay the extra cost for the print version, would the option to purchase a small-print ebook version be a plus?

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17 responses to “What Do You Think?”

  1. Breece Avatar

    I didn’t know where else to point this out, Holly, but the “Buy Now” link is broken (404 error):

    Not Found
    The requested URL /tempshop/index.php was not found on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    ***

    I still — priddy-pleeze — want a copy!

  2. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Angelique — I’m so glad it’s helping. I know it’s a weird method, but it’s the one I’ve developed over the last few years, and I credit it with TALYN, MIDNIGHT RAIN, and everything else I’ve done lately.

  3. Angelique Avatar
    Angelique

    I downloaded CCC 2 nights ago. I have been reading onscreen for lack of sufficient printer ink. With breaks, my eyes are doing just fine. I have to say, I LOVE it. I was so stuck, I had an idea for a character, a presence that has been in my mind for a while that I have been having trouble fleshing out. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, I began answering some of the questions, a few from each of the sections and I have 10 pages of material now, including the essence of a plot line.
    Holly, thank you so much! Those questions are wonderful for evoking inspiration. I am having so much fun!!

  4. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Plotting Workshop date … that’s what I’m currently trying to figure out. I should be hearing something from my editor in the next week or so on the current proposal, and I’ll start putting together my work plan once I get that.

    At the moment, I’m just doing crits and worldbuilding workshops and trying to get my mission-critical stuff back on my hard drive.

  5. Keziah Hill Avatar

    I’ve had a quick read and it looks very useful. When is the plotting one going to be available? (no pressure of course)

  6. fionaphoenix Avatar

    I’m currently reading onscreen, but I’d like to be able to print out a copy for later reference. I was going to try to force the PDF reader/the printer to churn out something that would take less paper. If you can do that easier on your end, it’d be terrific!

  7. Miss Nienke Avatar

    I also printed my copy out. I like the big print because it gives me room to make notes as I go.
    I’m still on Section One, and find the exercises extremely useful. My writing hit a lull because I needed further character development, and this is the perfect tool to develop the true inner nature of my characters.
    I look forward to the rest of the book and to learn how to ‘show’ that character development through my protagonist’s actions.

  8. katyjo Avatar
    katyjo

    I bought mine yesterday and am working through it – it’s really helpful in focusing all my vague ideas into a coherent whole person.

    I like the large print for use on screen. I’ll probably print it out as well, but I think that for a workbook of this sort it’s useful to have everything set out clearly and in a larger font – it makes it easier to work from when you’re skipping from page to screen to notes and so on.

  9. Claudia Avatar
    Claudia

    I bought mine last night and have it printed out. I hate reading books on screen. I love the large print – it’s perfect for me even though my eyes are still working fine. I’ll be punching holes into it and setting it up in a binder for easy reference. I think if there were a smaller print version available, I would still prefer to print out the larger print e-book.

    I love what I’m reading. It’s so refreshing to have a how-to book that’s clear, precise and with excellent examples and diagrams to illustrate the content. As a visual learner, the diagrams mean a lot to me. I’ll be buying any other e-books you decide to write and sell, Holly. Thanks for such quality material!

    Claudia

  10. arainsb123 Avatar

    It’s been of immense help to me so far, and a smaller-print version would be great for printing it out.

  11. Mary Avatar
    Mary

    I too printed it and my eyes aren’t what they used to be so I like the larger print. I agree it will make it easier for me to work with, however, I do like the idea of a smaller print for others. It did take a while to print and a load of paper 🙂
    I think the larger print will be easier for me to use while I write (ever so slowly) on a computer than a printed book would be.
    I look forward to the other clinic books, I haven’t really had a chance to look this over but I know you do quality Holly so I don’t worry about that. I plan on the other books.

  12. carlie Avatar

    Holly,
    If it is not too much trouble, I would rather a smaller print version. As a writer, I have this urge to save as much paper as possible, since I’m sure I already use more than my share of the world’s trees 😀

  13. Jason Penney Avatar

    I gave up reading it on screen and ran the pdf through pdfbook which allows you to print a booklet version that can be stacked then folded in he middle. I threw a rubber band around it for a binding and I’m reading it that way.

    I usually do all my e-book reading on my eBookwise reader, but it doesn’t support PDF.

    I’m about 1/5 of the way through and I think I’ll be putting quite a bit of this to work for me.

    If you do a print version I’ll be buying a copy. Do you think you’ll do print versions individually or collect the three “Clinic” books in a single volume? While I’m at it, any chance of a print version of “Mugging the Muse”? I lent my printed copy out.

    Jay

  14. arrvee Avatar

    I like the large print, too. My eyes are just not what they used to be. Also, when I start using the book to actually work on characters, I plan to have it in a 3-ring binder propped up on my desk, and the larger print will mean I don’t have to stop and pick it up to read it.

    I’m up to page 80 and really like what I’m seeing. The writing is clear, and the example illustrate the concepts well. This one will be on my Ready Reference shelf, so I can get to it easily and often.

  15. khazell1 Avatar

    As someone who printed the ebook, I found the large print helpful, easy to read. When it comes to fiction, I don’t mind small print. But when it comes to nonfiction, bigger is better and pictures/diagrams are excellent (love the inspiration maps).

  16. Jason Penney Avatar

    Chrysoula,

    You may want to try playing with the settings under the ‘View’ Menu in Acrobat. It sounds like you might have the ‘Layout’ set to ‘Single Page’ while using ‘Fit Width’ for zoom. Try changing the layout to Continuous (View->Layout->Continuous) and see if that solves it.

    Jay

  17. Chrysoula Avatar
    Chrysoula

    I’d rather read it on the computer, but I had problems with your layout. I was using a laptop, which is perhaps a smaller screen than it was designed for (but where I do most of my writing), and I found that it scrolled strangely, causing me to lose my place in the page repeatedly. Basically, my place would jump instantly from the bottom of the screen to somewhere in the middle each time I tried to scroll. It felt unintuitive and I recall complaining about reading it to my husband. I’m not sure that’s not just a consequence of using Acrobat though?

    Anyhow, haven’t read enough yet to provide actual content commentary.

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