My response:
I think it's important to point out what I repeatedly state in my book: that the first several chapters are optional reading. These chapters provide necessary foundational information that, if not stated, would surely be wondered and/or asked about. But I encourage readers to skip ahead directly to the exercises, if they want, and come back to the first chapters to fill in on those principles later. Many of these premises will not be new to writers. They are nonetheless worth stating.
On the other hand, some writers may find these chapters confusing until they work through the exercises and sometimes they do not find them useful until they are onto advanced work.
I think it is also important to correct the assertions made by Cinema Crazy Terminal (CCT) about what I say in the book. He writes in his review that I say: "The writer knows the characters more than most people." This is not something I write in the book and it is untrue. While your characters already exist within you, they are in your subconscious. You may not "know" them at all and the process of discovering, developing, and writing them is complex and involved.
CCT also writes that "A writer's characters are combinations of the writer's personality, fears, desires, and inhibitions." This is a misunderstanding of the entire archetypes approach. If it were true, one would only need therapy to discover one's characters, and the archetypes approach would be unnecessary.
Most importantly, the book provides a skeleton of the process that takes place in discovering and developing your characters. It cannot replace a live class, seminar, or private in-person work, where the participant gets an opportunity to work through the process and make the discoveries which in principle might seem simple, but in practice is often a long journey.
Go to CCT's review here.
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