Think of your favorite character, the one that changed your life and made you look at people and the world differently. What did the author do in order to bring that character to life? Creating these characters requires that writers master the principles of human behavior. We accomplish this by understanding how people react, change, and make decisions. In essence, we must learn to diagnose our characters just as psychologists diagnose people. In this book, you will gain the knowledge (e.g. psychological studies, terms, and explanations) and valuable exercises (e.g. people watching, observing our own senses, and functional assessments) that can help create complicated and authentic characters that can withstand the scrutiny of readers and critics alike.