Clica una miniatura per anar a Google Books.
S'està carregant… What Would Your Character Do? (2006 original; edició 2006)de Eric Maisel (Autor)
Informació de l'obraWhat Would Your Character Do? de Eric Maisel (2006)
Cap S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Get Inside Your Character's Head Just how well do you know your characters? Test yourself-and your characters-with 30 interactive pop quizzes designed to help you discover exactly what makes your characters tick. Noted author Eric Maisel draws on his technical knowledge of the craft and his background in psychology to show you how to combine character traits, character psychology, and character development to create realistic, memorable, and mutable characters. The 30 real-life scenarios include questions and answers that provide you with a window into your characters' souls. For example: What would motivate your character to tell a lie-a big lie that may have unintended consequences? Is your character the type who would blow the whistle on a corporate cover-up or would she quietly toe the line? How would your character cope with the loss of a parent with whom he was exceptionally close? How likely would your character be to flirt with an attractive stranger in a hotel bar? Is your character the type who would drop everything-and everyone-for a spontaneous road trip? Plus, find out how to develop each scenario further using corresponding prompts and specific psychological insight into areas such as the role friendship plays in a person's mental and physical health, conflict resolution in intimate relationships, and the connection between time-impatience and free-floating hostility. With What Would Your Character Do?, you don't have to guess at your character's responses to the important decisions and unexpected challenges he's sure to encounter in your story. Use and reuse these scenarios on each of your characters until you've got a nuanced, distinct cast that readers will never be able to forget! No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
Debats actualsCapCobertes populars
Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresSense gènere Classificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)808.397Literature By Topic Rhetoric and anthologies Rhetoric of fiction Fiction with specific elements Characters in FictionLCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
Ets tu?Fes-te Autor del LibraryThing. |
He asserts “Fiction writers have a leg up on psychologist when it comes to understanding personality and character. To put it differently: Fiction writers are our real psychologist.” I love this perspective and after reading Maisel’s take on the failing of psychologist to actually define a personality theory, I’m fascinated.
Writers get to make up characters, defining who they are, what motivates them, how those characters interpret and respond to their world. And while what the writer creates is artificial, it is a depth of understanding human motivation and personality that rivals what psychologist have tried to understand and theorize about because we get to be inside the characters head.
Though there are plenty of theories of personality, they don’t hold up to the real scientific rigor of analysis. A real theory is provable and results reproducible, human personality theories are not. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth century, led the psychology movement down the path to experiments which led to a plethora of theorist. “...Gustave, Jung, Adler, Horney, Kelly Erikson...” their major ideas have not led to any one conclusive theory. In fact, “...no psychologist, psychiatrist, family therapist, or clinical social worker, could say, except guess, what caused depression, anxiety addiction psychosis or any of the other ailments that befall people.”
Without a concrete theory that explains why we suffer from these psychological maladies, “...health care professionals are left with three ways of dealing with our emotional health.” Medication, clinical methods(psychoanalysis), or behavioral changes. “Or they could do what natural philosophers have done for thousands of years, use their common sense and their understanding of human nature– and a lot of wit and warmth– to affect behavior changes.”
There are plenty of health professional who work this way. “There turned to be all the difference in the world between standing behind a theory and having insight into human nature. The first could be called pseudo-science: the second, wisdom.” To me, it this wisdom of noticing and being in touch with humanity that gives writers the basis for building characters that are alive and real on the page.
Maisel goes to discuss academia, the problems with diagnosis, and testing. Basically he wants you, the writer, to realize that professional psychologist are no more an expert on why humans do the things they do than you are. In fact writer have the advantage of being able to get inside the subjects head and know why a character is behaving the way they do, what exactly is motivating them and their secret wishes and desires. No therapist can do that.
The majority of the book is Maisel’s “personality quizzes for analyzing your characters.” Scenarios are proposed, such as “At the Airport” and questions asked with answers provided. The answer you pick for your character have a small synopsis explaining what that might reveal about your character. The first question about the airport is about waiting, if you chose the answer, “A. Restless?” you’d find out “ Waiting restlessly is consistent with type A character whose appetites, ambitions and high energy level make it impossible for him to relax.” While I found them interesting, they ended up not serve a purpose for me in this study. I was more intrigued by his ideas of personality and the writer than any of the exercises. Though I wouldn’t hesitate to try out the exercise if I ever feel stuck or wanted to do character building exercises for practice.
( )