Breathing Life Into Your Characters
Mar 2009 · Penguin
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About this ebook
Create Convincing Characters That Readers—and Editors—Can't Resist!
It's the question that eternally plagues all good writers: How can you describe the thoughts and feelings of characters who have backgrounds or psychological aberrations with which you have no personal experience?
How can you describe the feelings of a drug addict if you've never been one? How can you write about being a prisoner if you've never been to jail? You can do all the research you want, but the question still remains: How do you convincingly portray characters if you've never lived in their skin?
In Breathing Life Into Your Characters, writing consultant and professional psychotherapist Rachel Ballon, Ph. D., shows you how to get in touch with the thoughts and feelings necessary to truly understand your characters—no matter what their background or life experiences. She'll show you how to:
• Develop a psychological profile for every character
• Turn archetypes into conflicted characters
• Think like a criminal to convincingly write one
• Reveal personalities through the use of nonverbal communication
In addition, you'll learn how to effectively use Ballon's "Method Writing" system—taught previously only in her writing workshops—to explore your own feelings, memories, and emotions to create characters of astonishing depth and complexity!
It's the question that eternally plagues all good writers: How can you describe the thoughts and feelings of characters who have backgrounds or psychological aberrations with which you have no personal experience?
How can you describe the feelings of a drug addict if you've never been one? How can you write about being a prisoner if you've never been to jail? You can do all the research you want, but the question still remains: How do you convincingly portray characters if you've never lived in their skin?
In Breathing Life Into Your Characters, writing consultant and professional psychotherapist Rachel Ballon, Ph. D., shows you how to get in touch with the thoughts and feelings necessary to truly understand your characters—no matter what their background or life experiences. She'll show you how to:
• Develop a psychological profile for every character
• Turn archetypes into conflicted characters
• Think like a criminal to convincingly write one
• Reveal personalities through the use of nonverbal communication
In addition, you'll learn how to effectively use Ballon's "Method Writing" system—taught previously only in her writing workshops—to explore your own feelings, memories, and emotions to create characters of astonishing depth and complexity!
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About the author
Rachel Ballon, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist and the founder and director of the Writer's Center in Los Angeles. She is the author of four other books for Writer's Digest. She has reviewed hundreds of scripts for major Hollywood studios. A master teacher and noted success coach, she has taught as an adjunct professor at USC School of Cinema and Television. She lives in Los Angeles.
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