Getting Into Character

Seven Secrets A Novelist Can Learn From Actors

EDITION 2: Revised and with new added material, gathered through 13 years of teaching these concepts at writers conferences.

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Want to bring characters to life on the page as vividly as fine actors do on the stage or screen? Getting Into Character will give you a whole new way of thinking about your writing. Drawing on the Method Acting theory that theater professionals have used for decades, this in-depth guide explains seven characterization techniques and adapts them for the novelist’s use. You’ll discover concepts that will lead you to understand and communicate the motivation and psychology of all your characters.

These highly effective techniques will help you: 

 ~ create characters whose distinctive traits become plot components

 ~ determine each character’s specific objectives and motivations

 ~ write natural, meaningful dialogue that moves the story forward

 ~ endow your characters with three-dimensional emotional lives

 ~ use character motivation to bring action sequences to exuberant life

 ~ write convincingly about any character facing any circumstance