1. Introduction
2. The Dimensions of Character
3. How Personality Shapes Dialogue
4. Motivating Character
5. When, Why and How Characters Transform
6. The Emotional Journey
7. Secondary Characters
8. A Character Workshop
Footnotes
Glossary
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
Based on contemporary psychological research, The Science of Writing Characters provides writers with a completely new way of developing compelling and psychologically-credible fictional characters.
Kira-Anne Pelican, PhD, is a writer, speaker and script consultant with 25 years of experience working in the British, American and Chinese film and television industries. She began her career assisting director Stanley Kubrick, took posts in visual effects production on The Matrix films, before working as a screenwriter, academic and script consultant. Her original screenplays have been optioned by the BBC, ITV and other independent producers and she has lectured on character development across the world.
For every film-goer or TV viewer who has thought, "I could write a
better script than this", Dr. Pelican shows them how to make their
ideas real, attention-grabbing and above all truthful. The Science
of Writing Characters is exactly the book we need now.
*Paul Brett, Executive Producer of The King's Speech (2010)*
Kira-Anne Pelican’s The Science of Writing Characters is a valuable
tool to help screenwriter’s think consciously, objectively, and
methodically about aspects of character that for most of us are
unconscious, intuitive, and automatic. It provides a structured
psychological approach to developing film characters, using
engaging examples from both classic and contemporary films and TV
shows, such as Gone With the Wind and Game of Thrones. Dr. Pelican
explains complex psychological ideas very clearly, and her book
would be useful for screenwriting students and screenwriters at
every level, as well as for faculty who are specifically interested
in applying psychological theory to the process of character
development in screenwriting.
*William Indick, Associate Professor of Psychology, William
Paterson University, USA*
Dr. Kira-Anne Pelican expands the scope and arena of the art and
craft of screenwriting by delving more deeply into the psychology
of characters. She is knowledgeable, insightful, clear, supportive
of the writer, and welcomes the writer to embrace this method of
deepening the craft.
*Dr. Linda Seger, author of 10 books on screenwriting including
Making a Good Script Great (3rd ed. 2010)*
No one I know has blended science with creativity like Kira-Anne
Pelican. Any writer who ignores her research and fails to heed her
advice risks being left in the distribution wilderness.
*Elliot Grove, Founder of Raindance and British Independent Film
Awards*
Good writing, as Kira-Anne Pelican notes, is the result of
imagination, observation and instinct, an understanding of human
behavior. Yet most writers fail. Early drafts are too often
underdeveloped, as writing fast trumps writing deep. Pelican’s book
is a salutary reminder to those for whom it does not come
naturally: that complex characters are more engaging, that if
successfully drawn they take the reader or viewer on a compelling
and emotional journey. The Science of Writing Characters is not
prescriptive but is an excellent guide to what you can do to help
your imagination create powerful, memorable and emotionally
engaging characters.
*Julian Friedmann*
The Science of Writing Characters is a godsend for those who wish
to write cogent, exciting and distinctive screenplays. Most
discussions of the craft focus on “plot points” and other such
structural elements; comparatively few discuss character in any
depth. Yet drama is at its essence an instrument with which a
writer investigates the inner life of human beings, so this new
book fills an important gap.
Kira-Anne Pelican draws on extensive scientific research available
and presents dimensions of personality (extroversion,
agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to
experience), providing their historical origins and examples of
them in fictional characters — and providing insight that goes way
beyond the standard Myers-Briggs diagram. She then breaks these
down further into their various subtleties, belief systems,
capacity for transformation, emotional arcs, mental illness, and
the intriguing “dark” and “light” triads of personality.
Ms. Pelican does not present any kind of formula for creating
character; instead, her book is a mind-opening tool chest for
further investigation into the nature of humanity, a process that
for a good writer never ends.
*Paul Gulino, author of Screenwriting (2013) and The Science of
Screenwriting (2018)*
The Science of Writing Characters is an artful bridge between
science and craft, thorough in both areas, and imaginative and
insightful in connecting the two. The book’s introduction invites
you to use it as you need: as a guide, as a toolbox, or as an
academic core text. But however you will end up using it, you will
feel supported every step of the way.
*Raindance*
There is much here that is interesting and helpful, and all of it
is thoroughly grounded in research. The book is essential for any
writer ... It is a remarkably thorough tool kit for a writer aiming
to explore the mysteries that lie within all of us, and explore
those mysteries through the medium of drama.
*The Journal of Screenwriting*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
