Breathing Life into Your Characters
by Rachel Ballon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rachel BallonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-10-21
ISBN: 1582971811
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Book Reviews of Breathing Life into Your Characters
Book Review: Packed with insights!
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr. Rachel Ballon has provided writers with an invaluable resource with this book: the tools they need to develop wonderful characters, characters that people will care about deeply. Good characters are the heart and soul of every work of narrative. No matter how clever your plot, not matter how masterfully you have built your structure, your work will fail to reach its full potential without dynamic, believable, dimensional characters. As a writer of both screenplays and works of interactive media, I have found the process of creating characters to be the most pleasurable parts of writing and also the most frustrating. Sometimes a character just refuses to come to life -- he or she just sits there, propped up like a stuffed ragdoll, kind of cute perhaps, but totally soulless. Yes, I can put words in its mouth, but why do those words sound so flat and unreal? Dr. Ballon understands why this happens, and mercifully helps writers uncover the blocks they didn't even realize they had, releasing a flood of creativity. This book gives writers a powerful insight into the characters they are working with and shows them how to transform their stuffed ragdolls into unique, vibrant, fully dimensional individuals. Furthermore, through the exercises she offers in the book, readers may also gain surprising insight into one of the characters they thought they knew best -- themselves.
Summary of Breathing Life into Your Characters
Psychotherapist Rachel Ballon teaches the reader how to use the principles of psychology to understand their characters better. Through a mix of instruction, examples, and writing and visualization exercises, readers learn how to tap into their own stories and emotions to create realistic, complex characters.Art History Books
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