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Creating Unforgettable Characters |
Author: Linda Seger
Published: 1990-07-15 |
List price: $16.00
Our price: $10.88
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As of: January 07th, 2009 04:15:52 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 THIN
Disclosure. I'm an experienced writer, not a novice. So maybe this isn't fair. But I find this book thin, general, and unhelpful. I was particularly hoping that her examples from films would be illustrative, but I found them really bland and not illustrative of much of anything. For a rank beginner this attention to character is good, but for anyone who's past through the first few gateways, this empress is butt naked.
Bums me out how the literature on creating characters on the page is so limited. The screenplay page is so sparse, so minimal, that the writer is pressed to be extremely selective and precise in ways no novelist has to deal with. To me, Seger's focus on backstory and history - while important - reveals that she's never dealt with this problem up close. As a consultant she gets away with broad prescriptions, but when you're facing a blank page, broad prescriptions aren't good enough. Where's the book that takes apart some great scripts and shows precisely why this scene setting reveals character, why this dialog bite is so important to character, why this clothing choice was made, why this juxtaposition shows a character change etc. Examples from the greats, specifically annotated. We need one. This ain't it.
 Average
I thought this would be a great book, but it really wasn't up there in terms of being helpful. There are lots of other really good books like:
1. Dave Trottier's - The Screenwriter's Bible
2. Blake Synder's - Save the Cat
3. Syd Field's - Foundations of Screenwriting
4. Syd field's - The Screenwriter's Problem Solver
5. Scott Sedita's - The Eight Characters of Comedy
Stick with those five and don't waste your money on the rest. I've bought them all and those five are the only ones worth buying!
 CREATING MEMORABLE CHARACTERS
In the preface, Linda Seger observes: "The concepts within this book relate to the creation of all fiction characters and are based on the principles I've discovered as a drama professor, a theater director, and script consultant.... For this book, I've interviewed over thirty writers who have articulated and affirmed these concepts; these include novelists and writers for film."
Her how-to book comprises ten engaging chapters, each concluding with a case study on a well-known screenscript such as ORDINARY PEOPLE, GORILLAS IN THE MIST, and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. The chapters also provide a detailed "application" checklist to guide the reader during the character-creation process.
Some of the highlights of the ten chapters are as follows.
Chapter 1: Researching the Character. "Research can take longer than any other part of scriptwriting." Seger quotes William Kelley, writer of WITNESS: "I researched the Amish for seven years, and Earl and I wrote the script during the 1980 writers' strike, which lasted about three months" (p 17).
Chapter 2: Defining the Character: Consistencies and Paradoxes. "Shaping the clay of your character is a six-step process." One of these steps is "adding quirks, the illogical, the paradoxical" (p 46).
Chapter 3: Creating the Backstory. "Finding the backstory is a process of discovery. The writer needs to work back and forth constantly -- asking questions about the past to understand the present" (p 62).
Chapter 4: Understanding Character Psychology. Seger quotes Barry Morrow, writer of RAIN MAN, "Half of writing is psychology. There's a consistent core, or a consistent unity to behavior.... Every action has motivation and intention" (p 63). This chapter includes an insightful section on "how inner backstory defines character," citing Freud and Jung's theories. Also a section on "how abnormal behavior defines character," citing Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS among others.
Chapter 5: Creating Character Relationships. Seger notes that "some of the most successful films and television series have featured two stars, not one" (p 91), citing examples of THE AFRICAN QUEEN, ADAM'S RIB, LETHAL WEAPON among others.
Chapter 6: Adding Supporting and Minor Characters. Seger notes that "many of the best stories are memorable because of their supporting characters" and quotes James Dearden, writer of FATAL ATTRACTION: "Within the context of reality, you can make your little characters interesting...keeping people's eyes moving and their ears flapping and their brains working. It's those little details that make something come alive" (p 145).
Chapter 7: Writing Dialogue. I found this chapter the most instructive of all. "Great dialogue has conflict, emotions, and attitudes. It also has another essential component: the subtext. Subtext is what the character is saying beneath and between the lines. One of the most delightful examples of subtext comes from the film ANNIE HALL, written by Woody Allen. When Alvie and Annie first meet, they look each other over. Their dialogue is an intellectual discussion about photography, but their subtexts are written in subtitles on the screen." Subtextually, "she wonders if she's smart enough for him, he wonders if he's shallow; she wonders if he's a shmuck like other men she's dated, he wonders what she looks like naked. Both understand the subtext of their conversation" (p 148).
Chapter 8: Creating Nonrealistic Characters. Examples cited include E. T.; KING KONG; CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND; SUPERMAN; THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
Chapter 9: Beyond Stereotyping. Example of stereotyping: "Blacks are often portrayed as comical or as perpetrators of crimes" (p 197). "A character type is not the same as a stereotype. The doddering father or the braggadocio soldier are character types, not stereotypes, because the portrayal is balanced with other images of fathers and soldiers" (p 198).
Chapter 10: Solving Character Problems. "Writing good characters is a complicated process. Getting stuck happens to even the best of writers. Turning to some of these problem-solving techniques can lead to breakthroughs that can help make your characters work." Yes, indeed.
This outstanding book merits high priority on the aspiring screenwriter's craft-study list.
-- C J Singh
Good deal
The book has been delivered brand new, in time. The contents of the book are above expectations and live upto to the reviews.
Keep it up guys.
there are better books on characterization
Unlike her book, Making a Good Script Great, this book is disappointing. Creating characters involves: "getting the first idea..., creating the first broad strokes, finding the core of the character...finding the paradoxes within the character..., adding emotions, attitudes, and values, adding details to make the character specific and unique" (p.23). These steps are then elaborated in separate chapters (although the elaboration consists mostly of extended examples of films most people--those who actually saw the films--would consider to be mixed bags at best, long series of autobiographical paragraphs, and extended quotes from screenwriters ruminating about their experiences in writing this or that character). Seldom is information actually added to that already given on page 23.
There are also chapters on backstory--use backstory only when you have to (p.56), minor characters, dialogue--"bad dialogue is difficult to speak...all characters sound alike...spells out every thought...simplifies people instead of revealing their complexity" (p.151), and nonrealistic characters. Also a chapter on avoiding stereotypes and other character problems such as unlikable characters and vague characters.
There is only enough actual information in the book to fill an article; but if you are a beginning screenwriter, this book (and many others) can be a help to you. The thing to be careful of is (a) emulating writing from movies that most viewers were lukewarm about. You want to learn the best techniques, not the mediocre ones. And (b) thinking that if you've read this book, you know all you need to know about characterization. You don't. Far from it.
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