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Title: Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger ISBN: 0-8050-1171-4 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 July, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Help for the Aspiring Writer
Comment:
Linda Seger provides a wonderful gift to aspiring writers in her book CREATING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS. The book is a hodge-podge of Linda's own observations--plus, it is interlaced with interviews with world-class writers. Linda also throws in examples of characters and dialogue from movies, books, TV and stage that we've all heard of (Rain Man, Moonlighting--TV, Broadcast News, Casablanca, Ordinary People, Cheers, etc.). The book is a quick read--I read one chapter a day for a week and a half, but it is chock full of tidbits and insights that make it invaluable.
Dr. Seger encourages the aspiring writer to 'research, research, research' that character (Chapter 1). She then encourages us to consider the dimensionality of a character by introducing motivations 'and' paradoxes (Chapter 2). She explores creating a backstory, a pre-history to a character, and how this can open the writer up to new insights and plot exploration (Chapter 3). The chapter on psychological types (Chapter 4) was helpful in exploring human psychology and abnormal behaviors. Ron Bass's comments on how RAIN MAN's characters (Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman) evolved in the writing phase are terrific. Chapter 5 explores creating character relationships, which includes a section on 'the triangle' and the section on replacing characters in the TV sitcom 'Cheers' was a fun read.
Other chapters follow (Supporting Characters, Writing Dialogue, Beyond Stereotyping, and Character Problems), but my favorite section was the one on Creating Nonrealistic Characters. This chapter on fictional, 'unreal' characters, with Linda Seger's contrast between the symbolic (for example, The Joker=evil), nonhuman (Lassie/animal...), fantasy (Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast, Jolly Green Giant--advertisement), mythic (Batman), was worth a full-day seminar of screenwriting.
The book also shares from Linda's interviews with other writers some of the frustrations that they have had in writing. It was nice to read how other writers, proven and successful, struggled to improve their craft.
A quick read, insightful, and full of great stories.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Versatile How-To
Comment: This book is geared mainly for screenwriting, but it can be useful for novelists and short story writers as well. Linda Seger discusses character backstory, relationships with supporting characters, dialogue, and so on. Plus, there are interviews with today's leading writers across the spectrum. Her narrative is clear and easy to understand, with plenty of examples of both good and bad writing. Even though I'm not a screenwriter, I found this book very useful and entertaining.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unforgettable
Comment: This book is phenomenal for nearly any writer, because of the wide range of characters Seger uses as examples. She offers sage advice on making your characters unique and leaving a lasting effect on the reader/viewer. Readers of this book will undoubtly recognize every character referenced from movies, television and novels.
I keep returning to this book repeatedly, trying to find an idea, a thought, a quality to give my characters. And it always works.
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Title: Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee ISBN: 0060391685 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 17 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script by David Trottier ISBN: 1879505444 Publisher: Silman-James Press Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger ISBN: 0573699216 Publisher: Samuel French Trade Pub. Date: November, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make by Denny Martin Flinn ISBN: 1580650155 Publisher: Lone Eagle Publishing Company Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made by Alex Epstein ISBN: 0805069925 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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