Breathing Life Into Your Characters
Create Convincing Characters That Readers—and Editors—Can't Resist!

It's the question that eternally plagues all good writers: How can you describe the thoughts and feelings of characters who have backgrounds or psychological aberrations with which you have no personal experience?

How can you describe the feelings of a drug addict if you've never been one? How can you write about being a prisoner if you've never been to jail? You can do all the research you want, but the question still remains: How do you convincingly portray characters if you've never lived in their skin?

In Breathing Life Into Your Characters, writing consultant and professional psychotherapist Rachel Ballon, Ph. D., shows you how to get in touch with the thoughts and feelings necessary to truly understand your characters—no matter what their background or life experiences. She'll show you how to:

   • Develop a psychological profile for every character
   • Turn archetypes into conflicted characters
   • Think like a criminal to convincingly write one
   • Reveal personalities through the use of nonverbal communication
In addition, you'll learn how to effectively use Ballon's "Method Writing" system—taught previously only in her writing workshops—to explore your own feelings, memories, and emotions to create characters of astonishing depth and complexity!
1102359780
Breathing Life Into Your Characters
Create Convincing Characters That Readers—and Editors—Can't Resist!

It's the question that eternally plagues all good writers: How can you describe the thoughts and feelings of characters who have backgrounds or psychological aberrations with which you have no personal experience?

How can you describe the feelings of a drug addict if you've never been one? How can you write about being a prisoner if you've never been to jail? You can do all the research you want, but the question still remains: How do you convincingly portray characters if you've never lived in their skin?

In Breathing Life Into Your Characters, writing consultant and professional psychotherapist Rachel Ballon, Ph. D., shows you how to get in touch with the thoughts and feelings necessary to truly understand your characters—no matter what their background or life experiences. She'll show you how to:

   • Develop a psychological profile for every character
   • Turn archetypes into conflicted characters
   • Think like a criminal to convincingly write one
   • Reveal personalities through the use of nonverbal communication
In addition, you'll learn how to effectively use Ballon's "Method Writing" system—taught previously only in her writing workshops—to explore your own feelings, memories, and emotions to create characters of astonishing depth and complexity!
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Breathing Life Into Your Characters

Breathing Life Into Your Characters

by Rachel Ballon
Breathing Life Into Your Characters

Breathing Life Into Your Characters

by Rachel Ballon

eBook

$10.99 

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Overview

Create Convincing Characters That Readers—and Editors—Can't Resist!

It's the question that eternally plagues all good writers: How can you describe the thoughts and feelings of characters who have backgrounds or psychological aberrations with which you have no personal experience?

How can you describe the feelings of a drug addict if you've never been one? How can you write about being a prisoner if you've never been to jail? You can do all the research you want, but the question still remains: How do you convincingly portray characters if you've never lived in their skin?

In Breathing Life Into Your Characters, writing consultant and professional psychotherapist Rachel Ballon, Ph. D., shows you how to get in touch with the thoughts and feelings necessary to truly understand your characters—no matter what their background or life experiences. She'll show you how to:

   • Develop a psychological profile for every character
   • Turn archetypes into conflicted characters
   • Think like a criminal to convincingly write one
   • Reveal personalities through the use of nonverbal communication
In addition, you'll learn how to effectively use Ballon's "Method Writing" system—taught previously only in her writing workshops—to explore your own feelings, memories, and emotions to create characters of astonishing depth and complexity!

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781599633701
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/01/2009
Sold by: Penguin Group
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 901 KB

About the Author

Rachel Ballon, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist and the founder and director of the Writer's Center in Los Angeles. She is the author of four other books for Writer's Digest. She has reviewed hundreds of scripts for major Hollywood studios. A master teacher and noted success coach, she has taught as an adjunct professor at USC School of Cinema and Television. She lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 writing characters from the inside out 6

The Unconscious

The "Aha" Moment

Dreams

Write What You Feel, Not What You Know

Chapter 2 ghosts of the past: your characters' backstories 20

Exploring Your Past

Exploring Your Character's Past

The Backstory

Transactional Analysis

Chapter 3 pulling the strings: character motivation 37

Motivating a Main Character: A Scenario

Character Motivation Based on Backstory

Needs and Motivation

Emotions and Motivation

Chapter 4 less of you: creating characters different from yourself 49

Less of You

Your Inner Characters

Method Writing

The Writer as All the Characters

From Real People to Fictional Characters

Knowing Yourself, Knowing Your Characters

Chapter 5 the psychology of characters and the writer: what makes them tick 68

The Psychology of the Writer

The Character's Psychology

Characters From the Inside

Characters and Internal Struggles

Chapter 6 creating your villain: tapping the shadow 84

Tapping Your Shadow

Tapping the Universal Shadow

Tapping Your Villain's Shadow

Profiling Your Villain

Nurture or Nature

Latent Villainous Tendencies

The Disowned Shadow Gone Awry

Shadow Behavior Reflected in Expressions

Making Your Villian Popular

Chapter 7 the heart of drama: injecting feelings into your characters 104

Your Character's Emotional and Psychological World

Your Character's Emotional Transformation

The Emotional Relationship

Mining Your Emotional Depths

Being an Emotional Writer

Chapter 8 coping with conflict: characters' defense mechanisms and masks 129

Emotions and Conflict

Types of Conflict

Sources ofConflict

Reactions to Conflict

Patterns of Conflict

Defense Mechanisms

Protection From Conflict

Conflicts or Choices

Chapter 9 dysfunctional families: secrets, myths, and lies 151

Functional Families

Dysfunctional Families

Family Secrets, Myths, and Lies

Family Rules and Beliefs

Family Injunctions

Family Values and Traditions

Dysfunctional Romantic Relationships

Homeostasis of the Family

Finding Your Character's True Self

Chapter 10 creating real people: disorders and troubled personalities 184

Understanding Troubled Personalities

Neurotics: The Common Variety of Real People

Personality Disorders

Phobias

Anxiety Disorders

Depression

Bipolar Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorders

Psychotics: The Uncommon Variety of Real People

Substance-Related Disorders

Pedophilia

Gender Identity Disorders

Eating Disorders

Creating Emotionally Deep Characters

Chapter 11 lasting impressions: body language, dialogue, and subtext 216

Nonverbal Communication

Levels of the Self

Body Language

Dialogue (or What Your Characters Say)

Subtext (or What Your Characters Don't Say)

Emotional Imagery

Interior Monologues

Gestures, Quirks, and Expressions

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Index 239

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