The Science of Writing Characters: Using Psychology to Create Compelling Fictional Characters

Description

The Science of Writing Characters is a comprehensive handbook to help writers create compelling and psychologically-credible characters that come to life on the page. Drawing on the latest psychological theory and research, ranging from personality theory to evolutionary science, the book equips screenwriters and novelists with all the techniques they need to build complex, dimensional characters from the bottom up. Writers learn how to create rounded characters using the 'Big Five' dimensions of personality and then are shown how these personality traits shape action, relationships and dialogue. Throughout The Science of Writing Characters, psychological theories and research are translated into handy practical tips, which are illustrated through examples of characters in action in well-known films, television series and novels, ranging from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Game of Thrones to The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Goldfinch. This very practical approach makes the book an engaging and accessible companion guide for all writers who want to better understand how they can make memorable characters with the potential for global appeal.

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 *