The Dramatic Writer's Companion

Author: Will Dunne
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022649411X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Book Description
Spark your creativity, hone your writing, and improve your scripts with the self-contained character, scene, and story exercises found in this classic guide. Having spent decades working with dramatists to refine and expand their existing plays and screenplays, Dunne effortlessly blends condensed dramatic theory with specific action steps—over sixty workshop-tested exercises that can be adapted to virtually any individual writing process and dramatic script. Dunne’s in-depth method is both instinctual and intellectual, allowing writers to discover new actions for their characters and new directions for their stories. The exercises can be used by those just starting the writing process and by those who have scripts already in development. With each exercise rooted in real-life issues from Dunne’s workshops, readers of this companion will find the combined experiences of more than fifteen hundred workshops in a single guide. This second edition is fully aligned with a brand-new companion book, Character, Scene, and Story, which offers forty-two additional activities to help writers more fully develop their scripts. The two books include cross-references between related exercises, though each volume can also stand alone. No ordinary guide to plotting, this handbook centers on the principle that character is key. “The character is not something added to the scene or to the story,” writes Dunne. “Rather, the character is the scene. The character is the story.” With this new edition, Dunne’s remarkable creative method will continue to be the go-to source for anyone hoping to take their story to the stage. “Dunne mixes an artist’s imagination and intuition with a teacher’s knowledge of the craft of dramatic writing.” —May-Brit Akerholt, award-winning dramaturg

Character, Scene, and Story

Author: Will Dunne
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639364X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
The author of The Dramatic Writer’s Companion offers forty-two new exercises to help playwrights and screenwriters explore, develop, and strengthen their work. Will Dunne first captured the workshop experience in The Dramatic Writer’s Companion, offering practical exercises to help playwrights and screenwriters work through the problems that arise in developing their scripts. Now writers looking to further enhance their storytelling process can turn to Character, Scene, and Story. Featuring forty-two new workshop-tested exercises, this volume allows writers to dig deeper into their scripts by fleshing out images, exploring characters from an emotional perspective, tapping the power of color and sense memory to trigger ideas, and trying other visceral techniques. The guide also includes a troubleshooting section to help tackle problem scenes, as well as hundreds of examples, many of which have been developed as both plays and films. Character, Scene, and Story is fully aligned with the new edition of The Dramatic Writer’s Companion, with cross-references between related exercises so that writers have the option to explore a given topic in more depth. While both guides can stand alone, together they give writers more than one hundred tools to develop more vivid characters and craft stronger scripts.

The Architecture of Story

Author: Will Dunne
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022618191X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
This new book from the author of The Dramatic Writer's Companion approaches some of the same issues as its predecessor but from a slightly different angle. It offers playwrights, screenwriters, and other dramatic writers in-depth analysis of the dramatic architecture of three award-winning contemporary American plays: Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. Each relatively brief chapter is devoted to a specific story element--from "Characters" and "Main Event" to "Emotional Environment" and "Back Story"--with subsections that break down this element in each of the plays. Readers can choose to read across the chapters to follow the analysis of each play, but the structure gives primary emphasis to the story elements, comparing and contrasting how different writers have successfully handled them. Each chapter ends with a set of questions to help readers analyze and develop that element in their own work.

A Companion to Television

Author: Janet Wasko
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 140519877X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 649

Book Description
A Companion to Television is a magisterial collection of 31 original essays that charter the field of television studies over the past century Explores a diverse range of topics and theories that have led to television’s current incarnation, and predict its likely future Covers technology and aesthetics, television’s relationship to the state, televisual commerce; texts, representation, genre, internationalism, and audience reception and effects Essays are by an international group of first-rate scholars For information, news, and content from Blackwell's reference publishing program please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/reference/

Second Words

Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 1770890106
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 446

Book Description
The fifty essays in Second Words span the period from 1962 to 1980 and reveal Margaret Atwood's views on feminism, Canadian literature, the creative process, nationalism, sexism, as well as critical commentary on such writers as Erica Jong, E. L. Doctorow, Northrop Frye, Roch Carrier, Marie-Claire Blais, Marge Piercy, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, and many more.

Story Structure Architect

Author: Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1582976996
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Build a Timeless, Original Story Using Hundreds of Classic Story Motifs! It's been said that there are no new ideas; but there are proven ideas that have worked again and again for all writers for hundreds of years. Story Structure Architect is your comprehensive reference to the classic recurring story structures used by every great author throughout the ages. You'll find master models for characters, plots, and complication motifs, along with guidelines for combining them to create unique short stories, novels, scripts, or plays. You'll also learn how to: • Build compelling stories that don't get bogged down in the middle • Select character journeys and create conflicts • Devise subplots and plan dramatic situations • Develop the supporting characters you need to make your story work Especially featured are the standard dramatic situations inspire by Georges Polti's well-known 19th century work, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. But author Victoria Schmidt puts a 21st-century spin on these timeless classics and offers fifty-five situations to inspire your creativity and allow you even more writing freedom. Story Structure Architect will give you the mold and then help you break it. This browsable and interactive book offers everything you need to craft a complete, original, and satisfying story sure to keep readers hooked!

The Subversive Copy Editor

Author: Carol Fisher Saller
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226734102
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 151

Book Description
Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face." In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller’s own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It’s how I know things." Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists. See copy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors. Saller’s emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don’ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staid Manual of Style. In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.

A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien

Author: Stuart D. Lee
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118517482
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 590

Book Description
This is a complete resource for scholars and students of Tolkien, as well as avid fans, with coverage of his life, work, dominant themes, influences, and the critical reaction to his writing. An in-depth examination of Tolkien’s entire work by a cadre of top scholars Provides up-to-date discussion and analysis of Tolkien’s scholarly and literary works, including his latest posthumous book, The Fall of Arthur, as well as addressing contemporary adaptations, including the new Hobbit films Investigates various themes across his body of work, such as mythmaking, medieval languages, nature, war, religion, and the defeat of evil Discusses the impact of his work on art, film, music, gaming, and subsequent generations of fantasy writers

A Companion to Restoration Drama

Author: Susan J. Owen
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9781405176101
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Book Description
This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work 1660 to 1710. Twenty-five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time. Introduces readers to the recent boom in scholarship that has revitalised Restoration drama Explores historical and cultural contexts, genres of Restoration drama, and key dramatists, among them Dryden and Behn

The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama

Author: A. R. Braunmuller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521821155
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Book Description
This new edition of the Companion provides updated information about the principal theaters, playwrights and plays of the most important period of English drama, from 1580-1642. Revised essays are included in chapters on theaters, dramaturgy, political plays, heroic plays, burlesque, comedy, tragedy, and drama produced during the reign of Charles I. Their references have been updated and the substantial biographical and bibliographical section has been expanded. First Edition Hb (1990): 0-521-34657-6 First Edition Pb (1990): 0-521-38662-4