The Art of Character by Corbett, David -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover PRAISE FOR THE BOOK ABOUT THE AUTHOR TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PART I — Conceiving the Character

Chapter One — Fingering Smoke: Are Characters Created or Discovered? Chapter Two — Summoning Ghosts: Source Materials for Characters

The Story as the Source for One’s Characters Characters Derived from the Unconscious Characters Derived from Art or Nature Characters Based on Real People Composite Characters

Chapter Three — The Examined Life: Using Personal Experience as an Intuitive Link to the Character

PART II — Developing the Character

Chapter Four — Five Cornerstones of Dramatic Characterization Chapter Five — Desire as Purpose: A Driving Need, Want, Ambition, or Goal

The Centrality of Desire The Complexity of Desire—and Thus the Need for Clarity Variety in the Depiction of Desire Identifying the Core Desire

Chapter Six — Desire Denied: Adaptations, Defense Mechanisms, and Pathological Maneuvers

How We React to Conflict Defines Our Capacity for Success The Normality at the Heart of the Pathological Maneuver Dramatizing Growth from One Level of Adaptation to Another—The Ghost and the Revenant Core Versus Secondary Desires and Adaptations

Chapter Seven — The Power of Wounds: Vulnerability Chapter Eight — The Gravity of the Hidden: Secrets Chapter Nine — The Paradox of This but That: Contradictions

The Nature and Dramatic Purpose of Contradiction Contradictions Based on Physical, Ironic, or Comic Juxtaposition Contradictions Based on Our Need to Serve Multiple Social Roles Contradictions Based on Competing Morals or Goals Contradictions That Result from a Secret or Deceit Contradictions Based on Conscious Versus Unconscious Traits Dispositional Contradictions

Chapter Ten — Serving and Defying the Tyranny of Motive

The Mystery at the Heart of Character How Much Do We Need to Know About a Character? The Limits of Intellect

Chapter Eleven — Dynamic Versus Static: Creating a Biography from Scenes Chapter Twelve — Flesh and Blood and Shoes: The Character’s Physical Nature

Is Physical Description Necessary? The Senses Sex Versus Gender Sexual Attractiveness Race Age Health Deportment and Fashion Sense Physical Description in Screenwriting

Chapter Thirteen — The Tempest Within: The Character’s Psychological Nature

Desire Fear Courage Love Hate Shame Guilt Forgiveness Failure Success/Pride Religion/Spirituality Food Death

Chapter Fourteen — The Teeming World: The Character’s Sociological Nature

Family Spouse Friends Name Class Work Education Geography Home To What “Tribe” Does My Character Belong?

Chapter Fifteen — Picking a Fight: Politics Chapter Sixteen — Quirks, Tics, and Bad Habits

PART III — Roles

Chapter Seventeen — Meaning and Its Messenger: The Protagonist and the Premise

Choosing the Protagonist Summoning the Will Framing the Conflict—the Protagonist and the Premise Working Backward—Conceiving the Premise from the Abstract to the Specific The Personal Nature of the Premise

Chapter Eighteen — The Challenge of Change: Three Protagonist Questions

The Mysterious Necessity of Change What of the So-Called Steadfast Character? Distinguishing Growth from Transformation Can I Get What I Want? Who Am I? What Do I Have to Change About Myself to Get What I Want?

Chapter Nineteen — Ciphers, Stiffs, and Sleepwalkers: Protagonist Problems

When the Protagonist’s Struggle Is Fundamentally Internal When the Protagonist Doesn’t Know or Is Confused by What She Wants, or Is Afraid to Want It When the Protagonist Faces a Problem, an Enigma, or a Disaster Instead of an Opponent When the Interconnection Between Outer Goal and Inner Need Is Insufficiently Realized When the Protagonist Is Conceived as a Vessel of Virtue (or the Myth of the Likable Hero) When the Protagonist Is a Thinly Veiled Stand-in for the Author Choosing the Wrong Character as the Protagonist Multiple Protagonists When the Narrator and Protagonist Differ, but Both Are Characters in the Story

Chapter Twenty — The Character of Conflict: The Opponent

Justifying the Opponent When the Opponent Is Genuinely Evil When the Opponent Is Offstage for Long Periods of Time—Clues and Underlings Can the Opponent Change?

Chapter Twenty-one — The Army of Others: Secondary Characters

How Secondary Is a Secondary Character? The Ghost The Revenant The Counterweight Character The Crucial Ally The Betrayer and the Sympathetic Heavy The Visitor and the Stranger The Village

PART IV — Technique

Chapter Twenty-two — The Clash of Character: Scenes

The Centrality of Scene The Mechanics of Scene Balancing Action and Inner Life

Chapter Twenty-three — The Personal in Perspective: Point of View

Choosing the Point of View: Three Key Questions Objective Versus Subjective Mode First Person The Special Case of the Unreliable Narrator Other Special Cases: Second Person and First Person Plural Third Person Single Versus Multiple Points of View Omniscient Point of View in Film and TV

Chapter Twenty-four — Language as Attitude: Voice

Establishing Authorial Voice Voice in the Portrayal of Character

Chapter Twenty-five — Word as Deed: Dialog

Dialog as Action Verisimilitude and Its Limits Specific Techniques for Enhancing Realism Speech Tags Dialect, Obscenities, and Verbal Tics Creating Variety Among Characters

EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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