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The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
June 1st 2008
by Kessinger Publishing
(first published 1942)
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If there is one book I cite more than Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style, it is Lajos Egri's relatively obscure gem. I happened upon it thanks to a writer-friend of a writer-friend who took one of James Frey's (no, not that James Frey, may his plagiarizing soul fly to a million little pieces) master classes in fiction. And yes, Egri will help you write a damn good novel.
The key is unity. Out of necessity, teachers of writing split the art of fiction writing into about fiv...more
The key is unity. Out of necessity, teachers of writing split the art of fiction writing into about fiv...more
After reading this incredibly insightful, incredibly lucid book, I really feel that it's a crime that (1) so few people have read this book, and (2) there are so many bad plays (novels, etc.) out there. And it's not even hard to understand! I didn't have to struggle to comprehend the advice or see why it works.
Lest you think I'm overstating the value of the work, I shall explain it to you in three easy steps.
1. What premise are you trying to prove? (This is not theme or plot ...more
Lest you think I'm overstating the value of the work, I shall explain it to you in three easy steps.
1. What premise are you trying to prove? (This is not theme or plot ...more
I was sort of assigned this book by an employer but the first time through I mostly skimmed it. There were some helpful things in it so I went back and read the whole thing more carefully.
The book breaks down advice for playwriting, but it applies to all types of fiction. In the book I wrote for work I did find it helpful. There's a lot of focus on having a premise for any play that you as an author are trying to prove. This helps you stay on track. When in doubt, go back to the premis...more
The book breaks down advice for playwriting, but it applies to all types of fiction. In the book I wrote for work I did find it helpful. There's a lot of focus on having a premise for any play that you as an author are trying to prove. This helps you stay on track. When in doubt, go back to the premis...more
I thought this book was a pretty good guide for writers, especially play writers. The book breaks down character construction, story conflict, and goes into depth about the importance of premise. The book gives examples of story dialogues as well as giving a series of Q&A's. The book was great from a technical stand point and definitely is something I will come back to and reference.
Lise Petrauskas
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I found it on a class list for Will Vinton's animation class at School of Film in Portland
Shelves:
writing
This is the best book on writing I've ever read. I considered suing my the writing program where I got my MFA for not assigning it as mandatory reading!
Egri has some good and helpful thugs to say about premise and character early on, but that quickly devolves into play-bashing and what my rhetoric teacher would call unnecessary "fluff". Compared to the incredible tightness of Syd Field's 'Screenplay', this is an unhelpful mess.
Where he has the edge on Field is in his extensive study of tridimensional character development (from the playwright's perspective, not the audience member's). I'll likely return to that chapter ofte...more
Where he has the edge on Field is in his extensive study of tridimensional character development (from the playwright's perspective, not the audience member's). I'll likely return to that chapter ofte...more
This book breaks down what makes dramatic writing great. You can write badly all you want for your own benefit, but if you want to create characters and stories with depth, read this book.
my screenwriting teacher hates/assigned this book. what am I gonna do about my screenwriting teacher.
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