Ok, so I'm not from a formal writing background and don't have an English qualification beyond my A-levels but I still love to write. At first I began to doubt myself because I know there are probably a fair few technical skills or writing systems which I don't have awareness of. But I've found myself drawing on strengths in other areas to support my writing.

At the moment I'm focusing on the character development in my story, and have found Stanislavski (theatre practitioner - worth a Goolgle) to be a big help with creating well rounded, 'truthful' characters. His systems were originally intended to support actors during the rehearsal process, and he has arguably had a large influence on the acting style we commonly see on stage today.

He uses 'emotion memory', the 'magic if', and 'circles of attention' etc (apologies if these are alien terms) to give the character depth and to express their intent. This has really helped me in the 'showing, not telling' that I stumble on when writing.

Does this make sense, and is this something that you're familiar with? Does anyone else have unorthodox/alternative methods which they have found useful?

Joolz

Julie

I don't have any qualifications in English beyond A Level either... And I find the connections and likenesses between the practice of different arts endlessly fascinating.

In drama, I find the whole concept of intentions immensely helpful: they focus on the character-in-action which is so central to narrative, drama, mimesis and so on (moving rapidly backwards from Stanislavski to Aristotle). In writing terms, it's that old chestnut, 'What does he want? How does he try to get it? What gets in the way?'. They also really focus you down onto the particular words and speeches, which means you can't get away with a generalised, 'He's very angry'.

It's also helpful thinking in terms of the stage picture when you're choreographing a scene, and grappling with physical issues of point-of-view (mental ones perhaps less so, as that's a very different kettle of fish)

And, thinking back to my drama days, you could have fun crashing Brecht and alienation effects into John Gardner's concept of Psychic Distance, and seeing what survived. Hmmm. I can feel a blog post coming on.

Emma

Thankfully writing is one of the few things one can do these days without needing a qualification.



- NaomiM

Great stuff! Not just me then

Thanks Emma for your thoughts on theatre practitioners - you've got me thinking now.

Joolz

Yes, i tend to think in terms of Stanislavskian objectives/obstacles for writing. Actually, I find it more helpful for writing than i ever did for acting.

It's funny, I've been thinking about this some more since reading your posts. With my WIP (I'm catching the site lingo now ) I flit between visualising the story as set in a 'real' context in my mind's eye, and on a stage. I think the style I'm aiming for would adapt well to theatre; with circus spectacle, mask work and uber-marionettes. Where as the piece I've shelved for the mo (Awaken - just added to the archive) I see it as having a more filmic quality.

But I don't want to write specifically for the theatre, I think the stories need a narrator to work...for me at any rate, I imagine other people may disagree.

I agree that Stanislavski is helpful. I knew an actress who trained at Drama Centre, and they did some fascinating work - wish I knew more about it. I remember her mentioning stable or mobile inners and outers. These referred to the degree to which a character is emotionally stable on the surface and underneath. I remember her writing a superb scene, despite not having written a line in her life, of an argument between a doctor (very stable exterior, immensely emotional interior which became revealed gradually) and a patient, who comes in warring away - unstable outer, but who at core was convinced by her argument and calm enough to pursue it to her own outcome.

This work made a huge impression and I still think of it when developing characters - the degree to which they show or are aware of their emotional state, and how they choose to play their emotions or are governed by them. It's endlessly fascinating.