Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives

The book is exceptional in offering the reader, what works and what doesn't in great writing and play writing. Though written a long time ago, there is no other book like it.

Got book for Stepson, he hasn't complained about it, so I guess it was good.

This novel is the perfect place to start for beginners. Although it references mostly plays and screenwriting, the guidelines set forth by Egri can be applied to any type of writing. Be sure to take plenty of notes!

This book is a classic.

One of the things that makes this book a classic is its simplicity. The book start exploring how you as a dramatic writer can use Premise as the guiding sign through out the whole process of writing a story.

Once you have a premise you can work on creating your characters (using the premise to do that). To do this you'll have to know your character's physiology, sociology, pshychology, etc.

Once you have your characters you can work on creating the story using the principle of contradiction, thesis, antithesis and synthesis. You'll have to use clashing forces... (again, you use the premise as explained at the beginning of the book).

Then the author covers some of the most important elements in writing dramatic material of quality.

In my case I found the chapter of "Jumping" quite enlightening. Once you read this chapter you'll understand why many, many stories just don't work. The characters jump and then... they fall to their death... and to the apaty of the audience.

What is it that I like about this book? Well, I read it... time passes... come back to it again... time passes... and I come back again to read it!

Where as most books make you feel like writing is extremely difficult, this one always makes me feel like I'm in command and that great story telling is within my grasp.

I've read several books about screenwriting to aid me in my capacity as a story consultant, and this book far surpasses them all. You'll hear the age-old question of what's more important to story: action or character? What I got from this book is that the question is - in the end - moot. You need both - well drawn characters to the sell the action, and compelling action to reveal character. The process is tricky, but Egri lays it out with such precision and wit, you'll wonder how you ever got along without his insights. Even though this book was written over half a century ago, it applies now more than ever - especially for the cinema where writers are increasingly relying more on formula and less on the construction of truly memorable, believable characters. Originality must begin with a thorough understanding of who your characters are, how and why they come together, and what ultimate premise their interactions serve to reveal. Egri explains this process with depth and panache. If you want to improve your narrative and give the world fresh new characters that tell "your story" this is THE place to start!