Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors

203 Pages·2015·1.47 MB·English

by  Brandilyn Collins

Cover Photos by WEN WEN and Alesandro14
Author Name Logo by DogEared Design
Author Photo by Angela Hunt

Getting Into Character, Edition 2
Copyright © 2015 Brandilyn Collins
All rights reserved

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BOOKS BY
BRANDILYN COLLINS

Southern Contemporary

Bradleyville Series

Cast a Road Before Me
Color the Sidewalk for Me
Capture the Wind for Me

Dearing Family Series

That Dog Won’t Hunt
Pitchin’ a Fit

Suspense

Stand Alone Novels

Sidetracked
Dark Justice
Gone to Ground
Over the Edge
Deceit
Exposure
Dark Pursuit

Rayne Tour YA Series
(co-written with Amberly Collins)

Always Watching
Last Breath
Final Touch

Kanner Lake Series

Violet Dawn
Coral Moon
Crimson Eve
Amber Morn

Hidden Faces Series

Brink of Death
Stain of Guilt
Dead of Night
Web of Lies

Chelsea Adams Series

Eyes of Elisha
Dread Champion

Non-Fiction

Getting Into Character:
Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors
Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Should A Novelist Care About Method
Acting?

Secret #1: Personalizing

Secret #2: Action Objectives

Secret #3: Subtexting

Secret #4: Coloring Passions

Secret #5: Inner Rhythm

Secret #6: Restraint And Control

Secret #7: Emotion Memory

Appendix

Author’s Note
INTRODUCTION
Why Should a Novelist Care about Method Acting?

[The artist’s] job is not to present merely the external life of his character.
He must fit his own human qualities to the life of this other person, and pour
into it all of his own soul. The fundamental aim of our art is the creation of
this inner life of a human spirit, and its expression in an artistic form.
—Constantin Stanislavsky, An Actor Prepares

The “Secrets” or characterization techniques in this book can open a
whole new world of thinking for you as a novelist. I’ve adapted these
techniques from the “System” or “Method” of acting attributed to the great
Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938).
When I started my career in fiction I automatically used these
adaptations from Method Acting in my writing. I soon saw from reader
feedback that the techniques were working. Readers would comment how
they didn’t just read the scenes I wrote, they felt them. To this day that’s the
highest praise I can receive from a reader.
But when I would mention these techniques to my colleagues, many of
whom had been published far longer than I, they gave me blank looks. I came
to realize that my understanding of Method Acting wasn’t standard
knowledge to most novelists. Why should it be? My first major in college had
been theater. Without those studies I wouldn’t have been aware of the various
Method Acting concepts myself, much less having discovered how to tweak
them for my own use as a novelist. I also began to realize the “Secrets” I’d
come up with needed to be written to help other writers. Since then I’ve
taught these Secrets countless times at writers conferences—and have seen