At first glance, the title seems to be written only for screenwriters and writers. But this is not the author's intention, he also wrote for the general public. After reading it, I can indeed feel the friendliness and enlightenment of this book for non-professional readers. This book can really deepen the understanding of good scripts and even literary works for the general reader.
The author's point of view is concise and clear: find the premise (purpose); Choose the main character and let him drive the plot; The characters should embody the physiological dimension, social maintenance, and psychological dimension. It should reflect the growth and willpower of the character; It is necessary to carefully arrange each character and grasp the unity of opposites between the characters; Make sure that the chosen point of attack is a major turning point in the character's life; By constantly "presenting", i.e., transitioning, writing out the foreshadowing of conflict and ensuring that the conflict is escalating; Characters caught in conflict move from one pole of the state to the other, causing crises; As conflicts continue to rise, crises develop into climaxes, and the climax is followed by results. Dialogue is important and must originate with the characters, not the author.
The author does not use too much jargon when describing his theories, and there are no dense abstract concepts. Only by tirelessly analyzing the classic scripts in detail, and even rewriting them, can the excellence of the classic scripts be reflected in order to deepen the reader's understanding of the point of view. Each point of view is followed by a dialogue to answer questions and answer questions, so that people can get more inspiration and deeper understanding. The author's exposition of each point of view is not general, but a full and detailed list of what can be referred to. For example, when talking about the three-dimensional information complete character frame structure, 8 physiological dimensions, 9 social dimensions and 9 psychological dimensions are listed. When discussing conflict and inspiring readers to observe the characteristics of the people around them, he lists more than 70 words with character characteristics and 15 pairs of character traits that may cause conflict. When discussing the transition, 7 transitions from birth and death and 8 transitions from friendship to ** are listed. Therefore, this book also has the function of guiding practical writing, and can be consulted at any time.
Whether you are a screenwriter or not, reading this book will improve your ability to write a story. The script is to show the story of the characters, and the time is limited, and the only thing that can show the characters is dialogue. In contrast, it seems that there are more means and ways for movies. If you master the essence of writing a good script, writing ** should be even more powerful. And through this book, you will also discover that in addition to imagination and common sense, becoming a playwright requires nuanced observation, endurance to trace the roots, balanced rationality and good taste, as well as a wide range of knowledge of economics, psychology, physiology and sociology.
Even if you don't write, after reading this book, your appreciation of dramas, movies, and ** can be improved. Our perceptual experience, with clear theoretical support, will have a feeling of sudden enlightenment. For example, if the plot is not exciting, it may be because the conflict is static; For example, if it is not brilliant, it may be that there is no attack point and no major turning point of the character; For example, if the character has no characteristics, it may be that the dimension of the character is lacking, or the growth of the character is not reflected; For example, if it is too false, it may be that the character's language and behavior do not match the character; For example, if it is too abrupt, it may be that the transition has not been handled well. Using these theoretical perspectives, we can also judge the quality of the works with reasonable evidence, and at the same time, we will pay more respect to those classic works.