Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re talking about Brandilyn Collins’ book “Getting into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors” .

In continuation of last week’s conversation about empathically embodying characters, we unpack a craft book that we both read by Brandilyn Collins where she describes seven common techniques used by method actors that writers can also employ to get in touch with their character’s inner lives.

But one of the first things we talk about is the cover of this book, which we feel doesn’t quite do justice to this fantastic gem of a craft book or hint at how packed full of great takeaways it is on creating and embodying characters. We note how the idea of “don’t judge a book by its cover” is absolutely true in this case.

We also loved that she talks about the technique for actors, translates them into tools that authors can use in their writing, and then gives examples from her work and classic literary works as well as exercises you can use to help strengthen those skills.

The main method acting techniques that we discuss from her book are:

• Secret 1: Personalizing - Making distinctive choices that help make someone feels real; Adding tiny details to character that reflect thought and don’t feel tacked on; Giving a character a “funny hat” and/or descriptors that help give us a shorthand for who the character is and helps readers remember them better; Subverting a stereotype or choosing to go down a slightly different path than typical; Include things your characters love and hate

• Secret 2: Action Objectives - Give them a desire in a scene even if it’s to have a drink of water; Nobody speaks unless they want something; What are they trying to accomplish, Why is this scene necessary?, Are they getting closer or farther away from that goal? 

• Secret 3: Subtexting - Identify when your characters are directly asking for things they never would in reality; Look for opportunities to show your characters hedging around things in their dialogue, but communicate to the audience what they’re trying to do and why through thoughts and emotions and physicality; We are often cloaking what we want, but we’re still trying to get it

• Secret 7: Emotion memory - Pull your own strong emotion and sensations from your memory; Pulling in your feelings and sensations in the moment  

• Secret 5: Inner Rhythm - The rhythm and pace as you write the story; An active intention of the beat of your story in the current moment or scene (Ex. fast, frenetic, plodding, slow but rising); Moving the emotions through a rise and fall 

As we bring this episode to a close, we talk about taking what is done in one genre and studying it and then deciding what aspects of it fit well for your own genre. Many of the examples in this book include pieces from Brandilyn Collins’ thriller novels, but we feel that the fact that those books often dial things up to an eleven allow for you to fully capture the idea while also considering how the concept would best be used within your own work and current genre.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Though we don’t directly mention them by name, these previous episodes are connected with this series:

• Episode 31: Writing diverse characters

• Episode 188: Neurodivergence and Creativity Part 1

• Episode 189: Neurodivergence and Creativity Part 2

• Episode 190: A panel on neurodiversity and creativity

• Episode 202: Language affects perception

• Episode 239: Writing with Disabilities

• Episode 240: Writing Characters with Disabilities

• Episode 241: Diversity in Six of Crows

As part of this discussion series, we use this definition of embodying:

• “To give a concrete form to; To express, personify, or exemplify; To make corporeal, to give body to a spirit, or to incorporate.”

Here are a few articles and videos we consulted in preparation for this series of episodes:

• Amy Tan Teaches Fiction, Memory, and Imagination Masterclass Video “3. Memory, Truth, and Imagination”

• TedEd Video “How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson”

• Diane Callahan Quotidian Video “Writing Fiction with Emotional Honesty”

• Jericho Writers Article “Emotions In Writing: How To Make Your Readers Feel”

• Writers Helping Writers Website & “https://onestopforwriters.com/thesaurus”

• LitHub.com Article “Nicola Griffith on Writing Immersive Historical Fiction”

• Writer’s Digest Article “The Journey of Character Creation: How Trauma and Empathy Inspire Fiction”

• The Guardian Article “Character building and what makes a truly great actor”

• Arts.ac.uk Article “Techniques: Get audition ready- Embody a character”

• Mariam-Webster.com Definition of Empathy

• GreaterGood.Berkely.Org Article “What is Empathy?”

• Linda S. Clare Article “Writing with Empathy”

Books and Films Mentioned:

• Getting into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors by Brandilyn Collins

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)