Characters on the Couch
How would you convince your readers that the passionate understudy could be driven to murder to get the plum role? Well, our advice would be to e-mail Characters on the Couch – a blog written by a practising psychologist to help writers hone their craft.
Pierre Brouard, writing as Gabriel St Claire, offers psycho-literary advice to writers on www.allaboutlove.net . Writers from around the world send him questions about human motivation and character complexity – and he responds with practical advice both from his professional insight and his love of story.
“I do think it’s possible,” he told Adil, busy with his book set in the world of opera, “but I’m more inclined to think the acts of your understudy were a result of a heated and impulsive moment which would fit the so-called artistic temperament more closely.”
“To our knowledge, this is the only service of its kind available to writers anywhere in the world,” says Jo-Anne Richards, co-creator of allaboutlove.
“Every great novel – not to mention films and television – is rooted in characters that leap to life from page and screen. We remember them as real people,” says her colleague Richard Beynon.
In fact, all three are so convinced of the importance of complex characters, that they have also designed a one-day course to help writers of all kinds build characters that will effortlessly drive any plot forward. The first face-to-face Character Course is being held in Johannesburg on October 24, 2009.
E-mail Gabriel at info@allaboutlove.net
For more information contact allaboutwriting@worldonline.co.za
