Psychology for writers

[Robinne Weiss]

I just read a helpful little book by Darian Smith on psychology for writers. I saw Darian speak on the topic a few months ago, and just finally got round to picking up his book. It's a quick read, and has some good, provocative questions to get you thinking about how to apply the psychological theories to your characters and plot. Thought it was worth sharing with you all.

Here's the link to the Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-W...360826&sr=8-2&keywords=psychology+for+writers

 

[Emurelda]

Useful. Feedback from an agent yesterday said she couldn't connect with the characters. Perhaps I should make this book my next purchase.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Useful. Feedback from an agent yesterday said she couldn't connect with the characters. Perhaps I should make this book my next purchase.

The book might help you to round out your characters, but bear in mind that the agent could be a psychopath—who doesn't truly connect with anyone!

 

[Emurelda]

The book might help you to round out your characters, but bear in mind that the agent could be a psychopath—who doesn't truly connect with anyone!

I tend not to send to psychopathic agents. Prefer to keep to sane ones, call me crazy.

 

[Patricia D]

I've often wished I'd taken a psych course in college, so I bought a book, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. As the title hints, it's not light reading, but it's been useful.

 

[NickP]

hmmm

If you consider stories or fiction as a way to analyse some aspect of the human condition, an attempt to get to the bottom of the question how to live your life, or what happens if you live some other way - wrestling with moral dilemmas maybe, then if you create your story/plot from a psychology text book don't you risk coming up with somebody else's solution?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

What I like about Darian's book is that he presents the psychological theories as ways of understanding and framing how people behave, not as a counselling manual--his goal is to show you how you can create mayhem and conflict, and help your characters act consistently using psychology. He leaves it up to the writer to get their characters out of the mess (or not).

 

[NickP]

Yeah, It's a good idea - but there's an inherent conflict between the idea that we are the sum of our hormones, background and parenting (our type perhaps) and the idea that we have some control or choice (free will) and that our efforts will reap what we sow. That's more or less the story of fiction, ain't it?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Exactly, but creating a character with hormones, background and parenting is critical to creating a believable character. Our free will is always a compromise between what has influenced us in the past, and what we want for the future. If you don't give your character a past (demons in the closet, prejudices, experiences, beliefs about their place in the world, fears, self-doubt) to struggle against, they're not a reflection of real life.

 

[NickP]

Yes - I can see that. tools to build characters.

If one wants to use Trilby, your character needs to have a want and a need - and the story is about the conflict between those two. The character WANTS to get rich (say) or to get promotion, or kill his brother - but what he/she needs is another thing altogether (love is the obvious default). Nowadays we like to provide a backstory as reason for the character flaw (mummy walked out, so now finds it hard to trust women etc) but in reality personalities are much more complex, fractured and downright bizarre than that. Fiction has to simplify to make sense of it.

 

[Sea-shore]

Useful. Feedback from an agent yesterday said she couldn't connect with the characters. Perhaps I should make this book my next purchase.

Hiya, try listening to this podcast:
Writing Excuses 9.48: Neurobolics of Characters

Interesting?

 

[Patricia D]

hmmm

If you consider stories or fiction as a way to analyse some aspect of the human condition, an attempt to get to the bottom of the question how to live your life, or what happens if you live some other way - wrestling with moral dilemmas maybe, then if you create your story/plot from a psychology text book don't you risk coming up with somebody else's solution?

not if you just use the book as a starting point to help you understand behavior that would otherwise be strange to you