Larry Brooks · 278 pages
Rating: (2.4K votes)
“Instinct is the elusive magic that happens when art collides with hard-won craft.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Because, if you haven’t wrapped your head around this principle, chances are you’ll never sell a story.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“THE SEVEN KEY CHARACTERIZATION VARIABLES Think of these as realms, as areas of potential character illumination. Here they are, in no particular order: Surface affectations and personality—What the world sees and perceives about a character, including quirks, ticks, habits, and visual presentation. Backstory—All that happened in the character’s life before the story begins that conspires to make him who he is now. Character arc—How the character learns lessons and grows (changes) over the course of the story, how she evolves and conquers her most confounding issues. Inner demons and conflicts—The nature of the issues that hold a character back and define his outlook, beliefs, decisions, and actions. Fear of meeting new people, for example, is a demon that definitely compromises one’s life experience. Worldview—An adopted belief system and moral compass; the manifested outcome of backstory and inner demons. Goals and motivations—What drives a character’s decisions and actions, and the belief that the benefits of those decisions and actions outweigh any costs or compromises. Decisions, actions, and behaviors—The ultimate decisions and actions that are the sum of all of the above. Everything about your characters depends on this final variable, and the degree to which the character’s decisions, actions, and behaviors have meaning and impact depends on how well you’ve manipulated the first six variables before, during, and after the moment of decision or action.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“The bar is high. But now you have a ladder.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“As a writer, you are that architect.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“We all select our fates based on the paths we choose.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Doing a lot of reading is not the prerequisite to writing.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“the president of Goodwill Industries made $800,000 a year.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“The Six Core Competencies do not define or offer a formula. Rather, they define structure driven by criteria for the elements that comprise it.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Love your scenes, and they’ll love you in return.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Remember—write this down, it’s critical—nothing fuels a story quite like hope.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“What if that child survived, and the lineage continues to this day, meaning the ancestors of Christ are walking among us?”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“If you're playing God, you need to get it right.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“A clever trick does not a concept make.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Here's the truth about organic writing: It's just story planning by another name.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“even when we stop typing and leave the house, we remain writers.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Here’s another analogy. Human beings bring only a handful of facial features to the blueprint of how we look—two eyes, two eyebrows, a nose, a mouth, a pair of cheekbones, and two ears, all pasted onto a somewhat ovular-to-round face. That particular blueprint doesn’t often vary much, either. Interestingly enough, this is about the same number of essential storytelling parts and milestones that each and every story needs to showcase in order to be successful. Now, consider this: With only these eleven variables to work with, ask yourself how often you see two people who look exactly alike. In a crowd of ten thousand faces, you would be able to differentiate each and every one of them, other than a set of twins or two in attendance. Where we humans are concerned, the miracle of originality resides in the Creator, who applies an engineering-driven process—eleven variables— to an artistic outcome. Where art is concerned, there is something to be learned from that.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“[on scene execution] Interesting isn't the point...storytelling momentum and relevance is.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“We get to play God with our stories.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“Writing is a two-party democracy. To the left are those who write stories from their heart, or according to the other side of the aisle, from the seat of their pants. On the right are those who write stories from a meticulously constructed outline.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction
“I can hurt myself more than anyone else can," she told her sister. "I can do it with my eyes closed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Story Sisters
“One thing I’d learned in life was that women could bitch about their men until they were blue in the face and you could listen and nod and offer support. But you never as in never said something bad about a woman’s man no matter how much she bitched or how much he may deserve it. It always came back to haunt you.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Rock Chick Renegade
“What if I fall?', Tim cried.
Maerlyn laughed. 'Sooner or later, we all do.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Wind Through the Keyhole
“For one week, all I could think about was drinking margaritas--well, that and running my tongue along Reyes's teeth--but I didn't have salt--or Reyes's teeth. I'd also lacked the energy to leave my apartment to get some--or the desire to stoop low enough to beg Reyes to let me lick his teeth after what he did--so I could only wish for a margarita. And dream of Reyes's teeth.
I'd secretly hoped a margarita would magically appear in my hand, but that would mean I would have to put down the remote, and God knew that was not going to happen.”
― Darynda Jones, quote from Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet
“I could not disagree more,” said Ganesh, my father giving me a hidden wink. “If we build toward them they’ll see it as hostile and we’ll be pulled into a confrontation. Now, I agree that we’ve got to expand — these last few days in Bridewell have clearly shown that. Within a few years Bridewell and the towns against the sea will be at maximum capacity, and then what will we do? We have over ten miles between us and Ainsworth, which I think is a good healthy distance. We can’t expand off the cliffs from Lathbury or Turlock, so those are dead ends. Bridewell is stuck in the middle with no place to grow. I think our best option is to start building two-and three-story buildings. Grow up instead of out. We could grow to twice our size if we just abolished the single-level rule.”
― Patrick Carman, quote from The Dark Hills Divide
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