The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives

Product Description

Learn the basic techniques every successful playwright knows
Among the many "how-to" playwriting books that have appeared over the years, there have been few that attempt to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri's classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay.
Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives -- why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise -- a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior -- and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior.
Using Egri's ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.

Top Reviews

Text so small it is almost impossible to read!
by Steven C (1 out of 5 stars)
February 16, 2018

The text is so small on the hardcopy that it is almost impossible to read. Had I have known this, I would have never purchased this book.

I am only at the beginning of the first chapter and have eye fatigue. Really sad.
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A MAJOR RIP OFF - AVOID AT ALL COSTS
by eb (1 out of 5 stars)
August 21, 2019

This is one of the best books on writing ever written. However AVOID this hardcover copy at all costs. The type is so small that it's a chore to read - and annotate. A greedy publisher diminished this fine product to the point that it's virtually unreadable.

More to the point - this book launched my screenwriting career. I had the chops - Lajos Egri showed me the way and opened the studio and television network gates. One wants to 'own' the knowledge imparted between these pages- take notes, underline and such. So I came back to revisit Egri decades later and ended up with this piece of crap.
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Brilliant.
by sexy dancer (5 out of 5 stars)
February 3, 2017

This is not a typical book about writing screenplays or plays which you can find almost anywhere. This book delves deeper into psychology and how you can humanize your characters and create a storyline which is way, way up in terms of excellence. Brilliant!
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The Best Storytelling Book Ever!
by Mary Griffith (5 out of 5 stars)
June 15, 2017

This is my favorite book on storytelling. It was mandatory reading for a graduate class I took at USC and it helped me write my first novel. It's about playwriting but is instrumental in any form of story telling.
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I took an Introduction to Screenwriting class through a continuing ...
by Lidoshka (5 out of 5 stars)
April 22, 2018

I took an Introduction to Screenwriting class through a continuing education program and this was the required read. Although this is written for a play, it works perfectly for film and TV.
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Really gets to the core of what makes good fiction
by Wenis (4 out of 5 stars)
March 2, 2012

I've read quite a few books on writing fiction and this was one of my favorites (my number one favorite being Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
). Egri does an amazing job breaking down how to make characters drive your story, and his principles are self-evident in that you'll immediately recognize them at work in all great stories that you've read and watched.

Some of the key concepts he covers in this book are...
- How to create your story's PREMISE. SO many stories lack this and, as a result, feel empty and hollow (and you often don't know why).
- How to craft your pivotal character--the character that will force the conflict and that makes or breaks the story. If you get this wrong, you'll lose people very quickly.
- How to play your protagonist against your antagonist correctly so that the tension of the story builds steadily until the climax. This is what makes books real page-turners.
- How to figure out where to open your story so it immediately grabs your reader or viewer and doesn't let him go.
- What is meant by "character growth" and how to do this in a way that feels natural and inevitable. Nothing is worse than reading about or watching a story wherein the people never change or, even worse, change inexplicably and illogically.
- How to create "tridimensional" characters that feel true to life at a visceral level. These are the types of characters that you never forget.
- And much more.

If you're a fiction writer of any kind (novels, TV, screenplays, etc.), read this book. It will forever change the way you look at storytelling.
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Difficult edition to read; Take what you like, leave the rest.
by Ron (2 out of 5 stars)
October 24, 2019

"Classic" book, apparently required reading for dramatic writing, but a poor edition. It's hard-cover, which is nice, but a very small font and, what's really unusual, is there's no indentation or space between paragraphs, making it difficult to read. I had no idea how important (and standard) those things are, and how much I missed them throughout the reading of this book. The book was originally written in 1942 (which you'll find nowhere in the book). The author writes with great authority about his theories and often strikes quite an attitude. He references a few of the same plays as examples throughout the book. Get it, read it, roll your eyes, and take what lessons you can. There are good lessons, but it's not as much the final word on things as the author's tone presumes.
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The master piece that competes with Howard Lawsons' work
by Rodrigo Carranza (5 out of 5 stars)
May 17, 2007

This book is a classic.

One of the things that makes this book a classic is its simplicity. The book start exploring how you as a dramatic writer can use Premise as the guiding sign through out the whole process of writing a story.

Once you have a premise you can work on creating your characters (using the premise to do that). To do this you'll have to know your character's physiology, sociology, pshychology, etc.

Once you have your characters you can work on creating the story using the principle of contradiction, thesis, antithesis and synthesis. You'll have to use clashing forces... (again, you use the premise as explained at the beginning of the book).

Then the author covers some of the most important elements in writing dramatic material of quality.

In my case I found the chapter of "Jumping" quite enlightening. Once you read this chapter you'll understand why many, many stories just don't work. The characters jump and then... they fall to their death... and to the apaty of the audience.

What is it that I like about this book? Well, I read it... time passes... come back to it again... time passes... and I come back again to read it!

Where as most books make you feel like writing is extremely difficult, this one always makes me feel like I'm in command and that great story telling is within my grasp.
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Lajos Egri, the teacher you always wanted to have.
by mickey (5 out of 5 stars)
February 22, 2012

Amazon carries so many authors, but Lajos Egri is the best (in my opinion) in the field of creative writing. Thank You Amazon.

In the first chapter, titled Premise, Mr Egri tells us "A man sits in his workshop, busy with an invention of wheels and springs. You ask him what the gadget is, what it is meant to do. He looks at you confidingly and whispers: 'I really don't know.'"

This is apt for not only the play write or author with the first draft, it can pertain to the reader of Steinbeck or Faulkner or Joyce, BUT if person has read or at least browsed The Art of Dramatic Writing, then he/she will have a path to follow whether towards a finished play or novel or the thrill and enjoyment of understanding great writing.

This book is a must in anyone's library.
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Good, though dated, text.
by Just a Putz in WI (4 out of 5 stars)
August 6, 2009

This is a good, though highly technical approach to the art of playwriting. Egri does prospective playwrights a great service by stressing a logical approach to planning and/or shaping a script. It is about choosing and staying true to the message you intend to communicate through your play (which is much needed advice, I think, in a post-modern, let-everyone-decide-what-art-means-to-them-as-there-is-no-truth culture) and about crafting characters who are passionate, three dimensional and true to their psychological, sociological, physical and, I would add, spiritual make-up. His argument is that if you have a clear premise (message) and cast the right characters, the play should logically unfold through rising conflict and increased tension to a natural final crisis. That's what I like about it and what I got out of it.

The downside... the text, near as I can tell, was written in the '20s - '30s. Egri has numerous scientific analogies, some which are very true and enlightening, but there are also scientific anomalies (for example, I don't think it is scientifically accurate that all the cells in the body are exchanged every 7 years), though his overall advice to the playwright does not suffer. And a few of the plays and playwrights he cites are out of the contemporary repertoire.

One might also be tempted to bemoan Egri's love for Ibsen, and talk about how Doll's House is not an "exciting" play for modern audiences, but I would counter that I agree with Egri in that a fashionable/provocative/avant garde play of today MAY get more play TODAY and may even make you more money, but the kind of approach Egri describes will create BETTER plays that last longer AND there is nothing in Egri's approach that precludes experimentation with style.

What does this book NOT do? It does not teach you how to write good dialogue, or how to create a 10-minute play (I think Egri may have cringed at the idea, though I could be wrong) or other beginning playwriting technical issues, BUT, I think some of those technical playwriting things are best served on an individual basis in a classroom, and the more overarching ideas are definitely more important to a playwright who knows they can write readable and speakable dialogue, and can craft the arc of an interesting scene.

Lastly, and maybe my largest complaint, is against the publisher. THERE ARE A TON OF TYPOS AND WONKY FORMATTING IN THIS BOOK! A TON! It REALLY made me, at times, question the quality of the message based on the medium. GET IT TOGETHER!

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