Jules Horne - Dramatic Techniques for Creative Writers: Turbo-Charge Your Writing

This book is for all writers who want to take their craft to another level.

Its for writers from the worlds of fiction, copywriting, journalism or business who want to learn from other writing skill sets.

Its for students interested in playwriting or scriptwriting who want an overview of key dramatic concepts.

Its for TV and film fans who want to look under the hood at techniques used by writers.

Its for teachers who want to understand foundational dramatic concepts and structures.

Its for creative and curious people interested in learning from another creative discipline.

Its for anyone interested in secrets.

Writers! Do you want to write with more impact?

Then youve come to the right place.

This book is full of ideas to turbo-charge your technique.

Confession: Theyre shamelessly stolen from the world of drama.

Theyre the techniques playwrights, screenwriters for TV and film and radio dramatists use on a daily basis to create stories that work in front of an audience.

Techniques that other writers often dont know about.

Why do I know this? Because Im a fiction writer, poet and ex BBC journalist, and most of this powerful knowledge was new to me until I wrote my first script.

When I dived into world of drama, I met a whole new set of concepts that were transformative for my writing.

New ways of thinking about action, character, structure, place, space, time... yes, that fundamental!

And all hidden from view.

Maybe because dramatists and other writers dont often meet? Maybe because dramatic writers keep their techniques secret? Maybe because the techniques are so obvious to dramatists that they dont need discussion?

Whatever the reasons, I wanted to share what Ive discovered on my journey from writer to dramaticwriter.

These techniques have fed back into my fiction and non-fiction in powerful ways. Theyve given me a new vocabulary and concepts for approaching any kind of writing with confidence. Theyve helped to speed up planning and editing. Theyve even helped me get writing commissions.

I was unbelievably excited to discover these techniques. And at the same time baffled, because no one ever told me they existed. Even though I was an aspiring writer hungry to learn, Id never encountered most of them.

This below-the-radar situation is starting to change. Fiction writers are increasingly reading about screenwriting and dramaturgy, and passing on what theyve learned about structure, story, arcs, action.

But theres plenty more gold to mine from the world of drama.

Thats whats in this book.

Of course, if you prefer, you can go at things the long way around, as I did:

• immerse yourself in Aristotle, McKee, Mamet, Vogler, Stanislavski, Marks, Aronson, Johnstone, Bern...
• bend your brain around narratology, psychology, cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis...
• devour and annotate Shakespeare, Rhimes, Guare and endless plays, films, and TV box sets...
• feed back on hundreds of drafts in progress...

...to understand the tools of dramatic writing.

Or, you can simply read this book! It shares the best nuggets from dramatic technique in clear, distilled form, so you can put them into action in your writing straight away.

Warning: This will transform the way you see films, TV, and pretty well all human interaction. Are you ready?

Im an award-winning dramatist and fiction writer, and university creative writing teacher.

Since I was tiny, Ive loved reading, and always wanted to write for a living. Despite its challenges, I still love it more than anything else.