The Art Of Dramatic Writing

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 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. Print ed.

“THIS book was written not only for authors and playwrights, but for the general public. If the reading public understands the mechanism of writing, if that public becomes aware of the hardships, the tremendous effort that goes into any and all literary work, appreciation will become more spontaneous.

The reader will find at the end of this book synopses of plays, analyzed according to dialectics. We hope these will add to the reader’s understanding of novels and short stories in general, and of plays and movies in particular.

We have based our theory on the eternally changing “character” who forever reacts, almost violently, to constantly changing internal and external stimuli.”-Foreword.