David Corbett Quotes

Characterization requires a constant back-and-forth between the exterior events of the story and the inner life of the character.

Compelling characters are not cogs in the machine of your plot; they are human beings to whom the story happens.

Whether we know it or not, our minds and hearts are populated by all the characters we will ever need - though we may disassemble them and rearrange the parts into composites for variation.

An intuitive grasp of your character is formed by exploring scenes of profound emotional import-moments of overwhelming shame, joy, fear, pride, regret, forgiveness.

The problem lies not with genre but with formula, which consists of seeing genre conventions as restrictions rather than mere guidelines, ends in themselves rather than possibilities.