Download or read book My Character Wouldn t Do That written by Donna Soto-Morettini and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting from the idea that the main hindrance to a great acting performance is self-consciousness on the part of the performer, My Character Wouldn't do That examines the ways in which some of our traditional and contemporary approaches to acting put us into a 'mind space' that can encourage self-consciousness. Examining evidence from a range of contemporary cognitive sciences, the book approaches acting and actor training in an entirely different way. Based on the latest research into brain activity and human behaviour, the book covers areas that standard acting texts do (character, emotion, memory, imagination, making active choices) but reconceives each of these elements through the lens of that contemporary research. The book is the first to look closely at what contemporary research tells us about: · personality/character and how environment shapes us · how memory works and how actors can work with (rather than against) their memory in preparing for performance · why actors must use different kinds of brain states and imagination in the various stages of preparation, rehearsal, and performance · how actors can frame active choices in a way that refocuses the source of thought and action · why actors should distinguish the stages of preparation and the kinds of thinking / imagination that works at each stage

Download or read book What Would Your Character Do written by Eric Maisel and published by . This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not just another dry, how-to instruction book, What Would Your Character Do? is the first interactive guide that encourages writers to get inside their characters' heads as they create them. This fascinating book: *Provides more than twenty detailed personality quizzes to help writers analyze their characters' traits *Features easy-to-understand psychological summaries and prompts for further exploration *Includes a wealth of writing and psychology expertise to help writers create believable charactersWhether readers are exploring how their characters react to the death of a loved one or how their characters learned to ride a bike, they're sure to emerge with more compelling heroes, heroines, and villains than ever before.

Download or read book Writing Irresistible Kidlit written by Mary Kole and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captivate the hearts and minds of young adult readers! Writing for young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) audiences isn't just "kid's stuff" anymore--it's kidlit! The YA and MG book markets are healthier and more robust than ever, and that means the competition is fiercer, too. In Writing Irresistible Kidlit, literary agent Mary Kole shares her expertise on writing novels for young adult and middle grade readers and teaches you how to: • Recognize the differences between middle grade and young adult audiences and how it impacts your writing. • Tailor your manuscript's tone, length, and content to your readership. • Avoid common mistakes and cliches that are prevalent in YA and MG fiction, in respect to characters, story ideas, plot structure and more. • Develop themes and ideas in your novel that will strike emotional chords. Mary Kole's candid commentary and insightful observations, as well as a collection of book excerpts and personal insights from bestselling authors and editors who specialize in the children's book market, are invaluable tools for your kidlit career. If you want the skills, techniques, and know-how you need to craft memorable stories for teens and tweens, Writing Irresistible Kidlit can give them to you.

Download or read book Love and Hydrogen written by Jim Shepard and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I’ve been a problem baby, a lousy son, a distant brother, an off-putting neighbor, a piss-poor student, a worrisome seatmate, an unreliable employee, a bewildering lover, a frustrating confidante and a crappy husband. Among the things I do pretty well at this point I’d have to list darts, re-closing Stay-Fresh boxes, and staying out of the way. This is the self-eulogy offered early on by the unwilling hero of the opening story in this collection, a dazzling array of work in short fiction from a master of the form. The stories in Love and Hydrogen—familiar to readers from publications ranging from McSweeney’s to The New Yorker to Harper’s to Tin House—encompass in theme and compassion what an ordinary writer would seem to need several lifetimes to imagine. A frustrated wife makes use of an enterprising illegal-gun salesman to hold her husband hostage; two hapless adult-education students botch their attempts at rudimentary piano but succeed in a halting, awkward romance; a fascinated and murderous Creature welcomes the first human visitors to his Black Lagoon; and in the title story, the stupefyingly huge airship Hindenburg flies to its doom, representing in 1937 mankind's greatest yearning as well as its titanic failure. Generous in scope and astonishing in ambition, Shepard’s voice never falters; the virtuosity of Love and Hydrogen cements his reputation as, in the words of Rick Bass, “a passionate writer with a razor-sharp wit and an elephantine heart”—in short, one of the most powerful talents at work today.

Download or read book The Monsters Know What They re Doing written by Keith Ammann and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the popular blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing comes a compilation of villainous battle plans for Dungeon Masters. In the course of a Dungeons & Dragons game, a Dungeon Master has to make one decision after another in response to player behavior—and the better the players, the more unpredictable their behavior! It’s easy for even an experienced DM to get bogged down in on-the-spot decision-making or to let combat devolve into a boring slugfest, with enemies running directly at the player characters and biting, bashing, and slashing away. In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Keith Ammann lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat. Easy to read and apply, The Monsters Know What They're Doing is essential reading for every DM.

Download or read book Sometimes I Lie written by Alice Feeney and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2018-03-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

Download or read book Eberron Rising from the Last War D D Campaign Setting and Adventure Book written by Dungeons & Dragons and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the lands of Eberron in this campaign sourcebook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. This book provides everything players and Dungeon Masters need to play Dungeons & Dragons in Eberron—a war-torn world filled with magic-fueled technology, airships and lightning trains, where noir-inspired mystery meets swashbuckling adventure. Will Eberron enter a prosperous new age or will the shadow of war descend once again? • Dive straight into your pulp adventures with easy-to-use locations, complete with maps of floating castles, skyscrapers, and more. • Explore Sharn, a city of skyscrapers, airships, and noirish intrigue and a crossroads for the world’s war-ravaged peoples. • Include a campaign for characters venturing into the Mournland, a mist-cloaked, corpse-littered land twisted by magic. • Meld magic and invention to craft objects of wonder as an artificer—the first official class to be released for fifth edition D&D since the Player’s Handbook. • Flesh out your characters with a new D&D game element called a group patron—a background for your whole party. • Explore 16 new race/subrace options including dragonmarks, which magically transform certain members of the races in the Player’s Handbook. • Confront horrific monsters born from the world’s devastating wars.

Download or read book Gurps Basic Set Third Edition Revised written by Steve Jackson and published by Steve Jackson Games. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adventure in any world you can think of, with GURPS, the Generic Universal RolePlaying System - the most flexible roleplaying system you can use. If you haven't yet upgraded to the Fourth Edition . . . you're a completist . . . or you're looking for a dose of nostalgia, here's the previous edition! It's easy to learn - you can jump right in with the included quick-start rules, pre-designed characters, and an easy-to-play solo adventure. The Basic Set is designed to be "Game Master-friendly," with Table of Contents, Glossary, Appendix, and Index, as well as lots of examples.

Download or read book GMC Goal Motivation and Conflict written by Debra Dixon and published by Bell Bridge Books. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book belongs on every fiction writer's bookshelf. Anyone who has ever had a story to tell and is dying to get it down on paper will find guidance and inspiration in GMC. The presentation is clear, immediate, and relevant to all writers--from novices to seasoned professionals. Experienced author Debra Dixon has done a magnificent job of demystifying the toughest aspect of fiction writing: that of a giving a story shape, form and urgency." -- Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling and RITA® Award winning author of over 40 novels and novellas "One of the best in her craft." -- Toronto Star "Goal, Motivation & Conflict is one of my all time favorites." -- Jane Porter (Flirting With Forty), award winning and bestselling author with 10 million books in print, in twenty languages and 25 countries Goal, motivation, and conflict are the foundation of everything that happens in the story world. Using charts, examples, and movies, the author breaks these key elements down into understandable components and walks the reader through the process of laying this foundation in his or her own work. Learn what causes sagging middles and how to fix them, which goals are important, which aren't and why, how to get your characters to do what they need for your plot in a believable manner, and how to use conflict to create a good story. GMC can be used not only in plotting, but in character development, sharpening scenes, pitching ideas to an editor, and evaluating whether an idea will work. Be confident your ideas will work before you write 200 pages. Plan a road map to keep your story on track. Discover why your scenes aren't working and what to do about it. Create characters that editors and readers will care about.

Download or read book The Road to Character written by David Brooks and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Brooks challenges us to rebalance the scales between the focus on external success—“résumé virtues”—and our core principles. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade. Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth. “Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.” Praise for The Road to Character “A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.”—The New York Times Book Review “This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.”—Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon “A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.”—The Guardian “Original and eye-opening . . . Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.”—USA Today

Download or read book An Aberrant Mind written by Ken MacGregor and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-04 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABERRANT is defined as unusual, abnormal or different. The stories in this book not only differ from most of what you read, but also wildly from each other. A retired school teacher takes on an elder god and his minion; a werewolf picks fights with sea creatures; a neighbor's lawn that may be eating people. Twenty-two stories: scary, funny, weird and different. In these pages, you will find darkness and fear, revulsion and terror. Mixed with it, however is quite a bit of humor. Sometimes both happen at the same time. So, open it up, join Jim as he fights off zombies with a potato cannon; witness the bloodbath reunion of the first man and his homicidal son; enjoy the monsters, the demons and the deranged. A word of warning, though: you may never eat a bagel with lox again.

Download or read book Toon written by Business and Game Consultant Greg Costikyan and published by Steve Jackson Games. This book was released on 1991-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -- A roleplaying game in which no character ever dies. Suitable for parents and kids. -- Simple rules, lots of sample characters, and 22 short, silly adventures!

Download or read book A Sense of Survival written by Kevin Casey and published by Wolfhound Press (IE). This book was released on 1985 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Oriental Adventures written by Gary Gygax and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Superstar written by Mandy Davis and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year! “Lester’s first-person narrative is honest and pure.” —Kirkus (starred review) Perfect for fans of Fish in a Tree and Wonder, this uplifting debut novel from Mandy Davis follows space-obsessed Lester Musselbaum as he experiences the challenges of his first days of public school: making friends, facing bullies, finding his "thing," and accidentally learning of his autism-spectrum diagnosis. Lester’s first days as a fifth grader at Quarry Elementary School are not even a little bit like he thought they would be—the cafeteria is too loud for Lester's ears, there are too many kids, and then there's the bully. Lester was always home-schooled, and now he’s shocked to be stuck in a school where everything just seems wrong. That's until he hears about the science fair, which goes really well for Lester! This is it. The moment where I find out for 100 percent sure that I won. But then things go a bit sideways, and Lester has to find his way back. A touching peek into the life of a sensitive autism-spectrum boy facing the everydayness of elementary school, Superstar testifies that what you can do isn’t nearly as important as who you are. “A lovely, heartfelt narrative about the things we’ve lost, and the things we’ve found again.” —Gary D. Schmidt, Newbery Honor winner for The Wednesday Wars “I LOVE LESTER.” —Linda Urban, author of Milo Speck, Accidental Agent and A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Download or read book Strongholds Followers written by Matthew Colville and published by . This book was released on 2019-06 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Stronghold & Followers explains both the practicality of owning a keep (how much it costs to build, the costs to maintain it, what sort of impact it would have on local politics) and gives a variety of benefits for those players who choose to build or take over one." -- Comicbook.com website: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/12/14/stronghold-and-followers-dungeons-and-dragons/ (viewed July 16, 2019)

Download or read book Breaking the Game written by Kenji Matsumoto and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by one of the best Scrabble players in the world, Breaking the Game delves into Scrabble like you've never seen before. Whether you are a new player who wants to beat your friends and family, an avid word lover who wants to know about Scrabble, an avid game player who wants to pick up the game, or an experienced Scrabble master, Breaking the Game can help anyone become a better Scrabble player. Breaking the Game covers basic Scrabble concepts (such as anagramming and board vision) to more complex concepts such as leaves, fishing, setups, and endgame. While it describes these concepts at a high level, it is written simply, at a level that anyone can understand! This book will become a reference for any Scrabble enthusiast that they can come back to time and time again!