Customer Reviews

Inner Drives: How to Write and Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't understand why the consensus rating is 5/5. I found this book extremely wordy and it reads like a history book. If you want dozens of pages on the historical aspects of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If you want to see the same movies quoted and re-quoted over and over as examples of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If your idea of fun is combing through over one hundred pages dripping with hippy-isms looking for the "meat" you can use, then this book is for you. However, if you want a book that gives you a fair amount of background on a subject, fresh movie examples, and then leaves you with concrete ideas and examples of how to leverage the content matter to improve your characters and stories, then this book is not for you.

Notice how many times I repeat "this book is for you" and you'll get the idea of how this books reads. I am disappointed, especially given the 5/5 rating. It's more a 2/5 in my opinion, I got almost nothing useful out of it.

In "Inner Drives," Pamela Jaye Smith mines ancient wisdom and compellingly offers up a system of concepts about human motivation that is as valid today as it was thousands of years ago. These astute insights into human character are wonderfully useful tools for today's storytellers, a category which includes not only writers, but also directors, actors, and designers. These concepts can be (and have already been) put to work in any type of narrative, be it a screenplay, a novel, a theatre piece, an opera, or a short story. I believe this system would also be a useful asset in documentary projects, and it will undoubtedly work in my own field of Digital Storytelling... the use of interactive digital media to tell new kinds of dramatic narratives. In fact, Ms. Smith offers up a number of examples from video games.

The system Ms. Smith describes is based on the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation. In Sanskrit, these centers are called the chakras, but other cultures have other names for them. I was amazed to learn how many peoples throughout the world and in different time periods came up with the same general system to understand human nature. She makes a thoroughly convincing case for the universality of this system, and its fundamental accuracy, based as it is on human physiology.

For those of us who are writers, this classic system can be used to answer the a question we are always asking ourselves: "What makes this particular character tick?" This system gives us the God-like power of creating lifelike characters who seem to feel, think and breathe. And we can also use it to populate entire casts of characters -- ones destined to hate each other, to become allies, or to fall in love.

The book abounds with concrete illustrations of characters drawn from various narrative works, familiar characters like Scarlett O'Hara, Rocky and Stanley Kowalski, as well as real people like Charles Manson and Napolean Bonaparte. The examples help make what might at first seem to be an abstract approach to character develpment extremely understandable and usable.

I believe "Inner Drives" is an exciting new way to approach characters and is a wonderful addition to every working writer's library, although as Ms. Smith makes clear, it is not a new system at all, but one that is extremely old.

There are some basic principles to writing good characters into novels and dramas and with them the aspiring screenwriter or novelist can produce powerful, three-dimension figures. Inner Drives: How To Write & Create Characters Using The Eight Classic Centers Of Motivation surveys these principles from the world of mythology, using plenty of examples teamed with exercises to help writers structure characters, devise subplots, make logical connections and more. Chapters discuss 'inner drive centers', link art and writing to New Age concepts, and survey archetypes and classic examples.

From Braveheart to brain research, mystery schools to the martial arts, Poltergeist to prana, Pamela Jaye Smith's book INNER DRIVES distills a wealth of information in a way that makes the archetypal dimensions readable and accessible. Her writing style is exciting and delightful. I commend her work.

Jeanne Martin, Ph.D., Mythologist

Pamela Jaye Smith is one of the world's leading experts on contemporary application of myth, particularly as applied to screenwriting and story. Inner Drives is an important, valuable new approach that enables writers to approach plot and characters from a new perspective that just happens to be built upon models that are thousands of years old.

The book uses the term Inner drives to describe what I think of as the Chakra energy system, but there are many terms that have been used to describe the different levels of energy, of consciousness that range from the most basic physical through to the most mystical and transcendant.

Pamela takes you through the different levels and helps you to see how you can use changes in them to reflect changes in your characters. This is the real deal, the stuff that myths, heroes, and the most powerful stories are made of.

As organizer of the Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story, it's my job to know the leaders in the world of story. Pamela is a rock solid expert whose extraordinary breadth of knowledge is only exceeded by her vision. Inner Drives is a gift that weaves together her knowledge and vision. If you liked Chris Vogler's Writer's Journey and/or James Bonnet's Stealing Fire From the Gods, then you'll surely want to order this book right away. It delivers a lot more than its modest title promises.

Wow. This is a great screenwriting book -- but it's so much more. Not only does it give you a better understanding of character, but it gives you a better understanding of human nature!

Pamela Jaye Smith has written one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, and in-depth explanations and explorations on the key motivational centers of human beings. You won't ust learn how to build better characters, you'll discover how to develop your own character. No kidding. This is not just a manual for better writing -- it's a manual for better living!

Buy it. Devour it. Apply it. And read it again...and again...

Pamela Jaye Smith has an incredible talent for inspiring writers to dig deep into the core of their characters, which invariably leads them to discovering their own personal nuggets of truth. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of mythology, spirituality and metaphysics. Yet her real gift is being able to relate all of this amazing information in an entertaining and clear manner so that it's easy to understand. The book is very well organized and packed with all kinds of valuable treasures. I highly recommend it!

Writing memorable characters for your books, plays and scripts isn't easy. But Pamela Jaye Smith's book INNER DRIVES certainly has given us ample food for thought which will go far in helping all writers to create personalities that are believable, relatable and unforgettable. She leaves no internal or external stone unturned as she explores not only the eight classic centers of motivation, but also dares to list some probable physicalities -- from food to fashion to verbal faux pas which can help to set your characters apart! Writers of all areas will greatly benefit from this book.

This is not a book for writers; it is for anyone fooled by fortune tellers, astrologers, or new-age rituals. As for the five-star reviews, the book is full of the same generic mysticism that made The Secret a bestseller.

Beyond the author's preoccupation with chakras, ancient wisdom, and "energy", there is precious little information of use to an actual writer; instead it reads like a tour through some arbitrarily-defined (and for some reason, body-centric) archetypes by someone recently back from their "enlightened" trip to India. The book is a grab bag of mysticism, backing up its claims with astrology, poorly-sourced history and homilies, while any mention of characters in film of TV boils down to "Character X represents Chakra Y." -- none of which provides any actual insight into crafting compelling characters, and works counter to understanding character by obscuring simple ideas through this mystical mumbo-jumbo.

Excellent system for creating characters. I'm not a chakra system believer myself, but I found this book very useful, packed full of information that awakens creativity and triggers gazillions of ideas for characters. A gem.