Book Review: Will Dunne's "The Dramatic Writer's Companion"

The preview I saw in Google Books convinced me that Will Dunne's book The Dramatic Writer's Companion: Tools to Develop Characters, Cause Scenes, and Build Stories (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) could be worth something in the sea of oh-so-many fiction writing books. Boy, was I wrong. is not just worth something--it's simply the most comprehensive set of brainstorming exercises any storyteller needs to thoroughly flesh out a story.

It doesn't teach you writing per se. What it does is encourage you to explore the potential of your idea. Do you have a concept but hard-pressed to create a story for it? "The Dramatic Writer's Companion" can help.

Every step of the story development process is covered, whether you just have a core idea, or if you already have a glitch-laden draft that needs ironing out. Through questions and straightforward commentary, author Will Dunne encourages you to THINK and DIG DEEP. If you're serious about coming up with a well-rounded dramatic story, then this is the book to beat. Avoid this book if you're looking for shortcuts.

In other words, this book wants to make sure that you know your story like the proverbial back of your hand--inside and out, up and down, side to... you get the picture.

The book starts with a character, with the objective of making this character as three-dimensional as possible, as well as exploring the aspects of this character that could inspire dramatic action. The book then brings in the other characters and helps you establish the kind of character relationships that fuel a dramatic story.

Moving forward, the book then provides exercises for scene building, defining what a scene is and what it's supposed to do, and how characters influence scenes. There are exercises to help establish the tone of a scene, heighten conflict and tension, and connect scenes with the overall story objective. Threshing out dialogue is also covered.

As you go further, the book goes for the big picture. Point of view, dramatic arcs, inciting event, setups and payoffs... they're all here.

And then some. It doesn't matter if you're writing plays, or screenplays, or fiction, or graphic novels. Long overdue, "The Dramatic Writer's Companion" is a must for every serious storyteller's bookshelf.