Inner Drives – Foreward

I have watched Pamela’s work in the film industry blossom and grow for at least a decade. I’ve sat in on her seminars, learned more about her work as a myth consultant, and even team-consulted with her on several myth-oriented projects. And yes, I’ve had the pleasure of reading this book.

Pamela is smart. She’s insightful. And she has carved out a very unique niche – to look at the deepest mythologies that determine who we are and why we behave as we do, and then to show how they relate to story and character. She makes all of this accessible, while never dumbing anything down.

We know that characters drive the story. Pamela helps us understand what drives the characters. She looks at what we’re made of – physical, psychological, spiritual – and how those motivate us, and make us do what we do. In this book are many examples of well-known characters from films, books, and operas; we might wonder how any writer could create characters as rich as those. Pamela will show you how.

You will deepen your characters through your familiarity with her perceptions. With humor and style, Pamela takes the character to its basic psychological, physical, and spiritual drives, showing how to construct the character from the inside out. Not only does she look at the character’s problems and yearnings, at what is invisible and often unconscious, but also at ways to externalize these through clothes, gestures, surroundings, styles of speech, physical actions, and even phobias and flaws. And she’s always filled with hope – with the possibilities of character transformations as the character changes and grows.

Being with Pamela for any amount of time, whether through a book or in one of her seminars or in a one-to-one, always makes me rise to another level of insight. Besides being one of the wisest people I know, she’s also one of the most gracious, and carries with her the classiness that we might think of as the best of authentic Southern charm. Yes, she’s a Southerner, from Texas, and, besides all this, she can be very funny. I can guarantee that you will have some good laughs and many insights as you read this book.

INNER DRIVES gives you an opportunity to study, practice, observe, and feel your way into these concepts. It’s a book to be read, re-read, studied, experimented with, played with, and used as a guide to create more dynamic, truthful, insightful, deep, profound, and unforgettable characters.