No BE Verbs: What Stanislavski Knew

I got one of my best lessons in writing characters in fiction long ago in a basic theater class. Actors are taught right off that to play a character, they must figure out what the character is trying to do. Stanislavski, the great acting guru, said that the best way to handle motivation was to phrase intention in one of these two ways: I wish to _______ or I want to ________ followed by an active verb. Actors learn that character motivations shift from moment to moment (often should shift on ev...