How is Dramatic Tension Created?

By Melanie Anne Phillips

How is dramatic potential created? The Dramatica chart (below) organizes all the categories of things we think about. Notice that the chart is nested, like wheels within wheels. That’s the way our minds work – we think in many levels at once, not in a single straight line. And if we are to make a solid story structure with no holes, we have to make sure all ways of thinking about the story’s central problem or issues are covered.

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