Over the years there’s been so much sophisticated material written about how the Dramatica theory of narrative structure deals with all kinds of complex story issues that it is easy to forget about the central purpose of Dramatica in the first place.
So, here’s a short article to help those of you new to Dramatica to get a grip on what it is and why its important.
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There’s two parts to stories – the part that gets us all excited (the subject matter and style) and the dry, frustrating part (the underlying structure).
Writers also come in two varieties – the intuitive writers who like to follow their Muse and the logical writers who like to build their stories from the ground up, according to plan.
There are very few folk who do both very well. We usually call them “Master Storytellers” or John LeCarre or Shakespeare or Aaron Sorkin.
For the rest of us, we usually have some degree of talent in one of the two areas and a noticeable lack in the other. Me – I’m great at following the Muse, but can’t structure a story worth a darn.
So, twenty years ago, a friend of mine and I went hunting for the answer to story structure. Along the way, we invented a whole new theory of it called “Dramatica.”
Dramatica says that structure is like the platter on which you serve up your passion and ideas. Structure is like the carrier wave in radio upon which the program is broadcast.
If structure is done right, it is invisible – just like that carrier way you never hear in a radio program. But if it isn’t tuned properly, it gets in the way of the program, creating static and drop-outs. And, you certainly don’t your readers dropping out of your story or stumbling over a logical problem when logic is the last thing you want them to be thinking about.
So, the Dramatica theory deals solely with that dry, uninteresting, but essential underlying “story argument,” because without that sound foundation, even the most interesting subject matter and most intriguing storytelling will collapse.
Well, that’s an introduction to the concept. What I’m writing these days is like “doctorate level” dissertations – for the following of hard-core structuralists I’ve collected over the years.
Keep in mind, it is all about form, not formula. It is more like studying good graphic design than paint by numbers.
If you are still interested, I can point you at some good videos and articles I’ve created over the years on the basic concepts. Just let me know.
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