Storymind.com > Dramatica Theory Home Page > Archive of Historic Dramatica Documents

Explanation of Can/Need and Want/Should

A document from early Dramatica Theory development (circa 1990)

Keep in mind these are embryonic concepts, many of which later proved inaccurate.
They are provided to illustrate the path taken during the development of the Dramatica Theory

Read text version below
See scans of the original document

Explanation of Can/Need and Want/Should

Written by Melanie Anne Phillips based on concepts developed by
Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley

MOTIVATION

There are only two motivations: CAN and WANT. All motivations grow from these. CAN is a measure of ABILITY, WANT is a measure of DESIRE. Characters, like real people, are continually motivated by their evaluation of what they DESIRE and their ABILITY to obtain it. Taken together, CAN AND WANT measure the DESIREABILITY of a situation, condition, goal, or state of being.

CAN/NEED ~ WANT/SHOULD

The ultimate achievement for a CAN person is to have ultimate SUCCESS. The ultimate achievement for a WANT person is to be ultimately HAPPY. Since ultimate success would require HAVING everything, it cannot be achieved. Since ultimate happiness would require universal happiness, it will not be achieved. Therefore, CAN people concentrate on using their abilities to achieve smaller goals. WANT people concentrate on using their desires to achieve a lesser state of being.

When a Can person has a want, he uses an ability to achieve his goal, which brings him one goal closer to ultimate success. When a Want person has an ability he activates a want to achieve a state of being one step closer to ultimate happiness. If the Can person has a desire and no ability to achieve it, he perceives it as a NEED and will strive to add to his abilities so he can fulfill that desire and achieve the goal, if the Want person has an ability and nothing he desires to use it for, he perceives it as a SHOULD and will strive to add to his wants in order to employ the ability and achieve a greater degree of happiness. The Can person will take stock of his accumulated goals and establish his degree of success by his situation. The Want person will evaluate how people feel about him and establish his degree of happiness by his condition. So far, there is no problem.

If he is told he MAY NOT BECOME who they are without worsening his current condition (what others think of him) and/or diminishing his current situation (what he has), he tries to find something he MAY BECOME to achieve a state of being that allows him to pursue the second justification without worsening his condition or diminishing his situation. This is the THIRD JUSTIFICATION.

He makes a deal with whoever told him he MAY NOT pursue the second justification, /he deal specifies that if he attains a specific state of being, he will BE ALLOWED to pursue the second justification without worsening his current condition, nor diminishing his current situation. This deal is the FIRST OBLIGATION.

Copyright © Melanie Anne Phillips ~ Contact archives@storymind.com

Scans of the Original Document

Dramatica Theory Home Page

Hi, I'm Melanie Anne Phillips, co-creator of Dramatica.  I'm pleased to present this collection of materials about the Dramatica Theory of Story. I hope you find it both useful and through-provoking.

This information is divided into three sections:

The Dramatica Theory
A complete exploration of the theory in every detail

Historic Documents
The development of Dramatica from the beginning

Speculations
Dramatica applied to psychology, physics, religion and more

The Dramatica Theory

Dramatica Theory Book Online
Free online edition of the 400+ page book, Dramatica: A New theory of Story, in which Chris Huntley and I originally documented our work.

Dramatica Dictionary
Official definitions of all terms in the Dramatica theory and software.

Dramatica Writing Tips
Useful and informative articles on how to approach and employ both the Dramatica Theory and Software.

Constructive Criticisms
Practical illustrations of how applying the Dramatica theory could have made some well-known successful story's even better!

Dramatica Q & A
Answers to questions from users of the Dramatica Theory and Software.

Instant Dramatica
Even more directly practical essays on using Dramatica for real-world writing situations and problems provided by noted screenwriter Armando Saldaña Mora.

Historic Documents

Dramatica - The Lost Theory Book
Early attempts to document the theory, including many unfinished conjectures and false starts.

Dramatica Development Archives
Early documents created during the development of the foundations of Dramatica.  Often later discarded, they show the roots of the thinking that ultimately evolved into the theory as it stands today.

Speculations

Deep Theory
Transcript of a class on the outer fringes of Dramatica Theory I taught as part of a now-defunct Dramatica Certification course.

Dramatica Math
A mathematician takes a stab at describing the Dramatica model in terms of dimensional distortions.

Mental Relativity
An exploration of the theory of psychology modeling which grew out of the development of Dramatica.

Dramatica I Ching
Several of our users have noticed a similarity between the character grid in Dramatica and the elements of the traditional I Ching.  Though unintentional, perhaps all models that look deeply into the mind will resemble each other.

Our Most Popular Products

Dramatica Home Page

StoryWeaver Story Development Software

By far, our most popular product, outselling all of our other products combined!  StoryWeaver takes you step by step through the entire process--from initial inspiration to completed novel or screenplay.  At just $29.95, StoryWeaver is affordable for any writer.  (Details)


Movie Magic Screenwriter

is one of two industry standard word processing screenplay formatters, the other being Final Draft.  Each of these programs offers a complete suite of screenwriting tools to make your next script a breeze to write.  (Details


Dramatica Pro

Unlike any other story development product, Dramatica Pro uses a patented Story Engine to interactively help you build a structure, find and fix dramatica holes and inconsistencies.  (Details)


20 Hour Writing Course on CD ROM

This intense program features 20 hours of video documenting the entire college-level course in creative writing given by Melanie Anne Phillips, creator of StoryWeaver and co-creator of Dramatica.  Just $19.95  (Details)

More