A Writer Asks
Hi, I bought Dramatica in January and have been having a great deal of
fun with it. I'm probably a bit dangerous, give me hammer and everything becomes a nail,
etc. Do you talk to Dramatica users? I hope so. I've talked to a video producer about
Dramatica and he immediately wondered if it could help with a 10 minute story. Any
suggestions? On a broader scale, it has occurred to me that meaning and 'story' are
inseparable. Everything that 'means' something fits into a story of some sort. Have you
explored this aspect of story?
Thanks
Melanie Replies
Sure, Dramatica can be used for short stories. The key is, every story
must be complete WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE ARGUMENT. So, to have a complete short story, one
must have a balanced, but smaller scope.
In Dramatica this is done one of two ways. Either you limit your depth
or breadth. If you limit depth, you might tell a story that only examines issues down to
the Type level, for example, in the chart of Story Elements. In this way, the more nuanced
exploration of Variations and Elements is left un-explored, and the scope of the argument
is reduced.
Even though the Elements are what normally create characters, there is
no reason why Types or Variations cannot be the basis for characters. So, you might have a
Doing character, a Becoming character, or a Progress character, for example. The key is,
once a level of the chart is assigned as the Character level, all of the dramatic
appreciations (concepts) in that level must be explored as Characters.
In a sense, when you limit depth, you simple don't explore one or more
aspects of a story: Character, Plot, Theme, or Genre. This keeps the argument smaller so
that it occupies less media real estate.
The other method, limiting breadth, keeps all four aspects of a story
but narrows the point of view. Rather than examining all four throughlines (Main
Character, Obstacle Character, Objective Story, Subjective Story) one or more is cut out.
In this manner, you might have a single point of view, such as Main Character, but explore
it in full depth through Character, Plot, Theme, and Genre.
This will also create a much shorter story, depending upon how many
throughlines you explore. A rule of thumb is that you would want one, two, or all four
throughlines. Why? Because a single throughline provides a perspective. Two throughlines
provide a conflict. But three seems to be one conflict and another superfluous throughline
that bounces off nothing. Of course, if that third point of view is important to you, use
it, but be sure you telegraph to your audience not to expect conflict from this direction,
but only another angle or take on the meaning of the story.
Finally, you can combine both techniques and limit both depth and
breadth. In this case, you might have only a Main Character point of view and explore that
only in terms of the Types. This will heavily cut down on the three dimensional scope of
the argument as mapped out in the structural chart.
So, you have a lot of latitude as to which parts of a Grand Argument
Story you wish to explore in a shorter story. The key is that you must let your audience
know in some fashion not to expect a Grand Argument Story, and avoid including elements
outside the scope of the argument you really want to make. Otherwise, if they see a few
other elements creep in, they will demand that you make your point there as well, for they
will not give you anything that is not within your scope, unless you fully develop it.
Also, to know which dramatic elements go together in a shorter story,
you must still develop a complete story form for the entire Grand Argument Story, even
though you don't intend to tell it all. This is because any limited point of view does not
stand alone, but is dependent upon all other points of view to which it is, in a larger
sense, connected.
You don't need to DEVELOP these other parts of the larger story, but you
will need to include them in your storyform to make sure the piece you are presenting is
consistent with a greater reality.
Since writing a short story is, in a sense, cutting vertical and/or
horizontal layers out of the larger Grand Argument Story, in Dramatica we refer to this
process as "Slicing and Dicing".
Melanie
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Index of Dramatica Theory
Materials
Storymind.com is pleased to present this collection of materials about the Dramatica
Theory of Story. We 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 Melanie Anne Phillips & Chris Huntley
originally
documented their 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 Saldaņa 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.
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