StoryWeaving
Writing Tips Newsletter ~ Issue 64

In This Issue...

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Articles

Introduction to Characters

Love Interests & The Dramatic Triangle

StoryWeaving

Finding Inspiration

Videos

From Dramatica Unplugged:

A Tale is a Statement

A Story is an Argument

The Dramatica Chart

From the Dramatica Software Companion:

The Story Engine

The Story Points Window

The Story Guide

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An excerpt from the upcoming book,

StoryWeaving

By Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator of StoryWeaver
Co-creator of Dramatica

Forward

Many years ago, when I created Dramatica along with my partner in crime, Chris Huntley, we were sure that we had discovered the Holy Grail of story structure - the Rosetta Stone that accurately translated the language of story, once and for all.

And we had.

But when it came to the creative process of developing and writing a story, Dramatica wasn't the Silver Bullet for Writer's Block that I had hoped. Rather than enabling a writers, it simply educated them in the mechanics of deep dramatic sub-structure.

Stories do not live by structure alone. Rather, structure is nothing more than the carrier wave that carries an author's passion to the reader or audience. When it is done properly, it is invisible, tuned out so that the program material can be appreciated in all its glory. When structure is flawed or incomplete, however, it adds static to the transmission. And if it is too far from true, it can become broken, in which case the reader/audience cannot tune in at all, and the transmission fails completely.

Structure, then, is undeniably important. And yet, it is the science of story: a study in logistics. Therefore, when working in structure, an author must slip into logistics mode - a surefire killer of the Muse.

No author ever sat down to write the Great American Structure. And no reader or audience ever rushed out to buy a book or see a movie in order to experience the penultimate structure. Authors and audiences meet in the medium of story because of their passions: the author expressing his or hers, and the reader or audience hoping to ignite its own.

So, stories are really about structure and passion. The structure must be there in order to transmit the passion, but it is neither the star of the show, nor the reason for writing.

Standing in the shadow of our work on Dramatica, I wondered how I might take that extra step into the passionate realm. Was there anything I could offer that might energize and organize the creative process of writing itself?

For years I grappled with this problem, following many paths only to find they lead to dead ends. Just when I had nearly resigned myself to the notion that perhaps only story mechanics were vulnerable to a systematic approach, a new concept began to form.

When developing Dramatica, we had looked deeply into the underlying relationships among story elements. So, when trying to develop an approach to the passion of stories, I adopted the same perspective and simply tried to shift It from the logistics of structure to the organics of the subject matter.

What I hadn't realized was that the mechanics reside in the story, but the passion resides in the author. I was looking in the wrong place! If it was possible to create a systematic approach to passion, I would find it not in the finished work, but in the creative process itself!

Armed with this new outlook, I re-organized all the material I had gathered and created along the way, and lo and behold it fell right into place! Before, all the bits and pieces were useful in and of themselves, but couldn't be arranged in any useful order. But now, by focusing on what goes on in the heart and mind of the author during the story development process, the very same bits and pieces almost arranged themselves in an intuitive and easy to follow sequence.

It was this sequential approach to the creative process that formed the basis of a new software product called StoryWeaver. In it, an author could begin without an idea to save his or her life, and end up with a completely developed treatment of a story. The result was full of passion, and the process was both inspiring and enjoyable.

What? Story development enjoyable? Unheard of! Authors were supposed to suffer for their art - to wrestle with the Muse, through heartache and headache, struggling for each new idea and pulling it bodily through the skin of their brain. And yet, in StoryWeaver, ideas just rolled right out, easily and pleasurably. And what's more, they weren't just ordinary over-used ideas, but clever, fresh ones!

StoryWeaver quickly became the best-selling story development software at my own online store, and even at my largest competitor's store as well! Each new version added more details and directions than the previous one. But, I began to feel an inherent limitation: there just wasn't room in the medium of creativity software to delve into all the details and potential of each step in the process. Hence, this book, which provides the opportunity to fully explore the StoryWeaving concept from end to end.

Here you will find a step by step approach to story development that will carry you from concept to completed story. Each section focuses on a different aspect of the creative process, from Inspiration to Style. Every step of the way you'll know what you need to do, and what comes next.

Writer's Block is forever banished by this approach, and formulas are thrown out with yesterday's stale ideas. You'll find yourself inspired, energized, motivated, and focused - all at the same time!

So, grab a cup of coffee, settle in to your favorite chair, and prepare to embark on a journey that will open creative horizons to inventive new lands you haven't yet imagined.

And most of all, dare to believe that the writing of fiction does not have to be painful, frustrating, and daunting, but can be enjoyable, thrilling, and fulfilling.

More than 10,000 writers use StoryWeaver Software
At just $29.95, it is affordable for any writer.

Try Demo

(And remember, we have a 90 Day risk-free return policy!)


Classic Writing Tip

From the StoryWeaving Tips Book
(Download complete book in PDF)

Finding Inspiration

by Melanie Anne Phillips

We all know that writing is not just about assembling words, but also about assembling ideas.  When we actually sit down to write, we may have our ideas all worked out in advance or we may have no idea what we want to say - just a desire to say something.

Some of us must labor on projects that we hate, but which have been assigned to us.  Others may simply be in love with the notion of being a writer, but haven't a thing to say.  Regardless of why we are writing, we all share the desire to create an expression that has meaning to our audience.

And just who is that audience?  It might be only ourselves.  Often I have written material as a means of getting something off my chest, out of my thoughts, or perhaps just to get a grip on nebulous feelings or issues by forcing myself to put them into concrete terms.

Some of what I write this way has actually turned out to be saleable as essays on personal growth or insights into meaningful emotional experiences.  But, most of what I have written for my audience of one remains with me.  Perhaps it is too personal to share, or just too personal to have meaning to anyone else.

When I write for myself, it is seldom a story.  More often than not, it isn't even a tale.  Rather, it is a snippet of my real experiences, or a flight of fancy, such as the words "red ground rover."  What does this mean?  I have no idea.  But I do know how it feels to me.

In fact, popping out a few nonsense but passionate words is a trick I often use to get a story going.  I'll write something like the above almost randomly.  Then I'll ask myself, "Is the ground red with some one or something roving over it, or the whole thing a nick name for a bird dog or a mail carrier in the outback?

Blurting out something that has no conscious intent behind it can be a useful trick in overcoming writer's block.  It seems that writer's block most often occurs when we are intentionally trying to determine what we want to talk about.  But, when we just put something forth and then try to figure out what it might mean, a myriad of possibilities suggest themselves.

If you like, take a moment and try it.  Just jot down a few nonsense words to create a phrase.  Then, consider what they might mean.  Rather than attempting to create, you are now in analysis mode, the inverse emotional state of trying to produce something out of nothing.  You'll probably be surprised at how many interpretations of your phrase readily come to mind.

Imagine, then, if you were to take one of those interpretations and build on it.  In my example, let me pick the first interpretation - that "red ground rover" means someone or some thing that roves over red ground. Well, let's see....  Mars is red, and the Martian Rover at one time examined the planet.  Looks like I'm starting a science fiction story.

But what to do next?  How about another nonsense phrase: "minion onion manner house."  What in the world does that mean?  Let's tie it in to the first phrase.  Suppose there is some underling (minion) who is hunting for wild onions on Mars (onions being so suited to the nutrients in the soil that they grow wild in isolated patches).  The underling works at the Manner House of a wealthy Martian frontier settler, but is known as Red Ground Rover because of his free-time onion prospecting activities.

Now, these phrases weren't planned as examples for this book.  To be fair, I just blurted them out as I suggest you do.  Just as we see pictures in ink blots, animals in the clouds, and mythic figures in the constellations, we impose our desire for patterns even on the meaningless. And in so doing, we often find unexpected inspiration.

Even if none of our ideas are suited to what we are attempting to write, we have successfully dislodged our minds from the vicious cycle of trying to figure out what to say.  And, returning to the specific task of our story, we are often surprised to find that writer's block has vanished while we were distracted.

Now you may have noticed that in the example we just explored, there are elements of Character, Plot, Theme, and Genre.  The Genre appears to be a variety of Science fiction.  The Theme would seem to revolve around the class system on a frontier Mars and the implications of interjecting one natural ecosystem willy nilly into another.  The plot involves an individual out to better his lot by working outside the system, and whatever difficulties that may create for him.  And, we have at least two characters already suggested - the Red Ground Rover explicitly and the Lord or Lady of the Manner House implicitly (plus whatever servants or staff they may employ.)

This is a good illustration of the fact that when we seek to impose patterns on our world (real or imagined) we actually project the image of our mind's operating system on what we consider.  Characters form themselves as avatars of our motivations.  Theme intrudes as representations of our values.   Plot outlines the problem solving mechanisms we employ.  And Genre describes the overall experience, from setting to style.

We cannot help but project these aspects of ourselves on our work.  The key to inspiration is to develop the ability to see the patterns that we have subliminally put there.  Almost as important is knowing when to be spontaneous and when to analyze the results, looking for the beginnings of a structure.

If you are a structuralist writer, you'd probably prefer to have the whole story worked out either on paper (or at least in your head) before you ever sat down to write.  If you are an inspirationist writer, you probably wouldn't have a clue what you were going to write when you began.  You'd sit down, bop around your material and eventually find your story somewhere in the process, as you wrote.  The final story would be worked out through multiple drafts.  Most writer’s fall somewhere in between these two extremes.  An idea pops into our head for a clever bit of action, an interesting line of dialog, or a topic we'd like to explore.  Maybe it comes from something we are experiencing, have experienced, see on television, read in the newspaper, or perhaps it just pops up into our conscious mind unbidden.

Almost immediately a number of other associated ideas often come to mind. If there are enough of them, a writer begins to think, "story."  We then ponder the ideas with purpose, seeing where they will lead and what else we might dig up and add to the mix.

Eventually we have gathered enough material to satisfy our own personal assessment that we actually have the beginnings of a story and are ready to begin serious work on it.  Then, structuralists set about working out the details and inspirationists set about finding the details as they go along.

Yet there is a problem for both kinds of writers.  What holds all these ideas together is a common subject matter.  But just because they all deal with the same issues does not mean they all belong in the same store.

It is common for authors to become frustrated trying to make all the pieces fit, when in fact it may be impossible for them to all fit.  Perhaps several different combinations can be worked out that gather most of the material into the semblance of a structure.  But odds are there will be a significant amount of the material that gets left out no matter how you try to include it.  Even if each potential structure leaves out a different part and incorporates material left out in another potential structure, there is no single structure that includes all.

Like trying to pick up chicken fat on a plate with the flat side of a fork, we chase a structure all around our subject matter until we run ourselves ragged.  Then we stare at the paper or the screen, realizing we've tried every combination we can think of and nothing works.  It is this dilemma we call writer's block.

It is much easier when we realize that stories are not life; they are about life. In the real world, we group our experiences together by subject matter, not by the underlying structure that describes it.  For example, we are more likely to see the issues regarding the disciplining of our children as being lumped into one category of consideration whereas getting chewed out by our boss is another.

In truth, if our child tells a lie, it is not necessarily the same issue at all as when he or she doesn't do the assigned homework.  But, not doing homework may have a much closer structural connection to our getting in trouble with our boss because we failed to file all of the expense reports he requested.

We can avoid writer's block.  We can recognize that the material we create at the beginning of our efforts is not the story itself, but merely the inspiration for the story.   Then we can stop chasing our mental tails and pick the structure that is most acceptable rather than cease writing until we can find the impossible structure that would pull in all the material.

Based on this understanding, it is not hard to see that we come to Characters, Plot, Theme, and Genre not on a structural basis but on a subject matter basis as well.  And, there is nothing wrong with that.  As was said in the beginning of this book, we don't write because of the desire for a perfect structure.  We write because we are passionate about our subject matter.  Yet sooner or later, the structure needs to be there to support our passions.  


Love Interests & the Dramatic Triangle

From the Dramatica Tips & Tricks Book
(Download complete book in PDF)

by Melanie Anne Phillips

A lot of books about writing describe the importance of a “Love Interest.” Other books see a Love Interest as unnecessary and cliché. What does Dramatica Say? As with most dramatic concepts, Dramatica pulls away the storytelling to take a clear look at the underlying structure.

A Love Interest has both storytelling and structural components. The storytelling side is what most people think of – A Love Interest is the character with whom the “hero” or “heroine” is in love.

Simple! But what does that tell us about the kind of person the Love Interest is, or even what kind of relationship the two have between them? Not a whole lot!

For example, the Love Interest might be the leader of the enemy camp, in which case he or she is the Antagonist! Or, the Love Interest might be the supportive, stay-in-the-background type, in which case he or she is the Sidekick. In both cases, the hero is in love with this person, but structurally each positions the relationship on different sides of the effort to achieve the story goal.

Also, the Love Interest might be a person of noble heart, a mis-guided do-gooder, or even a crook! And, any of these types of people might fit into either of the two example scenarios we’ve just outlined.

As we can see, the structural and storytelling elements have little to do with one another, other than the fact that there will be some of each. So, what can Dramatica do to help provide some guidelines for developing a Love Interest that works?

Lets start with some basics. Dramatica sees there being two types of characters in every story (and a prize in every box!). The first type contains the Objective Characters such as the Protagonist, Antagonist, Sidekick, or Guardian, who are defined by their dramatic functions.

The Protagonist strives to achieve the goal, the Antagonist tries to prevent that, for example. In and of itself, this aspect of character outlines how the participants line up in regard to the logistic issues of the story. But there is a second side of the dynamics of every story that center on the second type of characters – the Subjective Characters.

There are two Subjective Characters, and unlike their Objective relatives who represent functions, the Subjective Characters represent points of view. These characters are the Main Character and the Obstacle Character. The Main Character represents the audience position in the story. The Obstacle Character represents the point of view, ideology, or belief system opposite that of the Main Character.

The Objective Characters represent the “headline” in the story and the Subjective Characters represent the “heartline.” Often, the character who is the Protagonist is also given the Main Character job as well. This creates the archetypal “hero” who drives the story forward, but who also represents the audience position in the story. Of course, the Main Character (audience position) might be with ANY of the Objective Characters, not just the Protagonist.

For example, in most of the James Bond films, Bond is actually the Antagonist and Main Character because although he represents the audience position, he is also called into play AFTER the real Protagonist (the villain) has made his first move to achieve a goal (of world conquest.) It is Bond’s functional role as Antagonist to try and stop it!

Not quite as often, the Antagonist is given the extra job of also being the Obstacle Character. In such a case, not only does the Antagonist try to stop the Protagonist, but he (or she) also tries to change the belief system of the Main Character, whether the Main Character is the Protagonist or another of the Objective Characters by function.

The worst thing you can do is to make the Protagonist the Main Character and the Antagonist the Obstacle Character. Why? Because then the two “players” in the story are not only diametrically opposed in function regarding the story goal, but are also diametrically opposed in belief system. As a result, it is difficult for the audience to figure out which of the two throughlines them is being developed by any given event between them.

What’s worse, as an author it is easy to get caught up in the momentum of the drama between them so that one skips steps in the development of one throughline because the other “carries” it. Well it may carry the vigor, but it doesn’t hold water. Both throughlines must each be fully developed or you end up with a melodrama or worse, plot holes you could drive a truck through.

The solution is either to assign the Main Character and Protagonist functions to one character and split the Antagonist/Obstacle Character functions into two separate characters, or vice versa. And this brings us to the Dramatic Triangle and how it is used to create a sound Love Interest relationship.

First, let’s assume we assign the Main Character and Protagonist jobs to the same player to create an archetypal hero. Now, this hero (we’ll call him Joe) is a race car driver who is vying with the Antagonist for the title of best overall driver of the year. Each race is a new contest between them with their balance so close that it all comes down to the last race of the season.

But there is something troubling Joe’s heart – his relationship with Sally. Sally is very supportive of Joe (a Sidekick, in fact) but Joe feels that if he really loves Sally, he should quit racing to avoid the potential of an accident that would leave him dead or crippled and ruin her life. Why does he feel like this? Because his own dad was a racer, whose untimely death on the track left his mother devastated, and ultimately committed to an asylum. (Hey, I never said this example would be creative!)

In any event, Sally doesn’t feel that way at all. She would rather see Joe go out in a blaze of glory having done his best than to spend her life with a limp shell. She tries to tell him, but he just won’t be convinced. He starts to play it safer and safer as his worries grow (because the closer he gets to the final race, the more it resembles the chain of events that happened to his dad.) Finally, he has lost his edge and his lead and it all comes down to that final event.

Now, realizing that she would never be able to live with Joe if she felt that he lost the title because of her, Sally tells him at the final pit stop that if he doesn’t win the race, she is leaving him. Joe must now decide whether he should stick with his approach born from fear of hurting another, or let Sally be her own judge of what is right for her and put the pedal to the metal.

What does he do? Up to you the author. He wins the race and Sally’s heart. He hasn’t got the courage and loses both race and girl. He loses the race, but Sally realizes how deep his love must be and decides to stay with him. He wins the race, but there is such a dangerous near-fatal crash that Sally realizes Joe was right and leaves him anyway because she discovers she really can’t take it after all.

Or, you could have Sally want him to quit and Joe refuse, resulting in four other endings with a more cliché flavor.

Why this long example, to show how the conflict of the logistics of the plot occur between Joe and the Antagonist, but the emotions of the personal relationship occur between Joe and the Sidekick, Sally.

If you charted it out, there are two throughlines. Both hinge on Joe, and then they split farther and farther apart to connect to the Antagonist on one and to the Obstacle Character, Sally on the other. In this way, the events that happen in the growth of each relationship are much easier to see for the audience and much easier to complete for the author, yet they both converge on the “hero” to give him the greatest possible dramatic strength.

Now, you could hinge them both on the Antagonist, as in a James Bond film, and slip the Protagonist from the Obstacle Character. Look at “Tomorrow Never Dies.” The Protagonist is the mad newspaper mogul. The Obstacle Character is the beautiful Chinese agent (whose function is muddled dramatically by Bond’s relationship with the mogul’s wife). Bond is Antagonist AND Main Character, but the dramatic triangle is still functional.

Silence of the Lambs: Starling is the Main Character/Antagonist, Jamie Gumm (Buffalo Bill) is the Protagonist (after all, she didn’t go looking for a crime and THEN he committed one!) Hannibal is the Obstacle Character and perhaps a Love Interest of a sort (as described by the director on the Criterion Edition DVD.)

For a different approach, consider Witness: John Book is the Obstacle Character/Antagonist, the crooked Chief of Police is the Protagonist. Rachel, the Amish Girl is the Love Interest and Main Character. Or is John Book (Harrison Ford) the Love Interest to Rachel? It’s hard to tell because John is such an active Objective Character that he carries more momentum than Rachel, even though we are positioned in her shoes. The important point is that even if the Protagonist is made to be the Obstacle Character and the Antagonist and Main Character are split into two different people, the dramatic triangle still exists!

The dramatic triangle is one of the best structural ways to focus attention on one character even while splitting the headline and heartline to make a more pleasing and complete story. It can be used for “buddy” pictures and even used when the heartline isn’t between lovers or even likers but between two people who would like to see each other’s emotions destroyed by slyly manipulating the other to change his or her beliefs.

hink of all those “cheat the devil” stories in which the Main Character/Protagonist is after something and the devil tries to convince the Main Character to sell his soul to get it. Yep, the dramatic triangle at work again!

So, in considering whether or not to have a Love Interest in your story, simply consider whether that would make your storytelling cliché or not. Either way, consider the dramatic triangle as a means of putting heart into an otherwise logistically mechanical plot.


Dramatica: A New Theory Of Story

By Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley

Chapter 3 Introduction to Characters

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Hero Is a Four Letter Word

It is easy to think of the principal character in a story as "the hero." Many beginning writers tend to base their stories on the adventures or experiences of a hero. As writers become more mature in their craft, they may come to think of their central character as a "protagonist," or perhaps a "main character." And yet, through all of this, no consistent definitions of any of these terms have ever been agreed upon. Before we proceed then, it seems prudent to establish what Dramatica means by each of these concepts.

A Main Character is the player through whom the audience experiences the story first hand. A Protagonist is the prime mover of the plot. A Hero is a combination of both Main Character and Protagonist.

In other words, a hero is a blended character who does two jobs: move the plot forward and serve as a surrogate for the audience. When we consider all the characters other than a Protagonist who might serve as the audience's position in a story, suddenly the concept of a hero becomes severely limited. It is not wrong, just limited. The value of separating the Main Character and Protagonist into two different characters can be seen in the motion picture, To Kill a Mockingbird. Here, the character, Atticus, (played by Gregory Peck) is clearly the Protagonist, yet the story is told through the experiences of Scout, his young daughter.

Later on, we will explore many other ways in which the Main Character can be employed in much less archetypal terms than as a hero. For now, the key point is that Dramatica identifies two different kinds of characters: those who represent an audience point of view, and those who fulfill a dramatic function.

Objective and Subjective Characters

The reason there are two kinds of characters goes back to the concept of the Story Mind. We have two principal views of that mind: the Objective view from the outside looking in, and the Subjective view from the inside looking out. In terms of the Story Mind, the Objective view is like looking at another person, watching his thought processes at work. For an audience experiencing a story, the Objective view is like watching a football game from the stands. All the characters are most easily identified by their functions on the field.

The Subjective view is as if the Story Mind were our own. From this perspective, only two characters are visible: Main and Obstacle. The Main and Obstacle Characters represent the inner conflict of the Story Mind. In fact, we might say a story is of two minds. In real life, we often play our own devil's advocate, entertaining an alternative view as a means of arriving at the best decision. Similarly, the Story Mind's alternative views are made tangible through the Main and Obstacle Characters. To the audience of a story, the Main Character experience is as if the audience were actually one of the players on the field. The Obstacle Character is the player who blocks the way.

To summarize then, characters come in two varieties: Objective and Subjective. Objective Characters represent dramatic functions; Subjective Characters represent points of view. When the Main Character point of view is attached to the Protagonist function, the resulting character is commonly thought of as a hero.

Looking Forward In the next chapter we will begin an in-depth exploration of Objective Characters. Here we will meet the Protagonist, Antagonist, and several other archetypes. Next we will dissect each archetype to see what essential dramatic elements it contains. Finally, we will examine how those same elements can be combined in different, non-archetypal patterns to create more realistic and versatile complex characters.

Then we will turn our attention to the Subjective Characters: Main and Obstacle. We will examine how the audience point of view is shifted through the Main Character's growth. We will also explore the forces that drive these two characters and forge the belief systems they possess.


Presented in Streaming Video!

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The following video clips are excerpted from

"Dramatica Unplugged - a 20 Hour Writing Course"

Get the entire 20 Hours of Video on CD ROM for $19.95

Part 4 of 150 - The Dramatica Chart (09:06)

Dramatica is a new theory of story structure and also a software tool for writers. It includes a Periodic Table of Story Elements that allows writers to design the chemistry of their stories.

This clip was excerpted from

"Dramatica Unplugged - a 20 Hour Writing Course"

Get the entire 20 Hours of Video on CD ROM for $19.95


Part 3 of 150 - A Story Is An Argument (06:22)

Unlike tales which are simple statements that a particular course is either good or bad, a story is an argument that a given path is either the best or worst.

The following video clips are excerpted from

"Dramatica Unplugged - a 20 Hour Writing Course"

Get the entire 20 Hours of Video on CD ROM for $19.95


Part 2 of 150 - A Tale Is A Statement (06:04)

A tale is a simpler form of communication than a story. The message of a tale is that a particular course of action is either good or bad, depending on the outcome.

The following video clips are excerpted from

"Dramatica Unplugged - a 20 Hour Writing Course"

Get the entire 20 Hours of Video on CD ROM for $19.95


The following video clips are excerpted from

"Dramatica Software Companion"

Get the Dramatica Software Companion on CD ROM - $19.95

Part 4 of 110 - The Story Guide (04:31)

The Story Guide provides many different question paths through which to approach your story.  You can focus on structure, content, or choose to develop specific areas like character, plot, or theme.

This video clip was excerpted from

"Dramatica Software Companion"

Get the Dramatica Software Companion on CD ROM - $19.95


Part 3 of 110 - The Story Points Window (03:50)

The Story Points window is like a shopping list of scores of interrelated story elements.  You can use them interactively to build your structure or use them as inspiration tools to guide you in development of your story.

This video clip was excerpted from

"Dramatica Software Companion"

Get the Dramatica Software Companion on CD ROM - $19.95


Part 2 of 110 - The Story Engine (03:42)

Dramatica's patented Story Engine is what makes it unique.  It cross-references the dramatic impact of your answers to questions about your story to determine where your structure may be incomplete or inconsistent.  Then, it makes suggestions about how to improve your structure.

This video clip was excerpted from

"Dramatica Software Companion"

Get the Dramatica Software Companion on CD ROM - $19.95


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