Our Most Popular Writing Tips
and Articles From all Categories
Character Arc 101
How To Create Great Characters!
Be A Story Weaver –
A Novelist’s Bag of Tricks
Protagonist & Antagonist
Heroes & Villains
Introducing Characters –
12 Essential Questions Every Writer Should Answer
Character Development Tricks!
Your Plot, Step by Step
The “Collective” Goal
Creating Characters from Scratch
What is Story Structure?
A Screenwriter’s Bag of Tricks
Avoiding the Genre Trap
Conflict Can Limit Your Characters
Finding Your Creative Time
Blowing the Story Bubble
Love Interests and the Dramatic Triangle
How to Write Villains
Tricking the Muse: The Creativity Two-
Genre –
Finding Inspiration for Writing
Writing from a Character’s Point of View
Psychoanalyze Your Story
Writing from the Passionate Self
Character Justification
Four Essential Plot Points
Elements of Structure –
Fire Your Protagonist!
Theme –
Creating Characters from Scratch
Conflict Can Limit Your Characters
Characters –
Character Relationships Baselines
Antagonist vs. Obstacle Character
How Male and Female Characters Think
How to Create Archetypal Characters
Introducing Characters –
Love Interests and the Dramatic Triangle
Main Character “Approach” –
Main Character “Growth” –
Main Character “Resolve” –
Main Character “Style” –
Male vs. Female Problem Solving
Men Are From Mars –
Mental Sex –
Subjective Characters and the Objective Story
The 12 Essential Questions –
The Archetypal Characters –
Understanding the Main Character
Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex (class transcript)
Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex (article)
Writing from a Character’s Point of View
Matching Characters’ Personalities to Archetypes
Character Interests (Likes & Dislikes)
A Constructive Criticism of “True Lies”
Fried Rice: The Tale of “The Vampire Chronicles”
Jurassic Park –
Natural Born Killers: A Constructive Criticism
Be a Story Weaver –
Elements of Structure –
Finding Inspiration for Writing
The “Nonsense Technique” for Overcoming Writer’s Block
The 12 Essential Questions – Overview
The 12 Essential Questions Every Writer Should Answer
The Dangers of Micromanaging Your Story
Tricking the Muse: the Creativity “Two-
What is the Worst Part of Writing for You Personally?
Writing from the Passionate Self
Express Your Pet Peeves Through Your Characters
What is the Best Way for a New User to Approach Dramatica?
Can You Skip Questions in Dramatica?
Do Dramatica’s Specific Questions Limit Story Richness?
Does Dramatica Limit Your Story?
Dramatica for Structural vs. Intuitive Writers.htm
Dramatica Software –
Dramatica Software –
How to Tell if your Story’s Structure (Storyform) is Right
The Creative Way to Use Dramatica
Using Dramatica for Short Stories
Using Dramatica’s Plot Sequence Report
What Determines Plot Progression Sequences?
What Does Dramatica Mean by the Word Illustrate?
Where to Start –
About Dramatica’s Learning Curve
Archetypal Breakdown (Deep Dramatica Theory)
Dramatica –
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Dramatica Domain Placement in Story Structure
Dramatica: Where’d the Idea Come From?
Dramatica’s “New Language” of Story
Dramatica’s Terminology is Too Obscure!
How Scenes Relate to Dramatica’s Story Elements
Is “Objective” Character the Same As “Obstacle” Character?
The Dramatica Chart (video version)
The Dramatica Structure –
The Dramatica Structure –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Dramatica Theory and Software –
The Four Throughlines –
The Four Throughlines –
The Objective Throughline is a Battlefield
Genre –
Creating Extra Tension with Consequences
A Word of Warning About Propaganda
Author and Audience –
Communication vs. Storytelling
Symbolizing Concepts in Dramatica
Both Sides of the Thematic Argument
Four Stages of Communication (Transcript)
The Audience and the Main Character
The Four Stages of Story Development
Throughlines –
What’s in Acts One, Two and Three?
Work Stories vs. Dilemma Stories
All About Using Narrators in Your Story
Introducing the Story Mind (video version)
Story “Driver” –
Story “Judgment” –
Story “Limit” –
Story “Outcome” –
A Story is an Argument (video version)
A Tale is a Statement (video version)
Bad Story Structure is No Joke
Story Structure for Passionate Writers
Story Structure vs. Storytelling
Using Dramatica & StoryWeaver Together
How to Structure Your Story’s Theme
Both Sides of the Thematic Argument
Premise Leads to Lack of Conflict
Dramatica narrative theory uses very precise language.
This example illustrates the depth of the lexicon.
Step 2 Stuck for Ideas? Try This….
Step 3 No Ideas At All? Geesh! Okay, Try THIS!
Step 4 Creating Characters from Scratch
