You can copy and paste text from any Word document into any question in Dramatica.
But, having said that, there is no reason to import a complete story or Word document into Dramatica.
Dramatica is not a word processor and it doesn’t “read” your story. In fact, you aren’t supposed to write creatively in Dramatica. So what does it do?
1. Dramatica finds holes and inconsistencies in your story’s structure.
2. Dramatica makes suggestions for how to fill and fix them.
In short, Dramatic ensure perfect story structure.
How does it do this?
Dramatica is built around the world’s first and only patented Story Engine. It is a model of story, similar to how the double-helix is a model of DNA.
Simply put, Dramatica’s model of story contains all the elements necessary in a complete narrative and also has built-in “rules” on how these pieces can go together so that your story both makes sense and feels right to your audience.
These rules weren’t artificially created and imposed on your story, but were derived from narrative itself – what it is, how it works, how it affects readers or audiences.
So how do you use it?
Functionally, Dramatica is a series of questions about your underlying structure that are connected to the Story Engine. Every time you answer a question by making a choice about how your structure is or how you want it to be, the Story Engine cross references that choice with all the other choices you have made to do three things: One, ensure you aren’t working against your own structure and Two, points out where you have holes and inconsistencies in your story’s structure and Three, makes suggestions for how to fill the holes and fix the inconsistencies by using the rules of narrative to project the direction your narrative needs to take to most strongly support the story your answers have shown you wish to tell.
So, in Dramatica you are not working with the text you wrote for your story, but are answering questions about the reasons behind why characters do things and feel as they do, how that relates to the events in your plot, your them and the structural demands of your genre.
When you are finished, you will have a full understanding of all the dramatic elements in your story, how they work together, and how to unfold them so they make sense to your reader or audience. To help you with this, after you have completed your structure, Dramatica generates about 100 pages of explanatory reports about many different aspects of your story that you use as reference while you write and make revisions on your story in your word processor.
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Story structure did not happen by accident. Nor did it happen by intent. Rather, the underlying conventions of storytelling that make up the flexible framework of stories evolved as a by product of the process of communication.
To understand story structure we must understand writers, for it is they who created it.
Story structure represents our quest for truth and meaning. In this regard, it reflects the structure of music and art as well. What’s more, as story structure transcends language and culture, it illuminates the mental processes involved in that quest that are common to us all. And as a result, as we shall see, story structure provides a schematic of the operating system of our own minds.
But that concept is a long way from here. And to fully embrace it, we must start at its beginnings.
For novelists and screenwriters… I just posted 9 free video segments from my 113 part video program on story structure and storytelling at http://storymind.com/free_online_classes.htm
What makes you a writer? Writing makes you a writer. Being a writer says nothing about how good you are, how prolific you are, whether you are published or not. When you write you are a writer. When you don’t, you aren’t. So practice your craft and proudly call yourself a writer.
2. You are only as good as your own talent. GET OVER IT!
You have a gift. Maybe its a grand one and maybe you wish you could exchange it. But you can’t. It’s your gift and its only as good as it is. Sure, you can learn technique and structure and vocabulary, but you can’t be any better than you have the capacity to be. So grow up, deal with it and write fiercely.
3. Don’t try to be Shakespeare; he didn’t!
Every human being has a unique set of experiences so every writer has a unique perspective and a unique voice. Don’t try to copy someone’s style or subject matter or message. Tell us what you think, what you feel, what you see. There is a place in the universe for every individual mind. If you try to copy the shape of someone else’s spirit, that place will have already been taken. Be yourself and your place in the grand scheme of things is waiting.
4. Write from your passionate self
We all wear a mask to protect us from hurt in the world. It also blocks the light of our vision. As children, we quickly learn which behaviors are praised and which are punished. We learn to act other than we really feel to maximize our experience. In time,we buy into that mask, believing it is who we really are. But the mask evens out the peaks and troughs of our passion, leaving us afraid to explore the depths of our passion and reveal our true selves in words. To speak with a clarion voice, you must shatter the mask, discover your actual self, and thrust it into the world.
5. Be a Story Weaver – NOT a Story Mechanic!
Structure is important but not at the expense of passion. No one reads a book or goes to a movie to experience a great structure. Authors come to a story to express their passions and readers and audience members come to ignite their own. While structure is the carrier wave upon which passion is transmitted, without the passion, it’s just noise. Conversely, passion without structure can be full of sound and fury yet signifying nothing. So find the proper balance. Let passion be your captain and structure be your guide.
6. Let your Muse run wild.
The easiest way to give yourself writer’s block is to bridle your Muse by trying to come up with ideas. Your Muse is always coming up with ideas – just not the ones you want. If you try to limit the kind of material you will accept from her, she’ll shut up entirely. So let your Muse run free. When she gives you an hysterical moment with a polka-dot elephant while writing a serious death scene, consider including it, perhaps as an hallucination. Give it a try, it might liven up your death scene! And after you’ve written it, if it doesn’t work, then save it in a file for later use. It may seem like a waste of time, but your Muse will know she has been treated with respect, and will likely now give you just the idea you need.
7. Don’t be a slave to convention
Beginning writers often look to other successful stories to learn how things ought to work. But so do all the other beginning writers. A book editor, agent, or script reader sees hundreds of manuscripts every year, all made up of the same pieces and hitting the same marks. You’ll never get noticed in that crowd. If you want your work to be discovered, break format, shake it up, do something different. Make your sheriff 8 years old, make your two lovers twins, set your gothic romance underwater. You’ll never be noticed if you don’t stand out.
8. Be your own critic without being critical
Write something. Do it now. Now look at it not as an author, but as a reader or audience and ask questions about it. For example, I write, “It was dawn in the small western town.” Now I ask: 1. What time of year was it? 2. What state? 3. Is it a ghost town? 4. How many people live there? 5. Is everything all right in the town? 6. What year is it. Then let your Muse come up with as many answers for each question as possible. Example: 6. What year is it? A. 1885 B. Present Day C. 2050 D. After the apocalypse. Then repeat: D. After the Apocalypse. 1. What kind of apocalypse? 2. How many people died? 3. How long ago was the disaster, and so on. By alternating between critical analysis and creative Musings, you will quickly work out details about your story’s world, who’s in it, what happens to them and what it all means.
9. Avoid the Genre Trap
Too many beginning writers see genres as checklists of elements and progressions they must touch, like checkpoints in a race. But a genre is not a box in which to write. It is a grab bag from which to pull only those components you are truly excited to include in your story. Every story has a unique personality, you build it chapter by chapter or scene by scene with every genre choice you make. By drawing on aspects of many different genres and combining those pieces together, you can fashion an experience for your readers or audience unlike any other.
10. WRITE!
No matter what your natural ability, you will never approach your potential without exercise. Jot down every idea. Carry it as far as you can before it runs out of steam. Do it again, and again: as many different ideas as far as you can take them. Write nonsense words. Write your concept of a villain’s shopping list for the supermarket (they have to eat, don’t they?) Write about anything. Write about nothing! But don’t stop, not now, not ever. You are a writer aren’t you? Then for God’s sake, WRITE!
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