Breaking down you story into managable pieces

I wonder if anyone ever had a body of text (I have about 100 pages), and then decided to use Dramatica? I am not sure about my plot and sequencing, but was able to create some scenes and background. I guess I am just lazy or too busy to study enough and prefer to write… I have an idea what’s my story is about. How can I break it down now and move it into Dramatica? Any suggestions?

If you can post a brief summary, we can help! (i.e. help find the storyform, or at least some guidance towards it)

If you think you know the main character and/or influence character, that would help immensely. But it’s okay if we have to tease those out.

I know @MWollaeger has recommended to finish the first draft completely first, and then try to find the storyform; but if you think Dramatica can help you now, that’s fine too. It really depends how you want to work.

One option, if you want to share more of your story ideas than you are comfortable to do publicly, is to create a private message thread. People can sign up here, and you can invite them individually to the thread, but it will only be visible to the particular people you invite – not the public internet.

Note: if your idea has multiple storyforms, as some novels do, it might make things tricky. Results not guaranteed! :slight_smile:

@Jenya – If you prefer to write, then @mlucas is right that I would recommend writing. Simply put, it forces you to make decisions and move forward. Even if you later decide that you’ve made the wrong decision, that’s still progress. And then later when you think about a storyform, you will have clearer answers.

I suppose my real question is this: What do you think you will get out of Dramatica by breaking it down at this point? I get that answering the questions will also force you to make decisions, but I find writing to be a better way to believe your choices.

For me, though, the bottom line is that I believe that a large benefit of Dramatica comes from understanding Dramatica. Even if we were able to hand you the right storyform, I’m not sure it would do much for you. This is why I’m hung up on your comment that you are too busy to study enough. The studying is the route to understanding. It’s the difference between someone who can plug numbers into a mathematical equation and someone who can explain the mathematical equation to a novice.

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If you’re not sure about plot and sequence, Dramatica definitely helps, but like @MWollaeger says, a big benefit of Dramatica comes from understanding it, which is an ongoing process for me and will be for some time.

If you are turning to Dramatica for help with what comes next in your story, my suggestion would be to at least understand the Sign Posts and Journeys of the various acts. This will help you determine what area your characters need to explore next.

For instance, maybe your MC has gathered some info or experience, but you don’t know what they need to do with it. If you can come up with at least a partial storyform, maybe it can tell you if your character needs to understand what this info means or if they need to obtain or achieve something with the info they’ve gathered. You don’t necessarily have to understand the issues or problems at that level. Even looking at the Concerns without a form might help you to sort of intuitively decide on your own if they should go to Obtaining or Understanding. My experience has been that if you want a little help, it will give you a little help. If you want a lot of help, it will give you a lot of help. Just depends on how much you want to work with it.

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Although @mlucas is right that the people on here can really help you work out the storyform and give some great suggestions.

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The way your post is peppered with “…need to explore next…” and “…needs to understand…” or “…need to obtain…” is exactly why I think Dramatica can be limiting if you don’t study it and how wide a net it casts.

Why not “happens to experience next” or “blunders through some misunderstandings” or “gets their wallet stolen”?

I know you’re just helping with some footholds, so I’m not to (I’m trying not to, at any rate) come down on you. I’m just getting at how a simple understanding can be limiting, and any method that limits unnecessarily is a poor method.

Especially when your gut tells you to take a story one way, and your limited understanding tells you not to. That just leads to frustration.

“Needs” is too limiting. “Understand” is too limiting. “Fixed Attitude” is too limiting. These are just doorways into what is really going on.

Dramatica is a lens on story. It helps us understand why they work, but it cannot make them work without the writer’s input. And I’ve never met anybody who didn’t have to go face-to-face with it on the wrestling mat and lose time and time again before it all clicked.

(By “it all clicked” I mean: one very small part of it clicked and you immediately had to confront a part of it that still doesn’t make any sense.)

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Well taken, @MWollaeger, and as someone who admittedly has a ways to go with this theory, it doesn’t hurt my feelings for you to come down on me if it helps me understand a little more. It’s why I jump into the conversations! (It’s also part of the beauty of the anonymity of the internet)

But yes, good point about how wide the net can be cast with Dramatica. Telling someone a character needs to spend an act concerned with Obtaining something isn’t very helpful unless they understand that Obtaining can refer to getting something, losing something, achieving something, working toward something, being handed something, have something taken away etc. I was kind of lumping that in with understanding the Sign Posts and Journeys without saying it, but that would definitely be something that needs to be studied or understood about the Concern level for it to really be a lot helpful.

Thank you, @mlucas! I am not sure how to create a private message thread though…

You can just click on the little icon of me and then Message. That will be a PM between just me and you.

Then you can invite whoever else you want, near the top of the PM thread.

I agree with @MWollaeger, you have to be careful what you try to use Dramatica for before you understand it. If you can keep writing (not stuck or questioning major stuff about your story) you should definitely just keep writing. However, if you are stuck on something it’s possible that looking at it through Dramatica might help … like someone might be able to say “it seems like Mr. X is your IC, but you forgot about him for a whole Act” or “your driver seems to be Action but over here you made it Decision”.

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@MWollaeger – I do prefer to write, but I get stuck. I suppose, everybody does. I get an idea, go after it, then I get tangential, focus on details, create flashbacks… You name it :slight_smile: And then I don’t know what exactly I am writing (( – doesn’t everybody?

Years ago, when I was writing my first novel, I knew nothing about structure and plot. But I could tell that my text was sagging. (Writing is the very best teacher–which is the best cliche, right? Practice makes perfect.) Anyway, at some point I had finally stumbled upon Dramatica and used its trial version. I was able to answer a lot of questions for myself then. Now, when I had finally decided to purchase it, I can’t seem to master it. Don’t know why :slight_smile: At the same time, the knowledge of the difference between MC and Protagonist, for example, the Impact Character idea, and so on seemed to enlighten my creative mind. I want to know more! And thank you so much for helping!