Everyone's Dramatica Love Story

Hi guys. This just a fun topic of how we all learned or came in contact with or fully embraced Dramatica as our story paradigm of choice.

I had previously studied John Truby’s Anatomy of story. Very robust and informative. It opened or rather introduced me to the matrix that is story structure. Then I read K.M Weilands books and she mentioned Dramatica as a source of some of her concepts so I was curious to see what it was about. I never got round to it. :joy:. Months passed then one day, while trying to flesh out characters I found Melanie’s video on Creating great characters and BAM! it hit me. Oh so this is the Dramatica K.M was talking about. I went to Melanie’s storymind site, downloaded the theory book and binged. I’ve been in love with the theory ever since. Dramatica rocked my storymind. :joy:

I don’t completely remember mine, but I believe it was when I was surfing /r/writing and came upon a thread about favorite story theories. Somebody off-handedly mentioned Dramatica, saying that while they thought it was interesting, it was too complicated for them. That intrigued me, so I checked it out, and I gotta say, I’ve never understood that complaint. Just because you’ve got 64 elements arranged in a three-dimensional lattice and 12 questions about stuff like “Holistic Problem-Solving Styles” and “Optionlock Limits” and “Steadfast Resolves” leading to 32768 different potential storyforms… how could that possibly be complicated?! :stuck_out_tongue: Anyway, that got me hooked, and I’ve been digging deeper and deeper into the theory since.

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@actingpower Like today! I learned something again. It busted my head in four places(with delight).:grin: I was watching Melanie’s video on static plot points. They decided to lock the story’s goal(In the software) to the OS concern based on the Hollywood trends(90% of their stories) . But in the Theory, it could infact be any of the 4 throughline concerns! This accounts for more unconventional /foreign works. It rang true to me based on my WIP.

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In 1994 I had just gotten a Macintosh Quadra 610, and I wanted to be a historical fiction writer in romance and/or mysteries because those genres would sell. So, I was looking for software in general in a MacMall catalogue, which I had received through the mail. I saw a gorgeous burgundy and forest green quad made up of four individual squares, each with the most intricate, fascinating, different, yet similar in tone designs. I spent about a half-hour staring at and perusing the ad’s picture, then thought, “What the heck! I have no idea what this software is, but since it has to do with writing, let’s buy it.”

When I got it, I couldn’t make sense of it, called them, and then got a Writer’s Dream Kit because it was easier to use, as they said, “You go on the same journey, but without all the bells and whistles”. However, I had gotten hooked on the bells and whistles and went back to wading through this story theory thing. Still wading…hah.

I realized I would have to surrender and read the theory book. That’s when I discovered the Contagonist character and fell in love with Dramatica. That character exists in all story and fiction in human history, yet no one else ever pointed it out, before.

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@Prish But now you are a high class Jedi. The Quad is strong with you.

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It’s time for the Jedi to end!!!

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@jhull .Saw it. So hype! Though right off the bat I can tell Luke is a change IC. A bit presumptuous but I think the evidence is a bit obvious. First reason is there can be no Star Wars without the Jedi. Too much merchandising potential would be lost by Disney and they won’t allow that to happen will they? Lol. Second reason is it makes a lot of sense. Luke’s a tired old man. Sick of all the fighting and hiding etc. He’s lost his faith and needs to start believing again. Not in the force this time but in himself or the human struggle. Rey will remain steadfast(like in the force awakens) although with a different Purpose/Motivation etc. I know, it’s waay too early to start speculating but I think it’s plausible. Definitely hype for this one.

I was pretty young. High school young (13, maybe younger). Started looking at any screenwriting paradigm I could understand. Dramatica wasn’t that. My brain just didn’t get it. I remembered it when I went to study film at university at 18. Started looking at it again. Got the software, read the theory, didn’t get it, gave up and resorted to Save the Cat and all sorts of not-so-good paradigms that didn’t really work for me. Came back a year later, studied harder than ever – read the theory book, got the FoundationNext courses; listened to the podcasts; watched the movies; obsessively picked Jim’s articles apart for knowledge. Never left Dramatica behind since. That was 6 years ago.

So my story is – found it, failed and left, tried again, failed and left, came back, worked until I didn’t/couldn’t fail (still working on it!). Dramatica is hard work to learn, but I’ve learnt more about story from the theory than I did from three years of academic study. Also Dramatica didn’t put me in debt…

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@jhay Really cool story. Was listening to @jhull s podcast this week. He mentioned something similar to your story. It would seem that most people fail/get frustrated with the theory then leave. Seems like that’s the inception part. The seed has been planted and starts to germinate in the recesses of their minds. The when they sense a sort of presence, they return and realise they get it a bit more. And more, and more until they’re hooked. Great one.

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It’s kind of scary that I can’t even remotely remember when or how I came across Dramatica. I know that I was in high school, and it must have been between 2005 and 2010; narrativefirst was still storyfanatic; excerpts of Dramatica for Screenwriters were still on dramatica.com; but other than that? Nothing.

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I was giving Save the Cat a chance and getting frustrated at the lack of meaning or cohesiveness of its beats. I could see how some beats were tied together, but not why they were necessarily there. When I’d decided I’d had enough about cats and dark knights of the soul and storming the castle and what-not, I went looking for something else.

I stumbled across Dramatica and read a little about it. Was very intrigued by its claim to give meaning and how there was a good reason for everything to be there and not “because Miss Congeniality had it and made money, your screenplay needs to have it too.” Also, Dramatica’s description of a Food Propulsion beat and how silly the idea was seemed pretty spot on.

I started reading various articles. At some point I came across the Narrativefirst article Avoiding the False Moment (I’ll try to come back and link to it). The scene in The Dark Knight with the boats that are supposed to blow each other up always seemed slow and cliche to me and it just didn’t feel like it fit. That article claimed to explain why I felt that way and seemed to make total sense. I’ve been hooked ever since.

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Well, I’m probably the newest user here (discovered the theory three weeks ago and have been binging on everything I could find about Dramatica since! I tried to explain it to my writer’s accountability group the other night - fail…)

I used a 3-act (or 4-part, ie I, IIa, IIb, III) for my first novel. Mainly Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering, but you see the same basic approach in a lot of places. Anyway it worked. I’m quite proud of that novel!

Unfortunately, the basic three-act has failed me utterly for the two years since then. In the two subsequent books I have started, I’ve gotten 20 or 30,000 words before realizing the story wasn’t working.

At some point recently I was reading John Truby’s Anatomy of Story (useful…) but I had a question about character arcs, googled something and came upon an article on Jim Hull’s site and quickly realized Dramatica is about 10x more comprehensive and accurate than anything else I’ve ready about story or structure. (So many things seem so obvious now in retrospect, like how main characters don’t have to change, they can be steadfast…)

Unfortunately, it’s also a bit like drinking from a firehose, but I’ll get it :slight_smile:

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You’re welcome @Lakis. You’ll find this to a fun and nurturing place to learn the theory. I remember this feeling you feel now. It’s like being unplugged from the matrix. Story structure has never been more… naked than it is now eh? Also look up @decastell. He’s a successful author who used the theory for his latter books. Reviews say he outdid himself on his latest work. So, welcome.

Thanks @Khodu! The matrix … that’s a good way to put it. I will check out @decastell! Looking forward to being a part of the community.

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Dramatica is great!
Before I have in-depth study of The Syd Field Paradigm, Robert McKee’s “The Quest” and Christopher Vogler’s Hero’s Journey. I have not been accustomed to the structure of the three act, because the traditional Chinese narrative is the four act (hundreds of years of History): 起(start), 承(continue), 转(turn), 合(and close). So the four act of Dramadica is more in line with my habits.

I just contacted Dramadica. last month. I began to study the fractal narrative techniques in order to write interactive novels ( and Interactive Storytelling for VR), in the Google “Fractal narrative”, the accidental discovery of the Dramatica. Although Dramatica’s fractal theory has nothing to do with the fractal narrative techniques I want, but I’m still infatuated with it.

I am poor in English, spent more than one month’s time, completely rely on translation software to read Dramatica’s theory.
I am connecting Dramatica and Interactive Storytelling, I believe there will be more harvest.

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In my hillside village of Cantor, we had only two rocks. We would take turns banging the rocks together and smiling crooked hillside smiles at the joyous noise. One day I was blissfully banging the rocks together when I banged too hard. The rocks broke in two. Four rocks fell from my hands. Everyone in the village stared with horror. Four rocks on the ground. Not two. What is this evil? I picked up one of the rocks and banged it on each of the other three rocks. It made different strange noises. The Elders screamed and ran in terror. The Warriors cried like babies. The Priests just wet themselves. But the new children… the new children came closer… and leaned in… to hear… the music.

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Like a dark symphony. Eerie, twisted, rich with a thousand terrors. Beautiful. The children, both old and new lost themselves in its embrace. Their dark joy filled the rocks with injections of purple chaos; bleeding the sun of its yellow life. And so began the starless age of Duhlin.

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