Hey, @Brian, this is a Dramatica theory users group actually made up of “published authors and film makers”. You probably would love getting to know this program and its theory. But there’s a unique angle Dramatica uses to approach the Storymind, as it’s called. There are dozens of angles that are considered to narrow a story down in theme and purpose, this is called Dramatica.
According to Dramatica theory, ideas like Save the Cat and Hero’s Journey are only discussing one or another aspect of the big picture of what stories do. Since there are other types of story besides Hero’s Journey, or Save the Cat, Dramatica holds the overarching meaning.
That said, people on this forum are pretty loyal to this methodology, so referring them to what “other published authors” think is asking them to go backwards in theory, not forward.
For a Dramatica user, other theories are shallower compared to the advanced, or “deeper” interpretation Dramatica gives to 32,768+ ways to write a novel.
In the end, we all just want to write a good story. Dramatica gives the structure and options for all types of story beyond the Hero’s Journey. If the Plot Card system is good for you, and makes sense for you, that’s wonderful and it is functional for your writing.
But this forum is pretty loyal to Dramatica.
This sounds interesting. But this is the one we use on this forum.
Also, to understand the difference between Dramatica and other theories, I came across this article that may be helpful for you. Take a look at page 13 on.