Writing Scenes with Universe, Mind, Physics, Psychology

writing
#1

I’m confused on one issue regarding writing scenes with Dramatica.

I’ve read that a complete dramatic scene will have in it a:

Universe (Situation)
Mind (Fixed Attitude)
Physics (Activities)
Psychology (Manipulations)

Now lets say my storyform is setup like this:

Overall Story: Activites
Main Character: Situation
Influence Character: Fixed Attitude
Relationship: Manipulations

Given the setup above:

In the written scene doesn’t that mean that activities in the scene have to be about the overall story?
The situation written in the scene should be about the main character?
The fixed attitude in the scene has to be about the influence character?
The manipulations in the scene have to be about the relationship?

Or can the ‘activities’ component of a scene involve the main character throughline even though the main character throughline is in situation and as long as the audience sees the majority of the conflict in the main character throughline coming from the situation then I’m fine?

And in this case its almost like storytelling white noise?

#2

Melanie and @jhull have written about it. I don’t want to say too much because I’ll screw it up, but I think the idea is that if you want to explore a level below the problem level, you would go back up to the Situation/Activity/Fixed Attitude/Manipulation level to do it.

One way you might picture it is to print off a Dramatica table, look at the problem elements, divide all 256 or whatever into four tinier boxes and fill them in with Situation/Activity/Fixed Attitude/Manipulation…I think.

#3

Take a look at this analysis of a scene in A Separation.

In general, no, the classes don’t have to be about the throughlines with them as domains. In your case, the situation would not have to be about the main character, and the others can be about the main character.

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#4

The idea is simply that a complete scene contains some kind of activity, a situation, a manner of thinking, and an attitude.

To quote the storymind article How Scenes Relate to Dramatica’s Story Elements:

I think the term Event can be a bit misleading though; for example, the entire scene may take place while driving in a car, which is that scene’s Activity. In that case the Activity isn’t something that happens at one single point during the scene, but throughout.

Anyway, this doesn’t have to tie to the rest of the structure at all. There’s no particular relationship between the throughline domains and the scene Events.

Of course, many of your scenes will have things that ties to the structure – for example, the Activity of climbing the Cliffs of Despair in The Princess Bride certainly represents Westley’s IC Issue of Attempt as he impacts everyone by attempting that.

If you want to delve into it further I find these narrative first articles useful. Jim calls this component of scene structure TKAD (because of how Fixed Attitude, Situation, Activity, and Mentality map to Thought, Knowledge, Abiltity, and Desire):

Also: https://narrativefirst.com/blog/2016/10/the-first-dramatica-scene-analysis

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#5

Note I’ve found the best way to use this stuff in my own writing is not to worry about it at first, just outline and start writing my scenes however I imagine them. Then when partway into writing the scene – especially if something isn’t working or doesn’t feel quite right – I look at it to see if it has all the TKAD components and whether one needs to be emphasized more.

Also sometimes assigning PRCO can help. I haven’t used the PASS stuff at all (at least not consciously).

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#6

The “Writing a Perfectly Structured Scene with Dramatica” article – That’s the one you want to read.

Everything is Universe, Physics, Psychology, and Mind. Everything is Knowledge, Ability, Desire, and Thought. Note how KTAD exists at every level of the model. The Classes don’t claim sole ownership of Universe, Physics, Psychology, and Mind.

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#7

Thanks for pointing that out Jim. That makes it really obvious why it works like that! :slight_smile:

What did you think of this comment I made?

In trying to use the advice in your article, I’ve found it sometimes works better if I treat each of the four scene events as just something represented in the scene, not necessarily “events” that happen at a given point in the scene. An Attitude might crop up near the beginning and again at the end; characters might be engaging in an Activity the whole time.

But I’m not sure what that means for SRCA/1234. Maybe the 1234 order is based on when the thing is first introduced?

Or do you think that even for something that’s present throughout the whole scene, there is a moment where it’s highlighted the most?

#8

One hundred percent - that sounds great.

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