Acts, Dracts, Bumps, and Slides

theory
#1

DRACTS ACTS BUMPS and SLIDES

The question of how acts are perceived by an audience versus how they are formed in the story appears to be undecided. The web is full of people arguing the 3 versus 4 acts structure. I think Dramatica has helped clarify this but I didn’t find it codified anywhere.

I took what appears elsewhere on this board and enhanced and put it in a spreadsheet. Because spreadsheets are love.

TERMS

Acts = What the audience perceives, and sometimes even what the writer mistakenly wrote. Varies depending on story structure… 2, 3 or 4. This can be though of as a superficial layer.

Dracts = New term coined on another thread by someone else… The Dramatica Act concept. Its easy, its always 4 for a grand argument story. This is the deep structure.

Bumps = Horizontal or Vertical signpost changes. Ex. Understanding to Doing - Perceived as separating two acts

Slides= Diagonal signpost change. Ex. Learning to Understanding. Perceived as a continuation of an act, no separation

THE SPREADSHEET

I’ve uploaded a sheet with the 24 permutations for the Activity/Physics Domain/Class. I labeled the Transitions with arrows and coin the term Phase for the change from one to another, either a Bump or a Slide.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

I’m writing a trilogy and one of the hardest parts for me has been deciding on an overall three movie structure versus the structure of the individual movies. Its done so badly almost all of the time.

My theory at the moment is that I should choose a permutation that is perceived as 3 acts for the overall arc of the trilogy, and then it probably won’t matter as much on the structure of the bumps and slides for the individual movies. Though I might choose a 2 act perception for the first and last and a 3 or 4 act perception for the middle story.

Q & A

Any thoughts on this? Other examples of storyforms for trilogies versus the individual movies?

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A question regarding the Four Acts
#2

Hi Lulz4,

Interesting! One thing I’d caution you on is that I’ve found with my own writing that I’m not really free to “choose” much about the storyform consciously. I get ideas and develop them and eventually figure out the right storyform that fits those ideas.

You might have a totally different process and be able to choose the storyform or its signposts first, so that’s cool. I’d just caution you about trying to shoehorn your Muse’s ideas into a consciously chosen structure.

(Not that you can’t start with the structure first, as is done during Story Embroidery sessions; that can be fun too.)

I agree that 3 acts would be sort of ‘perfect’ for a trilogy. You might find that if you’re thinking of a trilogy, your subconscious would accept that limitation (just as it might if you said “I want an idea for a sci-fi story”) and after the grueling process of determining the storyform that fits your ideas you’d find a Z-pattern for the OS signposts.

Anyway, just my two cents. There are some other posts on here if you search the word ‘Series’ using the magnifying glass in top right.

P.S. with this kind of post I think you’d be best starting a new thread, rather than replying to a tangentially related old one. Maybe @jhull can split it.

#3

Thank you @mlucas, good points… yeah, I’m a little concerned about shoehorning, but I’m more concerned about writing for months and realizing I didn’t write what I wanted in an overall series sense.

I’ve done that before, as I already wrote the story partially in a novel format (Nano, years ago), and as a single screenplay (ScriptFenzy, years ago), and I am just coming back to it now to rewrite as a series as it was always a series and I just didn’t realize that fully at the time.

@jhull Feel free to start a new thread or I can delete it here and start it clean as desired. Seems like a topic others are thinking about. Who doesn’t want to write a series now a days.

#4

Well, maybe what you can do is do your best to figure out the series storyform from what you’ve got, and kind of pencil it in, be willing to revisit and change it if necessary. You don’t even have to go all the way, you could just get it down to the Concern or Issue level. Or you might be sure of the OS Throughline because the Problem is really obvious, but be less sure of the others. That kind of thing.

Then you can use what you’re sure of to aid your writing, and as you do more, the less-certain areas should firm up.

You could always post on here if you need help determining storyforms, too.

Nice to hear from another writer using Dramatica!

#5

I think all of this sounds great - but you might want to consider more what it is you want to say with your trilogy rather than trying to make it fit into a bump-slide-bump progression. A lot of Success/Good/Physics stories are hairpins or slide-bump-slide, so you might be painting yourself into a corner without even knowing it.

We’re starting work on a new television series and though we have the pilot and first season mapped out, the storyform for the entire series is still open…and I’m pretty sure that we won’t have a problem because once we establish the context for the entire series you can always look at the first season within that context.

In other words, regardless of subject matter, you can always argue a singular context to the exclusion of the other three contexts within the quad. With Star Wars you could likely argue Doing, Obtaining, or Learning as the first Signpost AS LONG AS you don’t look at the other three Signposts. It’s only once you try to look at all four that Understanding makes the most sense.

Just something to think about.

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#6

Thank you @Lulz4. This is marvelous. I’ve struggled with this concept for awhile and this chart helps me visualize act structure and dynamics so much easier. What a wonderful and useful tool. Well done.

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#7

One thing you might want to make a note of is that if the Overall Story Signpost 1 is Obtaining, the Story Outcome is ALWAYS Failure!

Also, I’m not sure but it’s possible that some of the permutations aren’t valid… I can’t think of a way to be sure without trying them all in the software (Theme Browser and Plot Progression buttons both allow you to set Signposts).

#8

@mlucas I was wondering that… I have the Dramatica book and there are only 12 examples of “Phases” given, though it does say these are only examples.

I’ll test them all in the software and update the sheet if some are illegal in the Dramatica sense.

Though since authors are writing without the tool they might be writing those storyforms anyway. Would be interesting if those movies/novels were sub par.

#9

@jhull Thanks for the advice… :slight_smile: I’ll look at the hairpin aspect. Don’t want to be in a corner unless its with Sarah Connor :smiley:

Its really the large scale structure I’m yearning for; I don’t feel I can take on three movies without it. I originally wrote the novel/screenplay based on a hero’s journey/modern screenplay template, which was fine for one movie, I just had too much story for one movie. Hence the rewrite attempt 8 years later.

I’m planning on a three movie overarching storyform for a waveguide and three individual movie storyforms that are an interconnected trilogy; definitely standalone movies in an episodic manner, but with structure connecting them all in the theme and argument. I’m looking at storyforms of movies I like now as I figure I might as well write forms I like versus blindly writing-by-the-numbers… I’ll decide shortly on the forms.

Full disclosure… I’m a poet if I’m anything… ~450 poems… the three movies are going to be a giant fractal sonnet if I have my druthers. One character is a herald that even speaks in iambic pentameter as he foreshadows the occasional pivotal scene. The character is gay and loud so I think it will fit right in.

Fun fact I realized… the sonnet form is the hero’s journey. It maps perfectly. I use a modified hero’s journey template to write sonnets. Really helps add a narrative backbone in such a short poem style. The last two lines are even called the Heroic Couplet.

Your TV gig sounds brave and scary… to write a TV show without it planned out for seasons boggles me, but I guess if you are a professional writer you can pull off those kinds of things. Man On a Wire. I’d have 6 seasons and a movie planned out before the pilot shot lol. I wish you the best.

Thanks everyone for this sounding board… this and Dramatica are definitely helping me move forward after years of thinking it couldn’t be done.

I’ll keep y’all in the loop.

#10

I’ve conducted the ALLOWED signpost pattern research I mentioned above. As Mike Lucas suggested, Dramatica does not allow certain permutations.

10 out of the 24 possibilities are NOT Allowed, see my updated sheet.

NOTE: I only checked OS=Activity with MC=Situation, which I think is a typical hollywood movie form, though similar forbidden patterns are likely for the other Class/Throughline choices.

I didn’t look at any other story engine choices, and certain engine selections will likely reduce the possibilities further or force undesired outcomes, for example, a hero movie that Fails in the end.

Interestingly, if you sort by the Acts (perceived acts), the Bump Bump Bump (4 perceived Acts) only has 2 allowed possibilities. If other Class/Throughlines were chosen, that could be different.

It may turn out that my desire to choose the storyforms first is not going to be so easy and I may just have to build out the story engine for the three movies and see if I can find some kind of organic resonance between the three. Evolve versus Decide.

#11

Wow! I expected some might be disallowed, but it’s interesting that it’s that many.

If you make it a Success story, at least three more (all the remaining ones with Obtaining as Signpost 1) will be disallowed also!

I’m not sure what you mean about MC=Situation, it seems like the disallowed OS Activity permutations are disallowed regardless of MC being Situation or Fixed Attitude (though I only tried a few). You should be able to test this leaving MC throughline unchosen.

I honestly think you’ll be better off developing your story ideas for a while until you have enough to determine a storyform. If you pick a storyform consciously first, you may be fighting against the story your subconscious truly wants to tell.

Didn’t you say you wrote this as a screenplay and partly finished as a novel already? You may have enough from that to determine the storyform already (unless you plan to change a lot). Or maybe I misunderstood and what you already wrote was only Part 1 of the trilogy.

#12

Where are you seeing people argue for a 4 act structure? I have only come across this once, years ago.

#13

I was being a little hyperbolic, sorry, but its certainly a topic that writers/theorists seem to struggle with to find agreement, see below… not that I think anyone here is confused. The concept of the Bump/Slide patterns shaping how many acts are perceived by the audience completely puts a nail in that vampiric coffin imo.




https://www.writersstore.com/whats-wrong-with-the-3-act-structure/


http://www.elementsofcinema.com/screenwriting/three-act-structure/

http://www.writerswrite.com/screenwriting/cannell/lecture4/
http://www.clown-enfant.com/leclown/eng/drama/livre.htm#1STRUC
#14

I think you’re missing a big piece of context when you say that the bump/slide pattern puts a nail into the coffin. I haven’t read these articles yet, but from experience, I’m going to say that a large part of the problem is that acts are poorly defined. Most people are arguing about vague things, like “an act is where someone changes.” But this means nothing, since a scene can be the same thing.

Essentially, they don’t have a strict definition for acts, and they certainly aren’t talking about Dracts. So… even though they are not in agreement, they may all be saying something useful, just about different things.

For instance, Yves Lavandier (the last link), is a wonderful theorist, and he has a clear definition of Act Three – it’s hard to argue with. But it’s a storytelling definition, not a storyforming one.

Thank you for the links. I will look at them.

#15

Yeah, now that I’ve read them, the main distinction between the acts seems to be a major plot point that tosses the Protagonist or MC into a really bad place. Or, how playwrights have decided to cut up their scenes. So, yeah, these are all storytelling acts.

#16

I didn’t think my off-hand suggestion would be used later on. But “dracts” shall live on!

The problem with “Acts” is that many people seem to use that word without really clarifying what they mean. For instance, I’ve seen Acts defined by (1) Tension, (2) (irreversible) twisting Character Decisions, and (3) just First Act = Backstory/Setup, Second Act = actual story, Third Act = epilogue. While there is obviously some overlap, you can imagine stories which have many Acts of kind (1) while having few of kind (2) (or vice versa). It gets confusing/annoying when people argue about the number of acts (in general or for a specific story) without establishing their definitions first.

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