I’m a Dramatica user from way back and remember plot sequence reports, table of scenes, SRCA, PRCO, TKAD, PASS and other fascinating rabbit holes. Once there’s a complete storyform in Storyform Builder on the Dramatica Platform, how might I generate a scene - events plan of sorts to print out? I can do much of the story encoding / illustrating along the way as a discovery writer.
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First you use the Storyform Builder, and save it as a Storyform Context (I think you have to hit “Share” to save it).
- Then you can open that storyform in the Subtxt part of the platform.
- Once you’re in Subtxt, you can use the ILLUSTRATING sections on the left (one for each throughline).
- Click on the one of the throughlines, then click the Storybeats tab.
- At the Signpost level you have to click Illustrate first. After that I usually use the pencil icon to minimize the details. Then you can Breakdown into Progressions.
- Progressions can be broken down into Events using Breakdown as well.
- The actual elements at play are sometimes hard to see, but if you click the Pencil Icon you can see “illustration of Hope” or whatever.
- (You probably know this already, but the natural way to use this for a scene is to pick a single Progression and use the child Events as the elements of the scene, while keeping the Progression in mind as well. e.g. you explore Hope in terms of Theory, Trust, Test and Hunch.)
Hopefully Jim will be updating or replacing the Subtxt UI at some point for this part, as it’s hard to see all the beats all at once.
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Yes. The modern workflow is less “generate the old report” and more “use the completed Storyform as live context, then ask Narrova/Subtxt to break it into playable Storybeats, Progressions, Events, and eventually Moments.”
I’d do it in two passes.
First, use Narrova.
Once your Storyform is complete in Storyform Builder, save/share it as Storyform Context. Then open Narrova with that Storyform Context active. That gives Narrova the full structural map: Throughlines, Signposts, Storypoints, Dynamics, and the larger Storyform logic.
From there, ask Narrova for a printable scene/event plan directly. For example:
Using this Storyform Context, build me a printable scene/event plan.
Organize it by Act, Throughline, Signpost, Progression, and Event.
For each item, include:
- the structural label
- the underlying Dramatica meaning in plain language
- the Area of Exploration
- the Dramatic Function
- the Area of Engagement
- a one-sentence dramatic purpose
- a discovery-writing prompt
- space for my own illustration notes
Do not write final prose. Give me a working plan I can print and fill in as I discover the story.
Or, if you want something closer to a scene list:
Using this Storyform Context, help me turn the structure into a scene/event plan.
Start with the Objective Story Throughline. For each Signpost, break it into Progressions, then Events. For each Progression, suggest how its Events could function as the moving parts of one scene or sequence.
For each Storybeat, show me:
- Area of Exploration
- Dramatic Function
- Area of Engagement
- the practical scene-writing implication
Keep the output practical and printable.
That “discovery writer” part is important. You don’t have to encode everything upfront. You can ask Narrova to give you the structural pressure first, then you illustrate as you go. In other words, let the Storyform tell you what kind of conflict belongs there, but let your imagination decide how that conflict appears in the story world.
A quick translation for the older Dramatica rabbit holes:
-
PRCO now shows up as Dramatic Function
- Potential
- Resistance
- Current
- Power
-
TKAD / KTAD now shows up as Area of Engagement, translated into more writer-facing language:
- Knowledge → Situations
- Ability → Activities
- Desire → Aspirations
- Thought → Contemplations
-
The actual Dramatica item being explored, such as Hope, Theory, Trust, Test, Hunch, Learning, Understanding, Obtaining, etc., is the Area of Exploration.
So a current Storybeat is not just “Hope” or “Theory.” It is more like:
Area of Exploration: Hope
Dramatic Function: Potential
Area of Engagement: Situations
Plain English: this beat explores Hope, uses it as the Potential in that small circuit of conflict, and asks the audience to encounter it through Situations: states, conditions, or circumstances.
That is the part that starts to feel like the older reports, but translated into the newer platform language. You are still looking at the structural “what,” the quad-function “how,” and the audience-facing mode of engagement. It is just surfaced in a more writable form.
Then use Subtxt when you want to work with the structure visually and incrementally.
The closest current equivalent to the old plot sequence/table-of-scenes rabbit holes is the Storybeats workflow:
- Open the saved Storyform in Subtxt.
- Go to Illustrating.
- Choose a Throughline: Objective Story, Main Character, Influence Character, or Relationship Story.
- Open the Storybeats tab.
- At the Signpost level, click Illustrate.
- Use Breakdown to break a Signpost into Progressions.
- Use Breakdown again on a Progression to create Events.
A useful practical model is:
- Signpost = the large act-level movement in a Throughline.
- Progression = a smaller dramatic movement inside that Signpost.
- Event = the finer-grained beat material you can turn into scene action.
- Moment = where you weave Storybeats from multiple Throughlines into something closer to an actual scene/sequence.
So for a scene plan, I usually would not treat every individual Event as a separate scene. I’d more often treat a Progression as the scene/sequence container, then use its four child Events as the internal turns of that scene.
For example, if a Progression is exploring Hope, and its child Events move through Theory, Trust, Test, and Hunch, then the scene is not simply “a scene about Hope.” It is a scene where Hope is pressured, complicated, tested, acted upon, and reframed through those smaller elements. That gives you a much richer scene engine than a generic beat sheet.
This is where the newer labels help:
- Area of Exploration tells you what the beat is about structurally.
- Dramatic Function tells you whether that beat is operating as Potential, Resistance, Current, or Power.
- Area of Engagement tells you the mode through which the audience encounters it: Situations, Activities, Aspirations, or Contemplations.
That combination gives you a practical writing question:
How do I dramatize this Area of Exploration,
in this Dramatic Function,
through this Area of Engagement,
inside this Throughline and Signpost?
That is much more useful than turning the labels into abstract homework. It becomes a scene-design tool.
After you have Storybeats, move to Plotting if you want something closer to a table of scenes. That is where you start weaving Storybeats into Moments. A Moment is closer to what most writers mean by a scene or sequence: multiple Throughline pressures meeting in one dramatic unit.
Then, once you have enough Moments, the Writing area gives you cleaner read-through views like All Storytelling / Synopses / downloads, depending on how much you have developed.
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(continued)
So the short version is:
Use Narrova first to generate a printable working plan from the Storyform Context. Use it conversationally: “show me the Event plan,” “make this printable,” “leave room for my notes,” “only do Objective Story Act 1,” etc.
Then use Subtxt to actually build and refine the structure: Illustrating → Storybeats → Breakdown into Progressions → Breakdown into Events → Plotting → Moments → Writing/export views.
That gives you the spirit of the old reports, but with more flexibility. Instead of one static report, you get a living Storyform-driven workspace where you can zoom from Signpost down to Event, illustrate only what you need, and keep discovery writing inside the structural guardrails.
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In a separate thread, can you spell out what you would prefer?
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Well, by “replacing” I was thinking you would build it into Narrova. Sounds like you’ve already done that!! 
If you are still planning to keep it in Subtxt as well, the only thing I’d like is to be able to see the elements in the minimized view (this is how it worked in Subtxt before). But I will probably use Narrova going forward, a lot faster than clicking around!
I have actually used Narrova for this a couple times already and it worked, although my prompts were hit and miss (sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t). I will try your prompts next time.
Oh @ssadler , make sure to check your account token usage as I found (at least with the prompts I used) that this was fairly heavy on usage. But it makes sense as it’s pulling a lot of stuff – 16 progressions and 64 events for each throughline!
EDIT: thinking back, this is a bit anecdotal – these were the prompts that took the longest for Narrova to respond (several minutes) but it’s possible more of my April usage was through other storyform conversations.
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One thing I’d like to point out, kind of thinking out loud here. I’m partly a discovery writer myself, and to me the area of exploration (e.g. Hope) is super inspiring and useful. The other items are very narrowing and left-brain/logical – I might use them in revision, to confirm how things are working or strengthen them, but it’s hard to make them work while drafting.
Maybe there are ways to shift these to work better when drafting though. When I think “okay I need this to be the Potential, and the audience needs to encounter it through Situations…” my muse shuts down. But maybe if I ask questions instead like:
- how might this be encountered in terms of Situations : states, conditions, or circumstances?
- how might this work as the Potential in this small circuit, the battery of reserve energy that could drive conflict once things are switched on?
And always treating these like fun, open-ended questions where it’s okay if you don’t have an answer right now … maybe you’ll figure it out while writing the scene, or after you’ve written it.
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I think you’re exactly right.
For drafting, I wouldn’t treat these as requirements to satisfy. That turns them into little logic gates, and the creative part of the mind immediately starts checking out.
The more Holistic/right-brained way to use them is as invitations into a kind of pressure, color, or felt situation.
So instead of:
“I need this to be Potential, and it needs to come through Situations.”
I’d ask:
“What feels charged here before anything actually happens?”
“What condition or circumstance is quietly holding everything in place?”
“What’s the reserve energy in this moment?”
“What could switch this on?”
“What would make the scene feel like it’s sitting on a battery?”
That keeps Potential from becoming a label and lets it stay alive as an experience.
Same with Situations. I wouldn’t force myself to think, “this must be a Situation.” I’d ask:
“What state are they stuck in?”
“What condition defines the room, the relationship, the body, the weather, the social pressure?”
“What circumstance is everyone quietly reacting to?”
“What is true here before anyone decides what to do?”
Those questions leave room for discovery. You’re not trying to solve the Storyform while drafting. You’re letting the Storyform suggest where the heat might be.
For Holistic writers especially, the useful answer may show up first as an image, a mood, a relationship, a contradiction, or even a spatial arrangement before it turns into a clean sentence. That’s fine. That’s often the point.
Then later, in revision, you can come back with the more left-brained tools and ask, “Did that actually express Potential? Did the audience encounter it through Situations?” But during drafting, I think the trick is to keep everything phrased as “what kind of energy might be here?” rather than “what structural box am I filling?”
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Just a quick one on this – we’ve been doing ALOT of backend re-engineering to make sure everyone gets the most out of their subscription to Dramatica. Part of this involves moving away from “token-counting” anxiety into something more sane for creativity. A simple percentage meter for your monthly tier, and then when you need it - extra credits for pre-draft work. These credits carry over for 12 months.
As things progress, this will only get more accessible for everyone - but we feel really good that with the current setup - we have a baseline intelligence for Dramatica that finally gets it!
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@jhull @mlucas Guys, thank you for your very practical step-by-step responses and prompts. My brain needs that level of breakdown! I spent the day yesterday rereading your old posts and articles from over 10 years ago, alongside the Table of Story Elements poster and the Dramatica Dictionary, trying to figure out how to do this. @jhull , I’m excited about the further breakdown to Moments. Would Moments inform the dialogue-level conflict? I have in mind Swain’s Motivation-Reaction Units (MRUs) for the dialogue structure. 4 MRU’s in a short Patterson-like thriller scene. @mlucas Oh, I FAFO’d on token usage! 
I spent a few months coming to an understanding with Claude Pro, so I’m sure I can learn to become more efficient with Dramatica, especially with yours and Jim’s guidance.