Help, I can't stop overthinking

Seconding everything @jassnip especially using Subtext. (FYI here’s the link to the series she’s doing with Jim: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvi8K3c7b37IHq5E0_vIuuA).

I think this a problem that’s endemic with Dramatica. The thing to remember (and I really wish I had learned and internalized this advice earlier) is that Dramatica is a description of how our minds work naturally:

So you really don’t need to complete every story point for it to work. In fact as @jhull would say, trying to do this is counterproductive to finishing anything.

Jim’s suggested approach is to use and or create a Premise (which he explains on Subtext) and then construct the story only using Drivers, Signposts and (possibly) PSR beats.

If you’re more of an organic writer, @mlucas has been evolving an ongoing process of outlining as he goes.

I’m not 100% sure understand this part your question – are you having trouble illustrating the storypoints? For that I highly recommend leaning on the gists if you have access to them (e.g. the Mac version of Dramatica or Subtext). I really think it’s almost impossible to get a feel for what different storypoints are pointing to without gists.

Finally, check out Jim’s Playground series to get better at illustrating. I found this invaluable A Playground for Writers - Series of Articles - Narrative First.

In terms of learning how Dramatica works, in my opinion there’s no substitute for getting involved in group analysis. I learned more by analyzing Cars and Beauty and the Beast with @greg, @hunter, @mlucas and others than anything else. Jim does this in his Subtext Writer’s Room as well.

Good luck!

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