Hello,
Whatever you think, it is about writing.
Plotting a story (with Dramatica, of course, but not-AI powered old Dramatica Pro) I run into extensive overthink-able consideration mode.
I’m trying to work with this kind of pattern: Idea → Stofryform → Outline → Novel.
If you change Novel for Short Story I succeeded twice but it did not change global literature market.
Anyway, at Storyform stage there is nice Plot Sequence Report splitting every Thoroughline into four Concern based acts and every act is explored on Issue level (again four elements). My dictionary may be not up to date but I hope you get it.
Assuming every Issue element represents (potentially) a scene - it was explored that way on Subtext with Problem level elements to break the scene down into smaller pieces, if I remember correctly - we have four scenes per throughline per act.
In total it is 16 scenes per throughline and 64 per story.
So much fun for outlining. With that mess nothing can be finished . Ok it can, but not everything at once. OS and MC first. Then IC and RS for gaps or subplots. Or… whatever else, depends on a story, mood, and so on.
But there is different kind of problem. At least in my eyes.
I like to start with major plot points to see if the story makes sense at all. Thanks to Armando’s Dramatica in 30 seconds (for me it is much more) I have 4 events for plot and 4 events for character arc. Kind of good to have initial idea of Inciting Incident, Plot Point 1, Midpoint, Plot Point 2 and Climax. And a bit more.
Having PSR later on I can assign it to some of the 64 scenes and have a lat of creative fun.
I like to tend to sequence approach to go into details with smaller chunks. Easier to maintain and every sequence ends with some major plot point. Sounds good for me.
Simple math tells me - on average we have like 8 scenes per each sequence.
For novels not the worst ever idea. Average novel is around 400 pages. It is like 50 pages per sequence. Six pages par scene. Not so bad.
But… screenplay. I have no experience with.
In modern times average movie is like 90-120 minutes. It is 15 minutes per sequence in case of 120 minutes. On average it is less than 2 minutes per scene. According to Internet (smarter every single day) average scene in Hollywood movie is like 1.5 to 3 minutes. But sometimes… I thin opening scene in The Godfather is like 7 minutes, or so.
How do you deal with that? Do you combine multiple Dramatica scenes into single movie/novel scene/chapter?