Prompted by Chris Huntley’s “A Comparison of Seven Story Paradigms:” I finally decided to buy John Truby’s “The Anatomy of Story”. So far, and although only at Chapter 6, I was struck by the extent of the similarity between Dramatica and Truby. Whilst Dramatica does leave it the author to make choices with regard to whom is whom and applies the storyform options accordingly, to the story engine settings, John Truby simply recommends that the author makes choices that will appeal to the audience. In Die Hard, for example, would Karl have been a more suitable choice for protagonist/mc, than John McClane? Dramatica will not stop you writing that story, for no one to want to go and see 
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I think the two work nicely together. I started purchasing some of his stuff back in 2004 and five years later got back around to Dramatica.
I’ve been using his Blockbuster Software for several years and the Dramatica For two now - but I use them in conjunction (for me, Blockbuster is more linear, looking at a story from left to right with the 22 beats layed out which sometimes helps me see it differently than via Dramatica’s drill down.)
There’s definitely overlap, but I think that helps despite the differences - plus Blockbuster has all sorts of genre add-ons that are useful.
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I would agree that there is not an either/or choice to be made, and one may use Dramatica in conjunction with Blake Snyder’s (Save the Cat), Jeff Schechter’s (Contour), John Truby’s (Blockbuster), etc., methodologies, to help develop the post-storyform stage of Dramatica.
As for John Truby’s 22-steps, they may be deployed linearly, as most stories are presented linearly, or depending on the stylistic and rhetorical skills of the author, may be used as a check list of elements that, beyond the fundamental 7-steps (Dramtica’s 12 essential steps), may or may not be important to the story that you are telling. Also, and to counter the claim of others, John Truby does not advocate adherence to the hero’s journey model.
Over a decade ago, Although I only have the software for Dramatica, I had a look at Blockbuster in its demo (the really ugly one) form, but have yet to make use of the updated version and/or its genre packs. Mostly because there’s no demo.
The way that Blockbuster is sold – and excuse my cynicism – seemed too much like a down-payment on a kicking for more-and-more money for more-and-more features/add-ons (the Ryan Air model :-). Dramatica is a complete package, at a reasonable and one-time price.
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Blockbuster went through an upgrade for Mac at the same time Dramatica did - so I got both about the same time. Blockbuster looks a lot nicer now, more aesthetically pleasing - but I find it a bit quirky to open and pull up a file (I usually get it to work, it just takes a while.) Having implemented a bunch of software at work, integrating various applications together for a customized approach vs. an all-in-one, I kind of like the flexibility as sometimes it’s like buying a Cadillac with all the bells and whistles when all you really needed was a coupe with a few upgrades. Had BB come with all the genre add-ons, I probably would have balked at paying the additional costs for things I didn’t necessarily need.
More often than not, I do use BB as more of a checklist and for a different, broader perspective as Dramatica tends to do dig into the granular to the point I sometimes feel I can’t see the forest for the trees.
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BB looks like a web based front-end for a database and query system, thus the slowness. It’s like SAGE used to be, as a file based system, compared to what it now is, as a front end for an ever expanding database. Dramatica can seem rather blue-sky.
I have BlockBuster as well but haven’t got into it. What do you both recommend. Reading Anatomy of Story first? Or just diving into the software?
It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but it’s probably a good place to start. For me it was a bit redundant having watched one of his older courses and listened to a number of his genre stuff - but worth reading nevertheless as it will put some of the things into context the software might not (though there’s plenty of story examples to be found in it.)
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Read John Truby’s book Anatomy of Story and Armando Saldaña Mora’s Dramatica for Screenwriters. This and Dramatica, should be sufficient.
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