I don’t know why, but I hate my own handwriting. It’s actually pretty nice in comparison to others, but I have never been able to overcome this.
I don’t like the damn computer because of the damn delete key.
I have two choices: typing or dictation. I find dictation improves readability and it rambles along nicely. 
But sign posts are necessary.
Turns out, I’m doing NaNoWriMo, too, but I started late (like, I only started yesterday), so I have some catching up to do. I’m only at 1,636 words. Luckily, I have a three-day weekend coming up, so I’ll be using that to help bolster my word count.
I kind of wish I could say I’ve had the same experiences with the PSR, but I haven’t yet. I did, however, have a similar experience with unexpected throughline crossover. The scene I wrote tonight was derived from the MC throughline, but initiates the OS. And I hadn’t even considered it as part of the OS until tonight.
While my MC is dealing with the pressures resulting from trying to end his reputation as a story-teller, he is coerced into telling an extra story, since he has chosen this to be his last session. He chooses to share his favorite myth. As I’m writing the scene, I begin to realize that the myth happens to be a core source of conflict for the OS, and wouldn’t you know it: The first OS Signpost is The Past!
Also, I lied about the PSR experience. I just looked at the PSR for my story, and the first item for the OS is Commitment, which is spelled out all over in that myth… (And even marks the turning point within the myth itself, which has ramifications throughout the story.)
In the first half of my first draft, I often couldn’t see the PSR items until later on (like after I’d finished the act). For some reason it’s easier to see them in the last act. Maybe because I know the story better, or things are coming together, or something.
Also, don’t be afraid if the PSR items act a bit strange in a novel. If you have enough space, I think it’s possible the PSR quad might repeat within the same act, like going through Closure, Hope, Dream, and Denial once, and then going through it again in a different context (either later in the same act, or simultaneously with a separate group of characters, that kind of thing).
I put this in a PM, but thought it might fit here, too.
One thing I can talk about is what happened when I went to rewrite my first chapter. Rather than using what I had, I decided to start from scratch because the order of things would be better if slightly different. So while reordering events, I figured a full rewrite of the chapter would let me work in more of my Dramatica notes.
So what I wound up with was about 12-13 points I wanted to hit over the course of a chapter. They might be something that needs as much as a paragraph or just a passing mention in seemingly random sentence. I figured it should be super easy to ‘connect the dots’ as I wrote my chapter because if it wasn’t in those points, I really didn’t need it. What I found was that I still had trouble getting from one point to the next.
So I ultimately did two different things that worked out great. I put all my points to the side and turned to just the PSR. I think for that section it was Investigation, Appraisal, Reapptaisal, Doubt. And then I started with Doubt and wrote the end of the chapter first and worked backward through Reappraisal, Appraisal, and finally Investigation. I think it felt more like I knew where I was going by knowing where I’ve been, so to speak.
I’m a little late to the Nano game this year.
I had started thinking I would try to finish my current draft this month, but everything took a turn for the worse as I realized I was still not sure what I was doing and I started losing momentum. I cycle back and forth between believing that I just need to write a “sh*tty first draft” and realizing that not knowing what happens next just kills my motivation/inspiration.
The good news is that Jim’s update to Subtext came at exactly the right time! I spent the last few days using it to re-outline and I’m really kind of blown away at how much it’s helping. As of yesterday I’ve outlined through the end of the third act, and I finally feel like the story is coming together into something I’m excited to write.
The combination of using multiple gists per sign posts and connecting them to the “gisted” variations in z-patterns and being able to define multiple groups for the OS and individuals for the ICs is a gamechanger. I’m coming up with plot twists that I never would have thought of. It’s actually a little eerie how well Dramatica fits things together – that “whoa!” moment when you read “The boys of summer lose the ability to act that leads to coveting something while devolving” and you suddenly realize that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen next.
Twins! Actually, I’m going very slowly and doubt I’m going to “win” in the classical sense, but that’s okay. My win condition is to have built the habit of writing daily (without analyzing the story structure for hours beforehand).
Hasn’t worked that way for me, but I think that might be because I’m telling a story that doesn’t currently have a Storyform on Subtext. A lot of the gists are close, but not quite right: e.g, “…pretends to be interested” happens to be “…pretends to be disinterested”.
Mostly, Dramatica has kept me on target with Action/Decision. I apparently really like to write Decision scenes as drivers, even though they absolutely do not fit with my story, which is Action driven. (One of my favorite scenes in my zeroth draft, which I knew I’d have to cut, even before meeting Dramatica, is a decision trying to drive the plot. It just doesn’t work.)
I have to admit, though, I keep getting shocked at how much stronger the “frenemy arc”, as someone on here put it, gets whenever I look toward the storyform for more ideas. I’m also amazed at how well Dramatica has predicted my OS. It’s crazy, there have been times that I’m thinking, “That’s not the right word,” and once I find the right one, it turns out it fits into one of the variations of the PSR for that act.
If you can’t find the storyform you want on Subtext, you can always upload a storyform saved from the Dramatica application. Same with the Plot Sequence report.
And if there is a gist you wish was in there, just let me know and I’ll add it. I’m adding many everyday, based on conversations with writers, my own discoveries, and ideas like the one you have above.
Definitely, and that’s been really helpful. I meant it more as there has not yet been a story analyzed with the same storyform, so it feels like I’m exploring new territory. (Which, was my intent when I started this story, anyway.) Of course, with over 32,000 storyforms, I guess that’s to be expected.
Good to know. I’ll keep it in mind.
Yeah, me too. I already have 40K words that need to be rewritten or repurposed so I don’t know if/when I’ll get those next 50K in (or exactly how long the book will be).
This is what I did.
It’s possible that the reason it feels so much better me this time around is because I’ve worked and reworked things so much (and changed storyforms) that I had a lot of story material to plug in. But I really think the biggest thing is populating all of the gists for the Elements. The way Jim has it worded “X leads to Y while Z” somehow just seems to work.
Okay, I had to laugh at something that happened while I was writing my story today, but folks here are the only ones who will get it…
I wrote this without thinking about it:
Several paragraphs later, I thought back and realized the Dramatica joke there – the OS Response is Feeling! Hilarious.
(Note I’m pretty sure Trust & Test are part of the quad for this scene. I haven’t analysed to see what the other two elements are, though Theory & Hunch feel right.)
Nanowrimo is progressing well. I’m almost at 45K and still have a week to go!
It was interesting, in another forum I noticed how other writers doing Nano were all struggling this past week with knowing what comes next – how the next scene goes, what the twist should be, etc. Strangely enough, I had struggled with the exact same problem on the same day many of them did. But I was able to get past it really quickly by just asking myself “how do Help (OS Problem) and Obligation (OS Issue) drive and cause conflict in this scene”. That one question brought forth a really cool idea that changed the motivating factors of the scene in small way, and suddenly the vague sense of “missing the point” went away. And my ideas for the scene (the one quoted from above) came together, just like that.
Thank God (and Chris and Melanie and Jim) for Dramatica, and the means to comprehend it!