We’ve just added a new Audience Experience section to the Storyform—an expansion of the classic “Audience Appreciations.” Chris and Melanie took the original four signals and evolved them into eight practical lenses for how your story plays for an audience. Internally we’re already surprised by how often these clarify a hazy choice or snap an argument into focus.
Below is what’s in there now, how each is derived, and what it’s good for:
1) Story Reach (classic Reach, expanded)
Derives from: MC Problem-Solving Style × Story Limit
Use it to: gauge who identifies with this Storyform and why. It frames the “who feels seen” question—how the story’s clock/box (Limit) interacts with the MC’s cognitive style to shape identification.
2) Story Dilemma (rewrite of Nature)
Derives from: MC Resolve × Story Outcome
Use it to: surface the argument in a sentence. Change/Steadfast plus Success/Failure gives you the moral and logical tension that the audience tracks as the dilemma.
3) Story Pressure (update of Tendency)
Derives from: MC Approach × Story Driver
Use it to: feel the pulse of events. Do-er/Be-er filtered through Action/Decision reveals the beat-to-beat pressure pattern—where urgency comes from and how it turns.
4) Story Constraints (new)
Derives from: Story Limit × Story Driver
Use it to: map the operational boundaries of the story and the cadence of turns. Limit tells you whether pressure comes from dwindling Time or Options, while Driver reveals whether turns are forced by Actions or Decisions. Together they show where friction accumulates, how escalation unfolds, and what the audience expects scenes to resolve against.
5) Character Orientation (new)
Derives from: MC Approach × MC Problem-Solving Style
Use it to: unlock whether your Main Character skews results-oriented or goal-oriented—a deceptively small insight that proves more helpful than you might think. The Limit sets the kind of pressure (a ticking clock vs. narrowing options), while the Driver decides what forces each turn (actions vs. decisions). Together they signal whether your MC chases immediate outcomes or protects the larger objective—even when it costs them in the moment.
6) Character Evolution (new, formalizes a familiar combo)
Derives from: MC Resolve × MC Growth
Use it to: articulate the arc mechanics. It distinguishes Change vs. Steadfast and Start vs. Stop in combination, so you can show (not just tell) how the MC’s stance shifts or holds.
7) Emotional Outcome (rewrite of Essence)
Derives from: MC Growth × Story Judgment
Use it to: specify the emotional aftertaste—not just Good/Bad, but shades of hope, loss, relief, and more. Growth colors the Judgment into something you can reliably build scenes toward.
8) Story Ending (now officially surfaced)
Derives from: Story Outcome × Story Judgment
Use it to: name the final feeling: triumph, tragedy, or bittersweet—where the objective result (Outcome) and the personal verdict (Judgment) land together.
Where you’ll see it
You’ll find Audience Experience at the bottom of every Storyform now in Dramatica. Each item is computed from the Dynamics you’re already setting and presented in plain language so you can apply it immediately to pitches, treatments, beats, and revisions.
We hope you enjoy the new features and the fresh insights they unlock. This is all part of our ongoing work to refine and extend the Dramatica theory of story as we pioneer the development of narratives for film, television, games, and AI-driven experiences. As you try these out, please share examples—seeing how you use them will guide what we ship next.