Hi all,
I am trying to reverse engineer my completed novel into Dramatica to see if it fits the criteria for a complete story. I was able to distill my novel down to one story form, and I am now not sure what I need to do next to see if I’ve met the criteria. (I am not sure about the influence character yet which I’ve asked elsewhere).
Thanks.
From what I understand, what you’re doing is analyzing your story which basically just means asking question.
Who is the Main Character?
Is this person driving the story?
If not, who is?
What are the characters trying to achieve?
What inequity (dilemma) are they, he, or she, trying to overcome?
What’s holding them back?
Do the succeed?
Does the main character end up in a better place than when s/he started?
etc etc etc…
While answering the questions, see how & where they would fit in the Dramatica model. Once you’re done that, if you can fill out all of the points, you have a complete story, if you don’t, then there’s room to do more.
Hey Stephen,
I guess the next step is to fill in some of the blanks and see if they all work.
It’s helpful to remember that a complete, grand argument story is not necessarily 100% balanced, meaning that not every element will have the same weight in the argument. If some are blank, it’s not that big a deal. What’s important is that the large trends are there (Is there an IC? Does the IC impede the MC from merrily going about their way?)
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MWollager - thank you for your input. How do you determine which elements are the most important?
Jerome - thank you as well. I can answer your questions as above, which are much easier to understand. However, it seems that the Plot Sequence report is mostly gobble gook to me. What report did you find the most useful after going down to one story form?
Would be great if anyone else chimes in.
I can tell you from personal experience that, after getting it down to one storyform, I found it most useful to review the signposts to see if I had come close to capturing “the flow” of the story. Doing this will also ensure you not only have four throughlines, but that they’re articulated in a way that presents shifts or movements within your story. The storyform is nice to see (and refer to) from a certain perspective, but the signposts, I believe, are really the essence that help one navigate and better experience the story (or, as the writer, give meaning to it).
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I agree with @JBarker, the signposts are where it’s at. The biggest danger though is not having the right storyform, or worse yet, not understanding what the terms mean in terms of your story. On a personal note, I’ve been using Dramatica for over 8 years and continue to royally fü¢k up all the time when trying to narrow things down to one story form. It’s INSANELY hard to figure out and takes a lot of hard work and experience to get right (just ask @jhull).
From recent experience, your best bet is to condense your story into a short synopsis and present it with the storyform you’ve chosen, making sure to explain why you’ve made the choices you’ve made, and then let people pick it apart.
Without something concrete, the feedback anyone here can give you will be, at best, an interpretation of what they think you might be trying to achieve.
I would say that the PSR is the least important thing to worry about. That, or the crucial element.
I agree that the signposts are important, because if any of them are missing, your story is probably not going far or deep enough. It’s a good check. I would also make sure that your Impact Character is really influencing the MC, making things tough for him/her.
The rest of it can really vary, depending on the tone or emphasis of your story. A “thinking” piece might be heavy on the Issues. A leap of faith story might want to have really clear Responses and Solutions.
@Jerome - thank you for your help. You suggested to condense my story into a short synopsis and present it with the chosen story form. If I read this right, does that mean that I do a synopsis with an answer to the 8 of the 12 essential questions?
@JBarker @MWollaeger - thank you for bringing up the signposts. I guess I need to make sure I’ve dialled in the story form first before going to the signposts?
You can use the signposts to double-check your storyform. The most important thing, really, is to listen to your inner voice if you feel like you are forcing part of your story to fit into a storyform. It can be easy to jam things into holes they don’t belong in, for a while anyway.
@Jerome Thank you for your suggestion. I have now done a story synopsis with a story form similar to your format.
The story
A wealthy mining mogul survives a plane crash in the jungle under mysterious circumstances, while being blackmailed into smuggling diamonds. Nobody comes to rescue him, and he encounters betrayal and child soldiers in his struggle to reach civilization. He gets to civilization only to find out that technology has collapsed for unknown reasons. He and his journey home to the other side of the world to reunite with his family is just beginning. He encounters pirates, temptation, and storms at sea, in his harrowing journey around the world.
I did my best to answer the 12 essential questions:
Main Character Resolve – change. He becomes more ruthless, and doesn’t have a problem with killing others if it gets in his way of getting home to his family.
Main Character Growth: - Start. He does whatever it takes to survive, whether it is hacking his way out of the jungle, stealing sailboats, or killing others.
Main Character Approach: Do-er. He kills people who threaten him, he embarks on a mission out of the jungle, and he steals a sailing boat, and makes his way home.
Main Character Problem Solving Style – Linear problem solver. Not sure, but he’s a male, and he sees things more black and white. If someone threatens his family or gets in the way of him getting home to his family, he kills them.
Story Driver: Action – I wasn’t sure about this one or whether it should be a situation as everyone is stranded where they are, due to technology collapse. He does have to take action to improve his situation, by embarking on an epic journey to get home.
Story Limit: Option Lock. (at first it looked like a time lock, as he had to get the diamonds by a certain date. Once he passed his deadline, he kept going to get home and the story ends when he kills the bad guy who’s been blackmailing him with the diamonds, and he gets reunited with his family.
Story Outcome: Success. He gets reunited with his family. No technology in this world anymore, and his wealth means nothing, but he gets what he really wants – which is to be with his family.
Story Judgment: Good. Not sure about this, as he’s much more ruthless compared to before. (When he was young, he was ruthless, but when he met his wife, he became less ruthless, and then in the absence of her influence, he became ruthless)
The following items were automatically generated as a result of my answers and I have no idea if I’m getting this right. It seems my novel may have answered these requirements.
Overall story domain: fixed attitude. (Not sure if this applies but main character is fixated on getting home; others are fixated on surviving)
Concern: impulsive responses (sometimes main character says things that get him into trouble, and his impulse is not to trust anyone).
Issue: value vs worth (how valuable is the character’s quest to get home – is it worth it for him? He wrestles with this). Also how important is each person’s own value for survival?
Problem: effect. The characters are having problems of being effective in getting things done to get themselves out of the situation.
I’ll just touch on two points:
Note, “to become more” of something doesn’t indicate a change character, but a steadfast one. If he starts out ruthless and ends up even more ruthless, he hasn’t changed, just taken things up a notch. Change would be starting out ruthless and ending up merciful, or vice versa.
Sounds more like an Overall story of situation to me. If technology suddenly stops working worldwide, it’s something that affects everybody and is a problem for everyone. We all depend on technology for survival.
@Jerome Thank you for your feedback. For main character resolve - not sure if this makes a difference, but he was ruthless when he was a teenager (before the story) but when he met his wife, he became a lot less violent and aggressive as she was a moderating influence. However, as the story proceeds, he becomes violent, aggressive, and kills others without much remorse.
Overall story domain - could it be activity? Everyone has to do something to survive, whether it is hacking their way out of the jungle, or adapting to the new environment.
re: resolve: how is he at the beginning of the story to the end? The character you’re describing sounds like William Munny in Unforgiven.
Re: OS: where does the inequity come from? Is it from the environment (the collapse of tech / civilization)? Or from the activity of surviving? example: I break into a bread store to steal some bread. Where does the source of my problem come from? That I have no money to buy bread, or that I’m breaking into a store to steal bread?
Anyways, that’s how I see it. Others can probably chime in and make it clearer. I still tend to muddle some of the concepts.