My son is in the Peace Corps in The Philippines. Some of the folks there want him to teach a Creative Writing course. Considering how great I think the Dramatica theory is, I want him to head in that direction. What are some strategies I can suggest to him that won’t get him or his students bogged down. They should be writing, but the right kind of push can help them create meaningful, solid stories from the start.
Thanks for the help.
Maybe, they can concentrate on Main Character, Impact Character and Protagonist, showing there can be a difference between “from the audience/story point of view” and the character the story is about, i.e. Sherlock Holmes. That might be simple and fun.
I hope @jhull will kick in here, because he has spent years successfully using Dramatica to teach Story Theory at CalArts University, as well as his weekend Dramatica Immersion Workshops (I don’t recall his “official” title).
Melanie Anne Philips (StoryMind.com) also has lots of down-to-earth ways of practically introducing the Dramatica Theory in ways that help newbies to the theory still begin writing quickly from its “deeper roots.”
And I’m sure we all wish your son well in his efforts!
I think the most fundamental aspect of great stories (though this is often overlooked by everybody but Dramatica theorists) is that they are about basic human “types,” fighting over core human problems, but in a wide variety of “decorative” guises (such as different genres, settings, periods and emphases).
Despite all the “poetic” language that many supposed story gurus use to define and teach “story,” the great ones still boil down to frequent misguided patterns of human thinking, common “stuck” situations, consistently problematic activities, and doggedly immovable fixed attitudes (a flyover summary of Dramatica’s four domains).
But once young writers begin to recognize these frequent patterns, both in their own lives and the world around them, they can begin to see an endless flurry of great-story ideas falling all around them.
Yet without this understanding, most writers just work up “tales” rather than “stories,” never understanding why meaning is so missing from their many pages.
I knew I could count on you folks for some great ideas!
I just want my son to understand that knowing a lot about theory is not a prerequisite to doing it right. It seems the great writers understood instinctively what Dramatica theory spells out. Sometimes I hobble myself by putting too much on myself instead of just doing the writing. So I want my son and his students to understand with a little direction and a lot of practice and collaboration you can create some very effective writing.
The things I find most eye-opening about Dramatica, things that actually work pretty well without the full theory tying them together, are:
Even without all of the core concepts like Dynamic Pairs and Archetypes and Domains, you can get a lot of mileage out of those five differences.
I think @actingpower gives a good list, but it will mean nothing if your son doesn’t know what it means. Does he?
He understands some of the concepts but I will probably need to lead him on some of them. He’s read extensively and is good at understanding these kinds of concepts. I’ve heard that some of the materials on Storymind are helpful as well to start the process of understanding the Dramatica theory concepts… In the Philippines, his internet connection is variable, but I can also use his Gmail account to pass on information.
Thanks again, everyone, for the great help.