Subtext Awesomeness: The Narrative Argument

writing
#1

Finally got the chance to blog about how Subtext’s “narrative argument” feature is helping me with my current work-in-progress:

Bonus: it also helped me understand why I seem to like writing Steadfast (esp. Steadfast/Stop/Good) stories so much!

@jhull I hope it was okay I quoted a couple movies’ narrative arguments from Subtext for examples. One I included only the first half. Let me know if you want me to change anything.

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#2

Probably not a surprise that I’m a big fan of these kind of blog posts…:grin:

Feel free to repost and share whatever you want – the value of Subtext is the tool itself (and soon the community), so I’m more than happy for you to share whatever you find and discover helps you write better stories.

Your post is exactly why I created the Narrative Argument feature. There’s something so simple about thinking of the storyform in these simple reductive sentences. And as you so eloquently pointed out–the simplicity helps you to draw conclusions about the meaning of your story that you previously weren’t fully aware of or didn’t see (which is where the Production begins!).

I’m so happy you were able to make those connections and that you found out why you like writing those kinds of stories.

As far as searching on Focus and Direction, check the latest build after tonight’s rollout…:grinning:

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#3

Good article. As a fellow Subtext subscriber and current COJ (Client of Jim), I concur.

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#4

I couldn’t wait…it’s already in there right now! Added Focus, Direction, and Solution.

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#5

Jim, also from my side congratulation to this nice and very useful app.

Just signed-up a few days ago and spent some time to create a project. It worked great - just focusing on the conflict and the argument and then start writing immediately the story beats.

A short list what I like the most:

  • the argument feature is great
  • the limitation of making storyform choices works as a big time saver (no chance trying to be perfect with storyforming)
  • one-click to see Dramatica definitions with good example statements, gists and reference movies
  • possibility working “in” Dramatica using Subtext (great for traveling, …)

Here are also a few proposals for the app, maybe for a next release

  • the selection from the argument feature (conflict, argument) is not saved
  • static plot points are not visible in the storyform … useful at least Goal, Requirements and Gists
  • option in treatment to print for each beat
    a) throughline (RS, OS, MC, IC)
    b) Signpost (Being, Doing…)
    c) selected Gist or Title
    All options are useful for later reference
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#6

Yes - I was thinking about doing this. Personally, I like the idea of a report that has absolutely nothing to do with Dramatica, yet has a story that is rock solid because of the theory. Something you can hand off to someone who knows nothing about anything, and they’ll love the story.

But I see what you’re saying and can easily add that.

By static plot points visible in storyform, you mean being able to jot down Goal and Requirements in the Builder, yes?

And yes on recommending saving the argument too - that’s a great one! Thanks!

1 Like
#7

Yes, thats the idea, to have this in front of as a reminder for your OS storyline

Make sense, and I like the clean interface right now, but for personal reviews it might be useful.

#8

@jhull just had another idea for Subtext…

It would be helpful to have a direct link from any storyform on Subtext to the same storyform on dramatica.com - in case there are induvial illustrations available (like Fugitive, Graduate, Hamlet …)

As an example, I am using Subtext to explore Storyform connections and go to Dramatica.com to search for the same storyform to see some more illustrations.

Thanks in advance.