Writer's Dreamkit / Dramatica Pro

writing
#1

I’ve used Dramatica Pro 1 1/4 times in constructing a complete first draft. I rely heavily on the Plot Sequence Report. I like it very much. I feel like I can create 64 different scenes. Then I can even scrounge up 32 more for a total of 96 if I open the manual up.

Is there another way that folks create other than the PSR? Or is that the definitive way to do it?

I mention Writer’s Dreamkit as well… because I own it too. Since WDK doesn’t have a PSR, I feel a little lost when I try to fiddle with it without this specific tool.

At first, I thought that WDK might be a nice little tool for short stories, but I end up jonesing for the PSR and I abandon it.

Any chance that WDK might be tweaked to fit the world of short story writing a bit better? Right now it feels like a shackled version of DP, but I’d love it to become something else.

I know there is information about short story writing this here:

http://dramatica.com/questions/how-do-i-write-a-short-story-with-dramatica

However, I want WDK to be useful even in the shadow of its big brother. Any suggestions?

#2

With a screenplay, the most you can put in there is the Plot Sequences for the Overall Story and the Signposts from the remaining three Throughlines. There really isn’t that enough time to do more than that (and even that is shrinking with page counts dropping below 100).

2 Likes
#3

I haven’t written a screenplay in years. :smile:

Sometimes I’m tempted to go back because 90 to 120 pages seems… less painful than his whole novel writing thing, but I’m enjoying learning about how novels work. Three months ago, it was a complete mystery to me.

I’m trying to retrain my brain. When I was a kid, I read and read. Then around 18, I shifted into visual consumption (movies). Why? Was reading pure escapism on my part and then when I escaped it wasn’t needed anymore?

At 41, the wow factor of movies has diminished for me. I rarely see a movie that I think is unique. It’s like I have seen all 32,000 story forms. And my brain knows this.

I remember reading your Wonder Woman article… and thinking to myself that it was a pretty standard movie without a lot of areas worthy of praise.

The last movies that I saw that I enjoyed…

Destry Rides Again
Magic Town
Winchester '73

However, I love a lot of James Stewart movies and, fortunately, I haven’t seen all of them. Maybe the current smorgasbord of superhero fare has me worn out. And I like superheroes! It could just be my fascination with Stewart movies or the change of speed or maybe holistic characters vs linear.

Sidenote: I prefer series over movies because character development and exploration aren’t rushed (perhaps).

1 Like
#4

“Just how would you start to cut up a human body?”

Jimmy Stewart, Jeff in Rear Window

Or a story, for that matter.