Dramaticapedia

Prediction explores the effort to learn the course of one’s destiny.

Destiny is the path to a particular fate, or through a series of fates. Fates are experiences or conditions one must encounter along the way as one’s destiny directs one’s course.

The nature of destiny is such that no matter how much a character is aware of the nature and location of an undesirable fate, nothing it can do is enough to pull it off the path. However, if one could know the future course, one could prepare for each eventuality in order to minimize or maximize its effect.

DEFINITION: Prediction: a predetermination of a future state of affairs.

SYNONYMS: foresight, foreseeing, anticipation, envisioning one’s future, prophecy, forecast, foretell, prognosticate.

DYNAMIC PAIR: Interdiction, an effort to change a predetermined course.

Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure

The distinction between Fate and destiny is an important one. Destiny is the direction one’s life must take, Fate is any given moment along that direction. So whereas one can have many Fates, one can only have one destiny.

Fate describes a state of situation and circumstance that exists at a particular point in time. In other words, Fate is something of an outcome, or perhaps a step – just one of a number of Fates along the path of one’s destiny.

Characters often either make the mistake of assuming that they have only one Fate and are therefore stuck with it, or they mistakenly believe they can achieve their destiny without “passing through” unattractive fates that lie along the path.

The nature of a Fate is that no matter how you try to avoid it, it tracks you. All options that you might exercise still lead to that Fate. That is what also defines Destiny as the limitations on free will that force you to arrive at your Fate no matter how you alter what you do or what kind of person you are.

If we all knew the future, there would be no freewill.

DEFINITION: Fate: a future situation that will befall an individual.

SYNONYMS: inevitable events, unpreventable incidents, eventual events, destined occurrence, destined events, unavoidable situations.

DYNAMIC PAIR: Destiny, the future path an individual must take.

Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure

The Objective Story is the overall story in which all the characters are involved.  Essentially, it is what the reader or audience will think of as the “plot” of the story. 

To add meaning and purpose to your objective story you’ll want to include a message, statement or value judgment about some aspect of life or some human quality.  The subject you choose to explore will be your Objective Story Issue.

For any given issue there can be many points of view. To make a successful argument about a particular point of view on the issue an author must address them all, yet select one as the preferred perspective.

If an author wishes to merely explore an issue rather than argue it, the issue must still be touched on by all perspectives and the author must select one of them as the view from which all the others are measured.

If this yardstick is not provided, the reader/audience is free to judge anything from any point of view and will simply adopt the one they are familiar with out of habit.   As a result, they will gain no new understanding and the story will have no meaning or purpose other than to reiterate what the audience already knew.

Conversely, if an author wishes to make a point or deliver a message or even document the similarities and differences between dramatic incidents, then the events of the story must be measured against something.

Choosing the Issue tells an audience by what standard the author intends them to evaluate what they experience in the story.

Ultimately, the objective story thematic issue places the story’s central problem in context.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

There is much to be gained by populating a story with interesting personalities, but personalities are not necessarily functioning characters. You can have as many “window dressing” characters as you want. Make sure, however, that each of the eight archetypes is represented by one of your characters.

For a given character, why would you pick one archetypal function over another? Simple: the archetypal functions are essentially descriptions of different personality types. Take the Sidekick archetype, for example. The Sidekick is described as a “faithful supporter.” If you select a character as the Sidekick, you have already said a lot about the kind of person it will be.

Note that the archetypal description says nothing about in what the character has faith or what it supports. This is why Toto in The Wizard of Oz can be a sidekick, but so can Renfield in Dracula. The Sidekick is not necessarily the faithful supporter of the Protagonist, but simply fulfills the dramatic function of illustrating how the qualities of faith and support fare in regard to solving the story’s central problem.

So, in choosing which archetypes you want to assign to which characters, select the matches in which the characters function best reflects its personality, and vice versa.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

“Snakes… Why did it have to be snakes….???”

What a character likes and dislikes takes the curse of its larger than life stature. Whether you are writing a novel, play, screenplay, or teleplay, your characters loom in the hearts and minds of the audience. No one can relate to a loom. To humanize your characters and bring them down to size, give them feelings rather than just points of view.

You work in an office. Everyone does their job. The place runs like clockwork. Who ARE these people?! Until you know if they love football but hate sushi, you don’t really know them all. Who CARES what their purposes are; what do they take in their coffee, or tea, or do they not touch either but guzzle cola and pistachios.

Red. Does it do anything for them? What about wall paper patterns with thousands of little ducks? The things your characters like and don’t like set them apart from the crowd. And letting yourself go a little bit off the wall can bring forth attractions and repulsions that can suggest settings for a whole scene, sequence, or even the whole story itself.

Work yourself into the words. If you have pet likes and dislikes, this is the place to spout off about them. Assign them to your characters and you can get back at all those hated things, and express all those yearnings for the loved ones.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

Nothing can flatten a character faster than to give it only the skills it needs to get through the story. There are plumbers who play piano and scientists who hold seances. Football players knit, and actors paint. A character with talents other than those central to the plot is a more interesting character.

But there is a huge difference between Vocation and Avocation. The work a character does for a living (or for charity, for the church, for the heck of it): this is an occupation too. An occupation, after all, is simply what keeps your character occupied.

Think about all each character does; all it might do that isn’t central to the story. Then load it up with any reasonable number of skills and occupations that can shed light on its makeup and depth on its nature.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

Characters do not live by structure alone. Background information and personal attributes are needed to turn these avatars of dramatic purpose into living, breathing, human beings (or whatever).

For example:

Mark Twain once said, “I could never join a club that would have the likes of me as a member.” To what kind of clubs does this character belong? What is its faith, creed, or manifesto? Is it a card-carrying member of…, a supporter of…, the founder of…? And just because it is a member, associate, or sympathizer doesn’t mean it believes any of it. One may be judged by one’s friends, and where there’s smoke there’s fire, but also where there’s smoke there’s smoke, and you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Try to separate your characters’ affiliations from their beliefs. They may go hand in hand, or they may be quite divergent, born of convenience, necessity, family ties, or any of the other oddities that make for strange bedfellows.

No character is an island. What you work out here will create bridges to other individuals.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

Characters do not live by structure alone. Background information and personal attributes are needed to turn these avatars of dramatic purpose into living, breathing, human beings (or whatever). 

In addition, the physical qualities of your characters will have a tremendous impact on how your reader/audience receives them.

How does each character move, what does it do with its hands? Does it have a nervous tick? A lisp? A permanent grin? And what about its stature, its weight, the color of its hair (if any). Is it pretty, handsome, pretty handsome? All of these can apply to men or women equally well but with different effect.

Take a moment for each character and picture it in your mind. Write down all you see. Then put it in motion and see how it glides, stumbles, slumps, or bolts. Note its motions and note them well. What you work out here can turn a paper person into cool character.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

Your character description should be a thumbnail sketch of its personality and physical traits.

Note:

There are some mental and physical traits that are part of the dramatic structure of a story and others that are merely added to enhance audience interest. This is not a function of the trait itself, but of how it is employed.

For example, if a character speaks with an accent, it might just be an attribute from where he or she was born, or it might be an affectation of pretense. A character might simply have a big nose, or he might be Cyrano de Bergerac, in which case the size of his proboscis has a major function in the plot, triggering and driving forward key events.

Examples:

In Star Wars (Luke): A whiny farm boy, athletic, somewhat attractive, who dreams of excitement and glory. Now if he can only get out of his familial responsibilities and join the Rebellion.

In The Glass Menagerie (Laura): “A childhood illness has left (Laura) crippled, one leg slightly shorter than the other, and held in a brace….Stemming from this, Laura’s separation (from reality) increases till she is like a piece of her own glass collection; too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf.”

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

STORIES that have an Objective Story Concern of Understanding:

A Doll’s House: Nora makes certain that Mrs. Linde understands she is not a superficial creature, but a strong woman who used her intelligence and wit to save her husband’s life; Krogstad is concerned that Mrs. Linde understand the desperate lengths he had to go to in the past; Dr. Rank informs Nora when he sends one of his cards with a black cross upon it, she is to understand the process of death has begun for him; Torvald cannot understand what he considers is Nora’s betrayal; and so forth.

Candida: Marchbanks is concerned with Candida appreciating him, and knowing he understands her; he cannot understand how the object of his desire can love a windbag like Morell; Marchbanks understands Proserpine is in love with Morell:

“Marchbanks: Ah! I understand now.

Proserpine (reddening): What do you understand?

Marchbanks: Your secret. Tell me: is it really and truly possible for a woman to love him?” (Shaw, 1895, p. 518). Candida laughingly tells Morell that Marchbanks “understands you; he understands me; he understands Prossy; and you, darling, you understand nothing” (Shaw, 1895, p. 530).

I Love Lucy: Lucy must grasp the fact she is pregnant; Fred and Ethel understand they will be the godparents; Lucy tries to make Ricky understand he is a father; Ricky understands managing a club is problematic; and so forth.

All Good Things (Star Trek: The Next Generation): Everyone is concerned with understanding the meaning of the spatial anomaly as well as Picard’s time-shifting. The past Enterprise crew is also concerned with understanding their new captain’s erratic orders.

The Sun Also Rises: An example of how the objective characters are concerned with “understanding” is illustrated in the minor character of the count: “I have been around a very great deal. . . . I have seen a lot, too. I have been in seven wars and four revolutions . . . it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well . . . . That is the secret. You must get to know the values” (59-60). Brett asks: “Doesn’t anything ever happen to your values?” The count replies: “No, not anymore” (61). Another example is illustrated by the character of Mike Campbell. He chooses not to learn about finances, because he understands what he can get away with by not doing so. He appreciates that his allowance will continue to come through, and that there will always be an “easy touch” wherever he goes. There is also a strong implication that he knows Brett will eventually be back: “She never has any money. . . .She gave it all to me when she left” (230).

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software