The Dramatica Table of Story Elements is really a model of the mind. Twisting and turning it represents the kinds of stress (and experience) we encounter in everyday life. Sometimes things get wound up as tight as they can – so tight they get snarled and can’t loosen up on their own. And this is where a story always starts. Anything before that point is backstory – how things got wound up in the first place. Anything after that point is story, which is about how external events work to sever the Gordian Knot in one’s thinking that can’t be untied by oneself.
