Category Archives: Relationships

A lot of books about writing describe the importance of a “Love Interest.” Other books see a Love Interest as unnecessary and cliché. What does Dramatica Say? As with most dramatic concepts, Dramatica pulls away the storytelling to take a … Continue reading →

By Melanie Anne Phillips There are two story lines in every complete story, and you can either run them in parallel or you can hinge them together to form a dramatic triangle. The first story line is the overall story that … Continue reading →

If you don’t have this, YOUR STORY WILL FAIL This video really illustrates the philosophical conflict between the Main Character and the Influence Character, which is the heart of your story’s message. Once you have viewed the video, note that … Continue reading →

The minds of characters work very much like our own. People think both in terms of time and of space.  Our time sense gives us the ability to predict what is likely to happen next.  Our space sense gives us … Continue reading →

Character relationships should come under strain over the course of your novel or screenplay so that tension in the relationship rises. To accomplish this, you need to create dramatic moments in which outside pressures put each relationship in an increasing … Continue reading →

Perhaps the most complex relationships among characters are the emotional ones because they can grow to any degree in any direction AND because both characters don’t have to feel the same way about each other! For example, how many stories … Continue reading →

Relationships begin with a “baseline” and then evolve. You will need to establish how your characters feel about one another at the beginning of your story. Later, in as things unfold, you’ll describe the growth of these emotional relationships over … Continue reading →

 A Writer Asks… Is the Emotion Archetype most often the Love Interest and also the Obstacle Character in a story? My Reply… That is perhaps the current convention in action pictures, but has not been the case in the past. … Continue reading →

Many books on writing will tell you that a good story requires character conflict. In fact, this is far too limiting. Just as with real people, character can relate in ways other than by coming into conflict which are just … Continue reading →