Category Archives: Dramatica Theory

Plot Points in Example Stories

GOAL:

The Story Goal in Hamlet is Memory: Everyone wants to be comfortable with the memory of King Hamlet. Most wish to accomplish this by erasing the memory entirely, but Hamlet wants to keep it alive and painful.

The Story Goal in The Godfather is Obtaining: The Objective Story goal of the Godfather is for the Corleone family to reclaim their place of power and find a new “Godfather” to maintain this status.

REQUIREMENTS:

The Story Requirements in Hamlet are The Subconscious: Hamlet must get Claudius to expose his true nature, his lust for power and Gertrude, before anyone will believe Hamlet’s accusations.

The Story Requirements in The Godfather are Doing: In order for a new Don Corleone to regain his family’s former stature and power, he must do things which demonstrate his superiority in the rivalry among the New York families. This is accomplished with the hits on Barzini, Tessio, and Moe Green on the day Michael “settles all family business.”

CONSEQUENCES:

The Story Consequences in Hamlet are The Past: If the memory of King Hamlet is not allowed to rest, a repetition of the past murder will (and does) occur. King Claudius kills Hamlet to maintain his position as king.

The Story Consequences in The Godfather are Becoming: If the Corleone family fails to reclaim their power then they will be forced to become one of the secondary families in the New York crime scene, a fate which hasn’t been theirs for a very long time.

FOREWARNINGS:

The Story Forewarnings in Hamlet are Becoming: Hamlet starts becoming the crazy person he is pretending to be. This alerts everyone, including King Claudius who plots against Hamlet, that Hamlet will not let the memory of his father die peacefully.

The Story Forewarnings in The Godfather are Progress: When Don Corleone realizes that it was the Barzini family who had been orchestrating his downfall all along, the Barzini’s have already made quite a lot of progress towards becoming the new top family in New York. The progress of the loyalty of other families falling in line with Barzini threatens to cut off Michael’s chance to re-establish his family’s stature.

DIVIDENDS:

The Story Dividends in Hamlet are Conceptualizing: There is a general sense of creative freedom among the members of King Claudius’ court exemplified by Polonius’ advice to Laertes on how to take advantage of his trip abroad. Hamlet finds that suddenly many ordinary things can be used to help in his objective of manipulating the truth out of King Claudius, and he takes pleasure in them. The play becomes a trap, every discussion becomes an opportunity to investigate people’s true opinions. These are all dividends of the efforts made in this story.

The Story Dividends in The Godfather are The Future: The struggle in the world of organized crime over how drugs will be distributed is costly, but it lays the ground work for what will one day be their biggest money making industry. Michael’s choice of assassinations that make him New York’s new “Godfather” also ensures his family a safe move to Las Vegas in the future.

COSTS:

The Story Costs in Hamlet are Understanding: In Hamlet, understanding is seen as a high price to pay — sometimes too high. King Claudius comes to the understanding that Hamlet is on to him and won’t stop pushing until his father’s death is avenged; Ophelia comes to the understanding that Hamlet does not love her and is also responsible for her father’s death, so she loses her mind; Queen Gertrude comes to the understanding that her son is probably insane and her new husband is a murderer; etc.

The Story Costs in The Godfather are The Subconscious: As the struggle for power in New York’s underground continues, all of the people involved suffer emotional damage which hits them in their subconscious. For example, Tom’s pain over the fact that he is not really the Don’s son is exacerbated by the death of Sonny; Don Corleone suffers for the future of his family as his sons are killed or forced to become criminals like himself; Sonny is forced to suffer the insult of living with a brother-in-law who beats Sonny’s sister; the “Turk” is forced into a traumatic position when the Don is only wounded during a murder attempt; Kaye is forced to bury her suspicions that her husband is involved in organized crime.

PREREQUISITES:

The Prerequisites in Hamlet are The Future: Before Hamlet can begin the work of exposing Claudius, he must know when the appropriate people will be around so he can put his plans (such as the play) into place.

The Prerequisites in The Godfather are Being: Because Michael, the new candidate for the title of Don Corleone, had intended to avoid being in his family’s business, others are forced to temporarily fill in the vacancy left by his wounded father. Michael himself believes he is temporarily becoming involved with the Mafia up until the point when he has truly become the new “Godfather.”

PRECONDITIONS:

Preconditions in Hamlet are Obtaining: Hamlet needs hard evidence of his uncle’s murderous actions — his own preconditions are that he cannot allow himself to go on the word of the Ghost alone.

Preconditions in The Godfather are The Preconscious: In order for someone to be a good Don, they have to have the correct kinds of immediate responses. Sonny was “not a good Don,” because he was too hot-headed. A precondition, which Michael fulfills, is that he have the instincts to guide the family well. He demonstrates these when he has no frightened responses while protecting his father at the hospital and when he immediately insists on killing the “Turk” himself; once again when he accepts the news of Tessio’s betrayal without blinking an eye or betraying himself at any point through Preconscious reactions; etc. When Sonny’s hot-headed attempts to muscle the Corleone’s back to the top failed, it became apparent that there are preconditions set as to who could be the next “Godfather.” Only someone with a steel control over his Preconscious responses could be cool enough to successfully lead the Corleone family back to prominence.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Dramaticapedia – The Number 64

It has been suggested that the fact there are 64 dramatic Elements in the Dramatica Theory of Story is mighty suspicious.  After all, that’s a real convenient number if you are going to be creating a software program, such as Dramatica Pro.  Which naturally leads to the speculation that perhaps the Dramatica Theory is not so much about what’s really going on in story as it is about describing stories in terms of how software might best look at them.

Another unsettling fact is that you’ll find a lot of symmetry in Dramatica – pairs of things like Protagonist and Antagonist, quads of things like the four Domains: Objective Story, Subjective Story, Main Character and Obstacle Character, and so on.  Perhaps one of the most “disturbing” aspects of the theory is that everything is in even numbers – 2 Subjective Characters, 8 Archetypes, 4 Plot Signposts, etc. – Or, perhaps it just appears that way….

After all, there are 3 Plot Journeys that span the 4 Plot Signposts and give us the standard Three Act Structure.  But, you can also structure a story to emphasize the first Signpost, the three Journeys, and then the final Signpost, thereby creating the feeling of a 5 Part Plot Progression (handy for television programs and their commercial breaks).  In addition, you can clearly illustrate all four Signposts and all three Journeys in a throughline thereby creating 7 different dramatic movements along the way.

As a final example of odd numbers in Dramatica, there are four primary character functions: Protagonist, Antagonist, Main Character and Obstacle Character.  Protagonist and Antagonist fight over the goal, Main Character and Obstacle Character fight over moral values.  Often, stories will make the Protagonist the Main Character and the Antagonist the Obstacle Character so that only two players represent all four attributes between them.  In such a case, these two characters fight over the goal and also fight over moral values.  This can get pretty confusing, so often authors will split one of those character to create a “dramatic triangle” to make the two kinds of conflict easier to follow.  In such a case, you might have the Protagonist be the Main Character, the Antagonist fight with him (or her) over the goal and the Obstacle Character (often a “love interest”) fight with him or her over moral values.  Suddenly four attributes becomes three characters.

The point of all this is that you aren’t limited to exploring just even numbers or things in fours, eights, sixteens, or sixty-fours.  And yet, the Dramatica theory (and especially the Dramatica chart) does divide itself into these even number chunks based on multiples of four.  So why is that?!!!

Simple – because we all think in four dimensions: Mass, Energy, Space and Time.  There are no other dimensions we can directly sense (though we can conceive of all kinds of dimensions in M theory, for example).  But at the very top of that heap are the four dimensions we can sense directly.

Actually, Dramatica goes beyond that.  It sees those four external dimensions but also sees four internal ones as well: Knowledge, Thought, Ability and Desire.  What the hell?  Stay with me here…  Knowledge is the Mass of the mind.  It is “material” in the mind – the fixed and defined.  Thought is the Energy of the mind.  Just as Energy can rearrange mass or become attached to it as potential, so too can Thought organize Knowledge and also be attached to it as potential.

Ability is the “Space” of the mind.  Say, what?  Think about it.  Mass exists in Space; Ability exists in Knowledge.  And you can think about Mass and Space in terms of what is and what isn’t just as you can think about Knowledge and Ability in terms of what you know and what you don’t.  It is really the relationship between what you know and what you don’t that defines Ability just as the relationship between what is and what is not defines Space.

Now, Desire….  Desire as it equates to Time in the external dimensions.  Time can only be measured by comparing what was to what is and what might be – that is how we can experience the concept of motion – by comparing where something was to where it is and projecting where it might be.  Internally, Desire is determined by comparing how things were to how they are and how they might be.  And in this way we measure progress, which is how we see motion in our lives.

This isn’t just a lot of cute loose connections between hard physics and pop psychology – oh, no!  Well, not entirely anyway.  You see, in physics E=MC2, which is to say that Energy equals Mass time the speed of light squared.  How is speed measured?  in Space and Time (cm per second, in the case of Einstein’s equation).  So, even in the physical world, four things – Mass, Energy, Space and Time – can be combined into three (Mass, Energy and Speed).  Sounds a lot like Dramatica, don’t it?

Well, then you’ll love (or hate) this…

The primary equation of the Dramatica model of story from which the entire structure is built is quite simple: T/K = AD, or Thought divided by Knowledge equals Ability time Desire.  What the hell?  (again!)  Okay… when we think in logic, we are parlaying our Thought against our Knowledge.

Example:  Knowledge bends our thoughts in new trajectories because of what we know, just as Mass in Space bends energy (such as light waves) along the vectors of its gravity.  “Plain English, PLEASE!”  ‘Kay….

It takes a lot of thought to make a little knowledge, just as a little bit of knowledge can generate an awful lot of thought.  Now…  isn’t this interesting…  That relationship between Knowledge and Thought is the same as the relationship between Mass and Energy in Einstein’s equation:  It takes a lot of energy to make a little mass but a little mass can generate an awful lot of energy.

What an interesting (or convenient) similarity between Dramatica and Relativity.  Well, here’s a little more then…  If you take the equation of Dramatica – T/K = AD and do a little rearranging using Algebra by multiplying each side by K you get T = K (AD).  Looks unnervingly like E=MC2, doesn’t it?

Of course, in Einstein’s version, Space and Time are combines into C2 (which is the Speed of light (Time) multiplied by the wavelength of light (Space), thereby combining Space and Time into a single C2.  Why is it a constant?  Because when the speed goes up the wavelength goes down so they are both on this cosmic seesaw and collectively never change their value, even when they keep rocking back and forth.

So too it is in Dramatica.  Ability and Desire are blended by our minds into “Desirability” so we can think logically in Knowledge and Thought.

Think about the ramifications – no matter how great our knowledge or thought, if either our ability or desire are zero, then nothing’s going to happen because it means all our considerations amount to naught.  But if every element in the equation has a value of more than zero, there will be some degree of motivation within us.

We all know that different frequencies of light have different speeds, but none of them have a speed of zero or light would have to have a wavelength equal to infinity.  And in our minds, there are many emotional flavors of desire, but none are really ever at a zero-level or Ability would have to be infinitely huge (like, God, say…) or we’d never move.

My but haven’t we drifted far afield from “The Number 64” (the title of this article).  Alright, here’s another co-incidence for you – the IChing has 64 elements, just like the Dramatica Chart.  Honest to Madeline Albright, we didn’t know that until someone brought it to our attention once Dramatica was released.  But the really strange thing is that the pictograms in the I Ching line up exactly with the same mathematical progressions in Dramatica.

In fact, one Dramatica user was so intrigued that he created a whole explanation of how Dramatica’s archetypes correspond to the I Ching.  You can find it at http://storymind.com/dramatica/i_ching/index.htm  assuming you’re interested.  (It’s there even if you aren’t interested – like Schrodinger’s Cat)

Legend has it that the guy who originated the IChing got the idea from looking at the patterns on the back of a tortoise.  Not surprising.  If Dramatica and it’s equations are based on how the mind makes patterns, then any pattern we see is not so much generated by what we observe but by our projection of a pattern upon it from those available to our minds in order to understand it as fully as we can.  After all, a sprial in a teacup and a spiral in a galaxy have no similarity at all except in our own minds.

Oh, and as for the I Ching – to get the best interlock between the Dramatica Chart and the I Ching’s chart of Trigrams, be sure to use the “Pristine Yi King” rather than today’s common “I Ching” which was corrupted from the original by an ancient monarch seeking to bend the meaning of the grid to his own political motives.

So Dramatica deals with the concept of a Story Mind – that every story’s structure is the psychology of a SINGLE mind in which all the characters represent facets.  And, since Einstein’s equation was all about Relativity in the physical universe, we decided to name our equation and the model of psychology that grew from it, Mental Relativity.  I have a whole web site devoted to it, though it hasn’t been updated in years (no time, honest!)

Final thought for today – E=MC2 (and constants in general) appear as such only from inside the system being measured.  We always blend two items into a baseline from which to measure and observe the other two.  So, you stepped outside the universe you could clearly see time and space as separate and not locked to each other on that seesaw at all, thereby severing the space-time continuum and making all kinds of things possible (like that two dimensional man on a piece of paper who can’t cross a straight line drawn across the page).

Similarly, we think in threes, but one of the threes is really two things combined.  Looking at others we are observing their universe from the outside and so we see their thought processes in fours, leading us to easily see the solutions to their problems but not to our own.

And lastly, the equation T/K = AD is not the only one in Dramatica.  Sequentially, we go through all permutations such as A/K = TD.  Now that isn’t mathematically equivalent to the first equation, but it describes a particular mindset.  To get the best parallax on the universe, our minds adopt one equation (mind set) after another in order to see things in all possible contexts.  The benefit is that you get more “depth” on the issue, the drawback is that things are constantly changing so that by the time you go through all the mind-sets, the issue may no longer be the same as it was when you started, making your results inaccurate.

It is that inaccuracy that creates the dramatic potential that winds up the Dramatica chart into a single storyform, as all the permutations of the equation are represented in one quad or another – oh yeah – I should mention that each quad is a physical representation of one of the permutations of the equation.  They are twisted and turned to create dramatic potentials among them that describe the conflict between the way things are and the way we want them to be.

This whole system evolved as a survival trait, yet the devil is in the details.  But hey, aint that life.

Introduction to Storyforming

Inspiration

When an author begins work on a story, he seldom has the whole thing figured out in advance. In fact, he might start with nothing more than a bit of action, a scrap of dialogue, or perhaps only a title. The urge to write springs from some personal interest one wants to share. It could be an emotion, an experience, or a point of view on a particular subject matter. Once inspiration strikes, however, there is the compelling desire to find a way to communicate what one has in mind.

Another thing usually happens along the way. One creative thought leads to another, and the scope of what one wishes to communicate grows from a single item into a collection of items. Action suggests dialogue which defines a character who goes into action, and on and on. Ultimately, an author finds himself with a bag of interesting dramatic elements, each of which is intriguing, but not all of which are connected. It is at this point an author’s mind shifts gears and looks at the emerging work as an analyst rather than as a creator.

Structure

The author as analyst examines what he has so far. Intuitively he can sense that some sort of structure is developing. The trick now is to get a grip on the “big picture.” Four aspects of this emerging story become immediately apparent: Character, Theme, Plot, and Genre. An author may find that the points of view expressed by certain characters are unopposed in the story, making the author’s point of view seem heavy-handed and biased. In other places, logic fails, and the current explanation of how point A got to point C is incomplete. She may also notice that some kind of overall theme is partially developed, and that the entire work could be improved by shading more dramatic elements with the same issues.

So far, our intrepid author has still not created a story. Oh, there’s one in there somewhere, but much needs to be done to bring it out. For one thing, certain items that have been developed may begin to seem out of place. They don’t fit in with the feel of the work as a whole. Also, certain gaps have become apparent which beg to be filled. In addition, parts of a single dramatic item may work and other parts may not. For example, a character may ring true at one moment, but turn into a klunker the next.

Having analyzed, then, the author sets about remedying the ailments of his work in the attempt to fashion it into a complete and unified story. Intuitively, an author will examine all the logical and emotional aspects of his story, weed out irregularities and fill in cracks until nothing seems out of place in his considerations. Just as one might start with any piece of a jigsaw puzzle, and in the end a larger picture emerges, so the story eventually fills the author’s heart and mind as a single, seamless, and balanced item, greater than the sum of its parts. The story has taken on an identity all its own.

Communication

Looking at the finished story, we can tell two things right off the bat. First, there is a certain logistic dramatic structure to the work. Second, that structure is expressed in a particular way. In Dramatica, we call that underlying deep dramatic structure a Storyform. The manner in which it is communicated is the Storytelling.

As an example of how the Storyform differs from the Storytelling, consider Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. It is easily seen that dramatics of both stories are essentially the same. Yet the expression of those dramatics is completely different. Storytelling dresses the dramatics in different clothes, couches the message in specific contexts, and brings additional non-structure material to the work.

The structure of a story is like a vacant apartment. Everything is functional, but it doesn’t have a personality until someone moves in. Over the years, any number of people might occupy the same rooms, working within the same functionality but making the environment uniquely their own. Similarly, the same dramatic structures have been around for a long time. Yet, every time we dress them up in a way we haven’t seen before, they become new again. So, part of what we find in a finished work is the actual Grand Argument Story and part is the Storytelling.

The problems most writers face arise from the fact that the creative process works on both storyform and storytelling at the same time. The two become inseparably blended, so trying to figure out what really needs to be fixed is like trying to determine the recipe for quiche from the finished pie. It can be done, but it is tough work. What is worse, an author’s personal tastes and assumptions often blind him to some of the obvious flaws in the work, while over-emphasizing others. This can leave an author running around in circles, getting nowhere.

Fortunately, another pathway exists. Because the eventual storyform outlines all of the essential feelings and logic that will be generated by a story, an author can begin by creating a storyform first. Then, all that follows will work together for it is built on a consistent and solid foundation.

To create a storyform, an author will need to make decisions about the kinds of topics he wishes to explore and the kinds of impact he wishes to have on his audience. This can sometimes be a daunting task. Most authors prefer to stumble into the answers to these questions during the writing process, rather than deliberate over them in advance. Still, with a little consideration up front, much grief can be prevented later on as the story develops.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Subjective Story Concern

The Subjective Story Concern describes the area of shared concern for the Main and Obstacle Characters. The Subjective Story Range and Counterpoint describe why they come to blows over it. The Main Character will believe the Subjective Story Range (or counterpoint) is the value standard that should be used when looking at the Subjective Story Concern. As a result, The Main Character will see the Concern in a particular light. In contrast, the Obstacle Character will believe the other Variation (Range or counterpoint) is the proper way to evaluate the Concern. Since this standard of measure results in different conclusions about the Concern, the Main and Obstacle Characters come into conflict. They use these two points as they argue over two issues: what should be done about the Concern, and which is the best way to look at it.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Obstacle Character Range

The Obstacle Character Range provides a way of evaluating the appropriateness of the Obstacle Character’s impact. The Obstacle Character Range and Counterpoint act as a balance or scale against which the results of the Obstacle Character’s point of view are weighed. This is where an author can truly tip the balance as to which point of view the audience comes to favor. Later we shall explore how that balance might be tipped back and forth over the course of the story, making a more realistic and less heavy-handed statement of the author’s bias.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Main Character Range

The Main Character Range (and its counterpoint) represent the thematic conflict of personal interest to the Main Character. It will be seen in the kinds of things this character notices which no one else does. Because it is so personal a value judgment, the author can use this appreciation to whisper his point of view, rather than shouting it overtly, as might happen with the Objective Story Range. Because it is so personal, the Main Character Range helps bring humanity to the Main Character. It is through the issues explored through the Range that the audience can identify not only with the Main Character’s head but his heart as well.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Objective Story Range

This appreciation describes the kind of value judgments that seem to pertain to all the characters and events in a story. For example, a Range of Morality will have a dynamic counterpoint of Self-Interest. This means the thematic conflict in the Objective Story Throughline would be Morality vs. Self-Interest. Because Morality is the Range, it would be in the forefront and appear as the topic or subject matter of the Objective Story Throughline’s Theme.

Because Morality is the Objective Story Range, it will appear almost everywhere. In a hypothetical story, we might see a man taking candy from a baby, a headline proclaiming that a company’s profits are up, while behind the newsstand we see the company dumping toxic waste in the background. Illustrations of the Objective Story Range can focus on the characters or can act as a flavoring for the story as a whole. We shall explore this in greater detail in the Encoding section.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Subjective Story Concern

The Subjective Story Concern describes the area of greatest conflict or divergence between the Main and Obstacle Characters. They might see eye-to-eye everywhere else, but when it comes to the Subjective Story Concern, they always come to blows. It is the nature of the way the thematic structure is created that the Concern of the Subjective Story Throughline will seem to grow out of the Main and Obstacle Concerns.

If the Subjective Story Concern were Obtaining, the Main and Obstacle would argue over whether or not they should have something. It might be something only one of them has or can have (who should have it?) or it might be something they must either have together or not at all.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Obstacle Character Concern

Because the Obstacle Character Throughline is looked at in terms of its impact, the Concern here will be seen as the area in which the Obstacle Character has its greatest effect. A way of phrasing this is to say that the Obstacle Character’s impact primarily Concerns this area. So, an Obstacle Character Concern of Obtaining here would describe an Obstacle Character who changes what is or can be Obtained (or refused) because of his impact on the people and events around him.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

The Main Character Concern

As one would expect, the Main Character Concern is of interest only to the Main Character. This appreciation describes the area in which the Main Character is most worried or interested in regard to the way it sees the problem.

If Obtaining were the Main Character Concern, the Main Character alone would be trying to get or get rid of (hold on to or refuse to hold on to) something. None of the other characters would share this Concern because the other throughlines are all in other Classes with different Types. This divergence is what gives a story some breadth and a sense of completeness for an audience. Rather than focusing on just one issue, every point of view regarding the story’s problem falls into a different Domain with its own unique Concern.

Similarly, a Main Character with a Concern of Memory would be trying to remember, to forget, to establish a memory, or to prevent one from forming.

From the Dramatica Theory Book