Storytelling • [Dramatica Term] • The process of communicating a story’s dramatic structure through the developing and unfolding of symbols, events, and scenarios • We’ve all heard good jokes told poorly. We’ve all hear terrible jokes told well. When a good joke is told well, everything works together. When a bad joke is told poorly, nothing can save it. Part of what makes up a story is the underlying dramatic structure. Another part is the manner in which that structure is expressed. In a sense, Structure represents the Craft of writing, and Storytelling represents the Art. The structure itself is always invisible in the story, for it is the conceptual framework connecting all the dramatic potentials. What is visible is the embodiment of that structure in scenarios, events, and symbols, which collectively constitute the Storytelling. Storytelling, therefore, must do two jobs: entertain the audience through clever presentation and be focused enough to accurately convey the underlying structure.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Storyreception • [Dramatica Term] • The process of tailoring the telling of a story to a specific audience • Every culture and sub-culture has its own lingo, taboos, and givens. As a result, most stories do not play the same for one kind of audience as for another. Storyreception seeks to anticipate and take into account the nature of the target audience to tailor the story so that it is received as intended. Although we all have the capacity to feel the same emotions and make the same logistic connections, our particular sub-culture may shy away from certain emotions, or brand a particular kind of reasoning as inappropriate. Further, just because we may empathize with the same emotions doesn’t mean we all feel as deeply, or if we see logical connections that we all grasp them as quickly. Especially when writing for audiences such as children, it is important to consider depth and speed as well as buzzwords and popular symbols. Often we can take advantage of cultural symbols to express mountains of sense and oceans of mood with a single story point. Other time we must develop an inordinate amount of media real estate to get across the most simple experiences, if they fall outside familiar cultural bounds for out audience. The important point for an author is to determine the target audience and make sure to be or become familiar enough with that audience to take cultural expectations and taboos into account. For an enlightened audience, the task is to recognize that other ingrained cultural imperatives exist, and to seek to appreciate a story in the context in which it was created.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Storyforming • the process of creating the unique dramatic structure of a story • When an author thinks of the way he wants his story to unfold in terms of the point he wants it to make and how his characters will solve their problems, what that author is doing is Storyforming. Before Dramatica, the tendency was to actually blend the two processes of Storyforming and Storytelling together so that authors thought of what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it more or less simultaneously. But these are really two distinct acts which can be done separately, especially with the help of Dramatica.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Storyencoding • [Dramatica Term] • The process of developing a dramatic structure into specific symbols, events, and scenarios• There are four stages in the process of communication from author to audience. They are: Storyforming, Storyencoding, Storyweaving, and Storyreception. Storyforming establishes the underlying dramatic structure of a story. Storyencoding turns raw story points into specific scenarios, events, and dialog. Storyweaving determines how the encoded story points will be revealed or unfolded to the audience. Storyreception refines the story to tailor it for a specific audience. In practice, most authors work creatively in more than one stage at a time. Dramatica separates the stages, allowing an author to seek specific help and information regarding any part of the process. In keeping with this approach, Storyencoding has its own purpose, yet relates to the other three stages as well. As an example, one author might begin with Storyforming and then continue to Storyencoding. Another might begin with Encoding and then approach Forming. As an example, Author #1 makes a Storyform decision that the Goal of his story should be Obtaining. Then, in Storyencoding, he illustrates or employs Obtaining as “The Goal is to Obtain a Buried Treasure.” Author #2 might begin in Storyencoding, writing, “The Goal is to win Jan’s love.” Then, developing the structure that supports that story point, the Author #2 approaches Storyforming, and out of all the structural choices, picks “Obtaining” as Storyforming item that best describes his story’s Goal. Any given Storyforming item can be encoded in any number of ways. And, any already encoded story point might be interpreted as any one of the Storyforming items. Regardless of which order is taken, associating a Storyforming item with an encoded story point clarifies the dramatic essence of the structure, as illustrated in a given form. This allows an author to more precisely develop the overall story in a consistent and complete manner.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Storyforming versus Story telling • There are two parts to every communication between author and audience: the storyforming and the storytelling. Storyforming deals with the actual dramatic structure or blueprint that contains the essence of the entire argument to be made. Storytelling deals with the specific way in which the author chooses to illustrate that structure to the audience. For example, a story might call for a scene describing the struggle between morality and self-interest. One author might choose to show a man taking candy from a baby. Another might show a member of a lost patrol in the dessert hoarding the last water for himself. Both what is to be illustrated and how it is illustrated fulfill the story’s mandate. Another way of appreciating the difference is to imagine five different artists each painting a picture of the same rose. One may look like a Picasso, one a Rembrandt, another like Van Gogh, yet each describes the same rose. Similarly, different authors will choose to tell the same Storyform in dramatically different ways.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Storyform • [Dramatica Term] • The underlying dramatic skeleton of a story • When a story is stripped of all its details and Storytelling, what is left are the appreciations and thematic explorations that make up a Storyform. When a story fully illustrates the Storyform it is working from it will make a complete argument without any “plot holes” because the argument of a story is its Storyform.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Story versus Tale • A tale describes a problem and the attempt to solve it, ultimately leading to success or failure in the attempt. In contrast, a story makes the argument that out of all the approaches that might be tried, the Main Character’s approach uniquely leads to success or failure, or is at least the best or worst. In a success scenario, the story acts as a message promoting the approach exclusively; in the failure scenario, the story acts as a message exclusively against that specific approach. Tales are useful in showing that a particular approach is or is not a good one. Stories are useful in promoting that a particular approach is the only good one or the only bad one. As a result of these differences, tales are frequently not as complex as stories and tend to be more straight forward with fewer subplots and thematic expansions. Both tales and stories are valid and useful structures, depending upon the intent of the author to either illustrate how a problem was solved with a tale or to argue how to solve a specific kind of problem with a story.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Story Mind • The central concept from which Dramatica was derived is the notion of the Story Mind. Rather than seeing stories simply as a number of characters interacting, Dramatica sees the entire story as an analogy to a single human mind dealing with a particular problem. This mind, the Story Mind, contains all the characters, themes, and plot progressions of the story as incarnations of the psychological processes of problem solving. In this way, each story explores the inner workings of the mind so that we (as audience) may take a more objective view of our decisions and indecisions and learn from the experience.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Stop • [Character Dynamic] • Regarding the Main Character, the audience is waiting for something to end • Stop means something different in a story where the Main Character has a Resolve of Change than in a story where the Main Character has a Resolve of Steadfast. If the Main Character Changes because he possesses a detrimental trait, then he Stops doing or being something he has been. If the Main Character is Steadfast in holding out for something outside himself to be brought to a halt, he is hoping that it will Stop. The term simply describes an aspect of the growth which happens in the Main Character.

From the Dramatica Dictionary

Steadfast • [Character Dynamic] • The Main Character ultimately retains his essential nature • Every Main Character represents one special character element. This element is either the cause of the story’s problem or its solution. The Main Character cannot be sure which he represents since it is too close to home. Near the climax of the story, the Main Character must demonstrate whether he has stuck with his original approach in the belief that it is the solution or jumped to the opposite trait in the belief he has been wrong. When a Main Character decides to stick with his story-long approach, he is said to remain Steadfast.

From the Dramatica Dictionary