Dramaticapedia

How can we illustrate the Mental Sex of our Main Character? The following point by point comparison provides some clues:

Female Mental Sex: looks at motivations

Male Mental Sex: looks at purposes

Female Mental Sex: tries to see connections

Male Mental Sex: tries to gather evidence

Female Mental Sex: sets up conditions

Male Mental Sex: sets up requirements

Female Mental Sex: determines the leverage points that can restore balance

Male Mental Sex: breaks a job into steps

Female Mental Sex: seeks fulfillment

Male Mental Sex: seeks satisfaction

Female Mental Sex: concentrates on “Why” and “When”

Male Mental Sex: concentrates on “How” and “What”

Female Mental Sex: puts the issues in context

Male Mental Sex: argues the issues

Female Mental Sex: tries to hold it all together

Male Mental Sex: tries to pull it all together

In stories, more often than not, physical gender matches Mental Sex. From time to time, however, gender and Mental Sex are cross-matched to create usual and interesting characters. For example, Ripley in Alien and Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs are Male Mental Sex characters. Tom Wingo in The Prince of Tides and Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October are Female Mental Sex characters. In most episodes of The X Files, Scully (the female F.B.I. agent) uses a(n) Male Mental Sex and Mulder (the male F.B.I. agent) uses a(n) Female Mental Sex, which is part of the series’ unusual feel. Note that Mental Sex has nothing to do with a character’s sexual preferences or tendency toward being masculine or feminine.

Sometimes stereotypes are propagated by what an audience expects to see, which filters the message and dilutes the truth. By placing a female psyche in a physically male character or a male psyche in a physically female character, preconceptions no longer prevent the message from being heard. On the downside, some audience members may have trouble relating to a Main Character whose problem solving techniques do not match the physical expectations.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

Do-er and Be-er should not be confused with active and passive. If a Do-er is seen as active physically, a Be-er should be seen as active mentally. While the Do-er jumps in and tackles the problem by physical maneuverings, the Be-er jumps in and tackles the problem with mental deliberations.

The point is not which one is more motivated to hold its ground but how it tries to hold it.

A Do-er would build a business by the sweat of its brow.

A Be-er would build a business by attention to the needs of its clients.

Obviously both Approaches are important, but Main Characters, just like the real people they represent, will have a preference. Having a preference does not mean being less able in the other area.

A martial artist might choose to avoid conflict first as a Be-er character, yet be quite capable of beating the tar out of an opponent if avoiding conflict proved impossible.

Similarly, a school teacher might stress exercises and homework as a Do-er character, yet open its heart to a student who needs moral support.

When creating your Main Character, you may want someone who acts first and asks questions later, or you may prefer someone who avoids conflict if possible, then lays waste the opponent if they won’t compromise.

A Do-er deals in competition, a Be-er in collaboration.

The Main Character’s affect on the story is both one of rearranging the dramatic potentials of the story, and also one of reordering the sequence of dramatic events.

By choosing Do-er or Be-er you instruct Dramatica to establish one method as the Main Character’s approach and the other as the result of its efforts.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

A good way to get a feel for the Stop/Start dynamic in Change Main Characters is to picture the Stop character as having a chip on its shoulder and the Start character as having a hole in its heart. .

If the actions or decisions taken by the character are what make the problem worse, then it needs to Stop

If the problem worsens because the character fails to take certain obvious actions or decisions, then it needs to Start.

A way to get a feel for the Stop/Start dynamic in Steadfast Main Characters is to picture the Stop character as being pressured to give in, and the Start character as being pressured to give up..

If you want to tell a story about a Main Character concerned with ending something bad, use a Stop Main Character

If you want to tell a story about a Main Character concerned with beginning something good, use a Start Main Character.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

Just because a Main Character ultimately remains steadfast does not mean it never considers changing. Similarly, a Change Main Character does not have to be changing all the time. In fact, that is the conflict with which it is constantly faced: to stick it out or to alter its approach in the face of ever-increasing opposition.

Illustrating your Main Character as wavering can make it much more human. Still, if its motivation is strong enough, your Main Character may hold the course or move toward change from the opening scene to the denouement. It all depends on the kind of experience you wish to create for your audience.

There is no right or wrong degree of certainty or stability in a Main Character. Just make it clear to your audience by the end of the story if it has been changed or not by the experience. Sometimes this happens by forcing your Main Character to make a choice between its old way of doing things or a new way. Another way of illustrating your Main Character’s resolve is to establish its reaction in a particular kind of situation at the beginning of the story that tells us something about its nature. After the story’s climax, you can bring back a similar kind of situation and see if it reacts the same way or not. From this, your audience will determine if it has Changed or remained Steadfast.

What if a Main Character Changes when it should Remain Steadfast, or Remains Steadfast when it should Change? Choosing your Main Character’s Resolve describes what your Main Character does without placing a value judgment on it. The appropriateness of its Resolve is determined by other dynamics in your story which will be addressed later. For now, simply choose if your Main Character’s nature has Changed or Remained Steadfast.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

The following  excerpt is taken from

The Dramatica Class Transcripts

William S1 : What impact does Dramatica have on the intuitive creative process?

Dramatica : That depends on the particular author, Willam, first of all, some writers like to use it right off the bat, to figure out their dramatics so they know where they are going. But others like to write a draft first, then go to Dramatica to look for leaks and inconsistencies. And for the “chain of consciousness” writer, since they are not consciously trying to convey any overall meaning,but are just exploring a path and leaving a trail, then Dramatica has no value to them at all.

Pdmedia : Can Existing scripts be imported into Dramatica ?

Dramatica : PD, you can not import a whole script, as Dramatica is not a tool for the actual writing.

DKahane : Gotta go. When will tonite be on your BBS?

Dramatica : Bye DKahane!

PGThomas : Pd – I’m teaching myself Dramatica by inputting the details of a script I already wrote That way, I’m already familiar with the story and am happy with, just curious to see what Dramatica has to say about it.

Dramatica : But you can import text as you illustrate the dramatic points that Dramatica has shown based on your choices. That’s a good way to go, PD. Just go into storytelling BEFORE you even create a storyform, put in what those dramatica points are in your story, then use that information to make dramatic choices to double check!

Pdmedia : Thanks for the ideas.

How to Make Short, a Story

The Dramatica model contains an entire Grand Argument Storyform. There is simply not enough room in a short story, however, to cover all aspects of a Grand Argument. The worst thing to do is arbitrarily hack off chunks of the Grand Argument Story in an attempt to whittle things down. A better solution is to limit the scope of the argument. This can best be done by focusing on a single Class or eliminating a level of resolution (such as Objective Characters or Theme).

Two Ways to Limit Scope

When limited to one Class, the story will be told from only one point of view: Main Character, Obstacle Character, Objective Story Throughline, or Subjective Story Throughline. Because storyforms are holographic, the gist of the argument is made but only “proven” within the confines of that point of view.

When limiting to fewer resolutions, a whole level of examination is removed, effectively obscuring a portion of the exploration and leaving it dark. Again, the gist of the topic is explored but only in the illuminated areas.

In the case of a single-Class story, the argument appears one-sided, and indeed it is. In the limited-resolution story, the exploration of the topic seems somewhat shallow but is complete as deep as it goes.

Ultra-Short Stories

When writing VERY short stories, these two methods of “paring down” the information are often combined, resulting in a loss of perspective AND detail. So how small can a story be and still be a story? The minimal story consists of four dramatic units in a quad. This is the tiniest story that can create an interference pattern between the flow of space and time, encoding both reason and emotion in a way than can be decoded by an audience. However, ANY quad will do, which leads to a great number of minimal stories.

From the Dramatica Theory Book

Main Character’s Approach: Is your Main Character a Do-er or Be-er?

Do-er and Be-er should not be confused with active and passive. If a Do-er is seen as active physically, a Be-er should be seen as active mentally. While the Do-er jumps in and tackles the problem by physical maneuverings, the Be-er jumps in and tackles the problem with mental deliberations.

The point is not which one is more motivated to hold his ground but how he tries to hold it.

A Do-er would build a business by the sweat of his brow.

A Be-er would build a business by attention to the needs of his clients.

Obviously both approaches are important, but Main Characters, just like the real people they represent, will have a preference. Having a preference does not mean being less able in the other area.

A martial artist might choose to avoid conflict first as a Be-er character, yet be quite capable of beating the tar out of an opponent if avoiding conflict proved impossible.

Similarly, a school teacher might stress exercises and homework as a Do-er character, yet open his heart to a student who needs moral support.

When creating your Main Character, you may want someone who acts first and asks questions later, or you may prefer someone who avoids conflict if possible, then lays waste the opponent if they won’t compromise.

A Do-er deals in competition, a Be-er in collaboration.

The Main Character’s affect on the story is both one of rearranging the dramatic potentials of the story, and also one of reordering the sequence of dramatic events.

By choosing Do-er or Be-er you instruct Dramatica to establish one method as the Main Character’s approach and the other as the result of his efforts.

From the Dramatica Software

Whether or not the characters are aware of them, the audience will need to see forewarnings that indicate the approach of the Consequences. Forewarnings describe the kind of items that can be used to indicate approaching Failure.

One way to bring Forewarnings into your story is to have them be glimpses of one item that gets worse and worse, such as the growing cracks in a dam above the town in which your story takes place.

Another way of bringing in Forewarnings is to use many things of a similar nature. This happens in Ghostbusters where all kinds of paranormal activity increase as Armageddon approaches. The ghosts are causing all many different types of problems, more varied than just cracks in a dam, yet they are all appropriate because they are of a like nature.

Forewarnings do not have to be based on something falling apart. Forewarnings can also be seen as something which grows, such as the slowly growing fire in Towering Inferno.

From the Dramatica Software

Just because a Main Character ultimately remains steadfast does not mean he never considers changing. Similarly, a Change Main Character does not have to be changing all the time. In fact, that is the conflict with which he is constantly faced: to stick it out or to alter his approach in the face of ever-increasing opposition.

Illustrating your Main Character as wavering can make him much more human. Still, if his motivation is strong enough, your Main Character may hold the course or move toward change from the opening scene to the denouement. It all depends on the kind of experience you wish to create for your audience.

There is no right or wrong degree of certainty or stability in a Main Character. Just make it clear to your audience by the end of the story if he has been changed or not by the experience. Sometimes this happens by forcing your Main Character to make a choice between his old way of doing things or a new way. Another way of illustrating your Main Character’s resolve is to establish his reaction in a particular kind of situation at the beginning of the story that tells us something about his nature. After the story’s climax, you can bring back a similar kind of situation and see if he reacts the same way or not. From this, your audience will determine if he has Changed or remained Steadfast.

What if a Main Character Changes when he should Remain Steadfast, or Remains Steadfast when he should Change? Choosing your Main Character’s Resolve describes what your Main Character does without placing a value judgment on him. The appropriateness of his Resolve is determined by other dynamics in your story which will be addressed later. For now, simply choose if your Main Character’s nature has Changed or Remained Steadfast.

From the Dramatica Software

A good way to get a feel for the Stop/Start dynamic in Change Main Characters is to picture the Stop character as having a chip on his shoulder and the Start character as having a hole in his heart.

If the actions or decisions taken by a Change character are what make the problem worse, then he needs to Stop.

If the problem worsens because a Change character fails to take certain obvious actions or decisions, then he needs to Start.

A way to get a feel for the Stop/Start dynamic in Steadfast Main Characters is to picture the Stop character as being pressured to give in, and the Start character as being pressured to give up.

If you want to tell a story about a Steadfast Main Character concerned with ending something bad, choose Stop

If you want to tell a story about a Steadfast Main Character concerned with beginning something good, choose Start.

From the Dramatica Pro Software