All stories have both Action and Decision, however one will take precedence over the other. Traditionally, one might define an Action story as having more Action or more intense Action than a Decision story. This view is overly influenced by how the story is told rather than what it represents. More accurately, either Actions force the need for Decisions or Decisions force the need for Actions in order to advance the plot.

Over the course of the story as a whole, if Actions precipitate the progression of the plot, it is an Action story. The question to ask in regard to any particular story is which comes first to move the story along?–not which is there more of, for even if Action kicks things off, a small Action may be followed by great quantities of deliberation.

In such a story, although Action is the Driver, one would hardly call it an Action story in the traditional sense. Action stories will begin with an Action, be marked at the beginning and end of every Act by an Action, and will end with a climactic Action. In an Action story, the story will eventually slow and dwindle until another Action occurrs.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

A Female Main Character’s psychology is based on assessing balance. The female Main Character resolves inequities by comparing surpluses to deficiencies.

The manner employed in resolving the inequity will involve creating a surplus where a surplus is desired, creating a deficiency where a deficiency is desired, creating a surplus so a deficiency is felt elsewhere, creating a deficiency so a surplus will be felt elsewhere. Through the application of one’s own force, hills and valleys can be created and filled either to directly address the inequity or to create a change in the flow of energies that will ultimately come together in a new hill or disperse creating a new valley. These are the four primary inequity-resolving techniques of an female mental sex character.

It is important to note that these techniques are applied both to others and to oneself. Either way, manipulating surplus and deficiency describes the approach. When selecting female or male, typically, the choice is as simple as deciding if you want to tell a story about a woman or a man. But there is another consideration that is being employed with growing frequency in modern stories: putting the psyche of one sex into the skin of another.

This does not refer only to the “sex change” comedies, but to many action stories with male mental sex female Main Characters (e.g. Aliens) and many decision stories with female mental sex male Main Characters (e.g. Prince of Tides and The Hunt for Red October). When an author writes a part for a woman, it would intuitively use the female psyche for that character. Yet, by simply changing the name of the character from Mary to Joe and shifting the appropriate gender terms, the character would ostensibly become a man. But that man would not seem like a man. Even if all the specific feminine dialog were changed, even if all the culturally dictated manifestations were altered, the underlying psyche of the character would have the female, female bias, rather than the male, male bias.

Sometimes stereotypes are propagated by what an audience expects to see, which filters the message and dilutes the truth. By placing the female psyche in a male character, preconceptions no longer prevent the message from being heard. A word of caution — this technique can make a Main Character seem “odd” in some hard to define way to your audience. So although the message may fare better, empathy between your audience and your Main Character may not.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

The male Main Character solves problems by examining what cause or group of causes is responsible for an effect or group of effects. The effort made to solve the problem will focus on affecting a cause, causing an effect, affecting an effect or causing a cause.

This describes four different approaches. Affecting a cause is manipulating an existing force to change its eventual impact. Causing an effect means applying a new force that will create an impact. Affecting an effect is altering an effect after it has happened. Causing a cause is applying a new force that will make some other force come into play to ultimately create an impact. These are the four primary problem solving techniques of the male minded character.

It is important to note that these techniques can be applied to either external or internal problems. Either way, manipulating cause and effect is the modus operandi. When selecting female or male, typically, the choice is as simple as deciding if you want to tell a story about a man or a woman. But there is another consideration that is being employed with growing frequency in modern stories: putting the psyche of one sex into the skin of another. This does not refer only to the “sex change” comedies, but to many action stories with male mental sex, female Main Characters (e.g. Aliens) and many decision stories with female mental sex, male Main Characters (Prince of Tides).

When an author writes a part for a man, it would intuitively use the male psyche for that character. Yet, by simply changing the name of the character from Joe to Mary and shifting the appropriate gender terms, the character would ostensibly become a woman. But that woman would not seem like a woman. Even if all the specific masculine dialog were changed, even if all the culturally dictated manifestations were altered, the underlying psyche of the character would have the male bias, rather than the female bias.

Sometimes stereotypes are propagated by what an audience expects to see, which filters the message and dilutes the truth. By placing the male psyche in a female character, preconceptions no longer prevent the message from being heard. A word of caution — this technique can make a Main Character seem “odd” in some hard to define way to your audience. So although the message may fare better, empathy between your audience and your Main Character may not.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software

By temperament, Main Characters (like each of us) have a preferential method of approaching Problems. Some would rather adapt their environment to themselves through action (Do-ers), others would rather adapt their environment to themselves through strength of character, charisma, and influence (Be-ers). There is nothing intrinsically right or wrong with either approach, yet it does affect how one will respond to problems.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

The nature of a Main Character’s growth always has a direction to it. If the Main Character is a change and start character, it will grow through change by beginning a needed characteristic which it currently lacks. If the Main Character is a steadfast and start character, it will grow in its resolve to hold out for some positive force outside of itself to finally start. Because both cases require the initiation of an activity (either in the character or its environment) the direction of growth is said to be Start.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

The nature of a Main Character’s growth always has a direction to it. If the Main Character is a change and stop character, it will grow through change by abandoning a detrimental characteristic which it is presently exercising. If the Main Character is a steadfast and stop character, it will grow in its resolve to hold out for some negative force outside of itself to finally stop. Because both cases require the cessation of an activity (either in the character or its environment) the direction of growth is said to be Stop.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

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 it represents since it is too close to home. Near the climax of the story, the Main Character must make a Leap of Faith and decide if it should stick with its approach in the belief that it is the solution, or jump to the opposite trait in the belief it has been wrong. When a Main Character decides to abandon its story-long approach for its counterpart, it is said to Change. And as a Changing Main Character, it will contain the crucial element/characteristic in the story.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Pro Story Development Software

Progress:

The way things are going : flowing, advancing, proceeding, moving forward, developing step by step, graduated, staging, successive.

Progress concerns itself with change: what direction and how fast? It is not so important where things were, are, or will be, but rather how the struggle between inertia and change seesaws over the course of the story

From the Dramatica Software

The Past is not unchanging. Often we learn new things that change our understanding of what past events truly meant and create new appreciations of how things really fit together. A Story that focuses on The Past, may be much more than a documentation of what happened. Frequently, it is a reevaluation of the meaning of what has occurred that can lead to changing one’s understanding of what is happening in the present or will eventually happen in the future.

From the Dramatica Dictionary