A Welcome Treat
June 4, 2006
Well, after a month of being away due to personal issues, it certainly is nice to come back and see all the new wonderful things there are to read about Dramatica.
First off, let’s start with Chris’s series on Why Dramatica is Different from Other Story Paradigms.
What I really like is this new image from Part 5:
To most Dramatica users this chart will look familiar, but what I really like are the new “friendlier” terms for the four throughlines.
You see, when I was starting to learn this theory 10 years ago the terms were a bit unfamiliar to someone interested in writing:
- Objective Story
- Main Character
- Obstacle Character
- Subjective Story
Try writing a screenplay with those!
But now we’ve got these very writer-friendly terms. Terms that even work better than the layman’s terms option included in the latest version of Dramatica.
- Big Picture Throughline
- Personal Throughline
- Opposition Throughline
- Relationship Throughline
They represent the same thing, but are so much easier to include in conversation with your fellow screenwriters who don’t have the benefit of having read the Dramatica Dictionary over and over again 5,000 times (like the rest of us!).
Now, the only downside is that they are not as accurate as the original terms. The reason the first set is so…weird - is that the creators of Dramatica, Chris and Melanie, worked really hard to assign terms that were correct, but yet didn’t provide any prejudice.
Opposition is not entirely accurate. Not every character that is assigned to that throughline stands in direct opposition to the Main Character. You can have a character that just because of their mere existence can influence the Main Character to change or question their own personal issues.
But in a very simply dynamic conflict (butting heads) Opposition Character works great.
I’m looking forward to reading the first four parts of this series. Like I said, I’m a bit behind the curve, but at least there will be plenty to write about!