Visualizing the Objective Story Points

April 4, 2007

The Dramatica theory of story can have some pretty scary terminology. Prerequisities. Preconditions. Costs. Dividends. They sound more like advanced accounting terms than dramatic devices. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some easy chart to help you visualize how these terms relate to story?

When I first started wrapping my head around Dramatica (way back in ‘96), a lot of the terms were very confusing for me. And it wasn’t enough that they were confusing - there were also way too many of them! I was overwhelmed with all I felt I had to learn in order to write a complete story.

To help my understanding out, I came up with some diagrams that helped me to visualize what these terms meant. For some reason (probably because of my background in animation), seeing these terms drawn out really helped me to absorb them more fully into my consciousness.

This past weekend I went into my garage and pulled out my old Dramatica notebooks.

The first one I’ll share with you deals with the Objective Story Points. If you are not familiar with them, they are located at the bottom of the Story Engine Settings report (the storyform that is often presented here in story analysis). For a more precise and detailed explanation of what each term means, be sure to visit the Dramatica Dictionary.

Now, for me, the idea of a Story Goal was an easy one to grasp. And likewise, its counterpart, the Story Consequence, came easily to my understanding. One happens when the Protagonist succeeds (Goal) and the other when he fails (Consequence). The other terms proved to be a problem for me.

So I drew a line from the Consequence to the Goal. This line represented the drive of force that the Protagonist rides along on his path towards a successful conclusion. If he reaches the Goal he comes to the end of his journey. If not, he tumbles back down to the Consequence.

The Story Requirements and Forewarnings were stepping stones to either the Goal or the Consequence, respectively. In order to reach the Goal you first had to cross through the Requirements. If you stepped back through the Forewarnings, you were on your way to the Consequence.

Dividends and Costs were similar but weren’t necessarily necessary for their final destinations. That’s why I put them off to the side - the positive one on top, the negative one on bottom. Just gentle reminders of which direction the objective characters might be heading.

The last two - Prerequisites and Preconditions seemed connected not only to each other, but also to the Story Requirements. It seemed you needed both before you could reach the Requirement, so that’s why I added them to the side there, linked just under their essential “parent.”

I also have diagrams for all the Character Elements, but I’ll share those at a later time. Hopefully the above diagram will serve to help you better understand the Dramatica theory of story. And, more importantly, I hope it helps guide you to your own personal Goal of writing a great story.

Link to Objective Story Points Diagram (Right-click to download for offline viewing)