plot dynamics explained

June 14, 2005

So now on to the Plot Dynamics - the Driver, the Limit, the Outcome and the Judgment. The character dynamics explain how things are spatially related to one another, while the Plot dynamics explain how things are temporally related to one another.

So if you think about your story in the context of Time, the Driver explains which comes first and the Limit explains what forces the story to an end (felt from beginning to end, sort of an over-arching parameter). The Outcome and Judgment explain the actual order of events. This is that familiar example of a slap and a scream. A slap followed by a scream has a completely different meaning then a scream followed by a slap. So to, the order of how things are laid out in your story will determine it’s meaning. A Personal Tragedy (Success/Bad) will have a different order of events than a Personal Triumph (Failure/Good).

As explained elsewhere there are several different paths through a Dramatica quad. These four questions control that movement. One controls the Z-Pattern, one controls the U-Pattern, one controls the Hairpin-Pattern, and one controls whether or not the children (the items underneath a certain quad) are moved along with a quad.