write something a little different

June 26, 2006

Adam Sandler’s “Click” was the #1 movie at the box office this past weekend. Was that a surprise? For me, it was. Why would anyone go see something that they’ve seen a quadrillion times? Just by watching the trailers I already knew how the movie was going to end.

Predictable = Boring. Right?

Luckily, with Dramatica, there is an easy way to write something a little bit off the beaten path. There is this pattern that occurs within Dramatica that basically says the overall feel - or sense of your story - will be in one of 4 areas.

You’ll primarily deal with one of these 4 groups of concepts:

• “The Future,” “Obtaining,” “Innermost Desires,” and “Changing One’s Nature”
• “How Things are Changing,” “Doing,” “Impulsive Responses,” and “Playing a Role”
• “The Past,” “Understanding,” “Memories,” and “Developing a Plan”
• “The Present,” “Learning,” “Contemplations,” and “Conceiving an Idea”

Now, if you’re from America, or primarily deal with Western-culture type stories the above list should go in the order of familiarity. The first group should feel very familiar while the last may cause your brain to short-circuit. (It does mine at times)

It just so happens that this order also represents the type of films that have been made over the past century of filmmaking.

My non-scientific analysis has come up with following revelation about American films:

• 65% are in the first group
• 20% are in the second group
• 10% are in the third group
• 5% are in the fourth group (if that high)

If you check the analysis from the User Group Meetings and elsewhere on Dramatica.com, you’ll see that these percentages seem to hold out.

I guarantee you “Click” was in the first - or what I call the “Dreams and Aspirations” group. A very American group of films. “Braveheart,” “Unforgiven,” “Casablanca,” “The Godfather,” etc. etc. etc. So I would stay away from there if you want to be unique. (See, these aren’t bad movies per se, they’re just a bit too familiar).

The second group, or what I call the “Action” group, is not as popular, but still a big draw at the box office. A little film called “Star Wars” was in there. As was “Toy Story” and “Platoon” and “Shakespeare in Love” and a whole host of other films that centered around things developing and happening and progressing. Go here if you want a very “active” script.

The third group, my favorite, is the “Dark and Brooding” group. These films always mess with your mind and seem to have a dark, contemplative association with them. “The Sixth Sense,” “Amadeus,” “Chinatown,” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” all have this very serious side to them. They seemed to be more popular just at the end of the last century before things became hectic and rushed with the events of 2001, but I still think it’s a great place to start if you want to write something a bit…off.

Good luck with the fourth group. I call it the “Huh?” group. Probably because it’s a huge blind spot to me personally, but the stories there just do not resonate with me at all (and obviously not with Western culture as a whole). “Welcome to the Dollhouse” is the only one I can think of off-hand. Although, if you wanted to write something very very different you might find comfort here.

I actually wrote a screenplay in this last group, just to see what it was like, and although some of the terms were foreign to me at first, I found myself writing from a perspective that just sounded “new” for lack of a better term. It was refreshing and probably good for me as a writer to try and stretch like that.

Another fantastic trait of Dramatica - it can pull something out of you that you didn’t know was there.