Dramatica: A Theory of Story [pdf](dramatica.com)
dramatica.com
Dramatica: A Theory of Story [pdf]
https://dramatica.com/resources/assets/dramatica-theory-book.pdf
5 comments
While I have found some useful ideas in here, such as the character archetype quads and the idea of a "contagonist", other elements didn't make as much sense to me; felt like they were trying to force certain ideas into the quad structure that don't work nearly as nicely. Definitely meant as a companion to some pricey (at the time the book came out) software which I also didn't find very useful.
The theory behind Dramatica is solid, and will help you write better fiction. Adopting it in total is a major undertaking, and of course there is software (proprietary, sold by the creators of the Theory and others). It can be adopted at different levels though, and that helps.
A bit of trivia is that this has been used in psychology and interrogation to understand a person's mind and what they want.
A bit of trivia is that this has been used in psychology and interrogation to understand a person's mind and what they want.
I really love those kind of no-BS straight to the point theoretical analysis of "soft" subjects like story-telling.
Everything makes more sense when they are part of a story and elements of the story are more well understood when they have meaningful connections.
Personally I try to explain concepts and write documentation like a well structured story.
Everything makes more sense when they are part of a story and elements of the story are more well understood when they have meaningful connections.
Personally I try to explain concepts and write documentation like a well structured story.
Interesting, story telling is a powerful thing.
Is there context around why this showing up here?
Is there context around why this showing up here?
The Jurassic Park improvements (p.268) seems contrived.
I like the idea of a theory of narrative (like the Hero's Journey, Save the Cat), so I've kept on reading, to see if it really does have merit or not. It's just a lot of stuff, new names for old concepts, so far...