Last Time on 'Dramatica Uncovered'...
In the last post, I introduced Dramatica and outlined what I hoped it could do for my writing. I deliberately didn't go into any great detail about the story system, because the theory document is 350 pages long, and it would probably take me almost as long to describe it here. The idea is that instead of just reproducing that document, I would choose a story of my own, and work through the system, introducing it that way.
But a word of caution:I have never written a story using Dramatica before. I don't really have a plan of approach. From what I have read, and from what I experienced with the software, there is a particular order which seems to works best, but be ready for dead-ends and backtracking. I will be learning how to do this as I go along.
First off the mark, I need to choose the story that I am going to use as my exemplar.
Boy, Interrupted
A few weeks ago, I was in the early stages of developing a novel outline. I was having the usual teething troubles of trying to weave character and sub-plot. I found myself inventing scenes out of thin air (which I used to think of as what writers do) and when scenes like this are new-born, I am always filled with a sense that they seem a bit arbitrary.
I had a few scenes sketched out like this, and an overall story arc was emerging, but I had yet to find an ending to the story. I was blocked on this for ages. I realised that the story wasn't holding together for some fundamental reason that was just out of sight. I started casting around the internet for ideas about story structure - and discovered Dramatica.
It seemed ideal for my story, I was at the exact stage in story development where Dramatica could help, and it would probably allow me to add the desired depth and complexity and find a logical story argument to express in an ending. I went to my story outline....
Chronological
Dramatica is all about the story. As such, it places a great emphasis on the order of things. Unfortunately, the novel idea I was working on involved mental time-travel. In the story, a modern day protagonist repeatedly swaps minds with someone from 40 years ago, and the story is how the past-person starts to mess up his current-day life and vice-versa. There was a question about changing the future, and how much one person can change things even if he knows the future. It was a good idea. I didn't have an ending.
Time travel? Non-chronological events? Timelines which change established facts during the course of the narrative?
I really didn't think a time-travel story, with all the paradoxes, changing premise, and out-of-sequence story-telling was appropriate for my first foray into Dramatica. The story is there (sans ending) and I will definitely return to it, but it's not right for this.
The back catalogue
So what kind of story should I use? I guess something more archetypal, something like a Hero's Quest or a simple Overcoming the Monster.
When I spoke earlier about using the software, I used a story I had worked out an entire outline for several years ago but did not progress. It was a simple - ish - monster tale. The original outline was about a vampire, written during the time when vampire stories were all the rage - but it didn't need to actually be a vampire. The main characteristic of the monster is that it doesn't really look like a monster, just a man, and this man must be charismatic in multiple ways. In fact it may be just an evil man, rather than a real supernatural monster. So the main gist is that a man accidentally releases a charismatic monster into the world, and it starts to wreak havoc with his life and the greater community until he is forced to take decisive action to defeat it.
I liked this story when I wrote the outline, and I was sad when my Muse decided not to write it at the time. It seems like a straightforward chronological story with no time complications. It already comes with a lot of baggage since I've already written one outline for it, but it's been a while and I'm sure I will be able to jettison previous ideas if necessary. There was obviously something wrong with it, if I didn't think it worth progressing, so I'm really fine with chopping it up. Look, I just got rid of the vampire, it's fine!
Stripped to the bone
The original working title for the novel was Fiend. I think this still fits in well with a man who acts like a monster but may not actually be a supernatural entity. If I strip back the original timeline of the main story back to bare brick, it goes something like this:
The protagonist works for his brother in a low-level criminal gang.
A violent incident in his past means that the Protagonist controls his emotions carefully.
Protagonist discovers an older man trapped in an abandoned church next to his house.
Protagonist releases the older man almost by accident.
The older man comes to live with him and his health improves.
A series of grisly murders occurs in the neighbourhood.
The older man gets involved with the criminal activity and rises to become leader.
The brother wants to emulate the Fiend, the protagonist argues against it.
Violence and crime escalates, as does the chasm between the brothers.
Fiend really wants the protagonist, can sense the controlled anger in him
Fiend starts manipulating brother into wilder schemes as a sort of blackmail
Brother gets killed at some point, releasing and heightening the tension
Protagonist, with friends, tries to find out how the Fiend was trapped originally
Protagonist needs to get close to Fiend to enact this, so feigns complicity
Final scene where a Fiend is defeated
I've already taken a lot of baggage and characters out of this, what remains sort -of hangs together but there are a lot of holes in the plot and motivations, and the characters are paper thin. This is how I want to start the Dramatica process, with a simple story arc and no characters to speak of.
So, shall we begin?
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