Time to tally up the results of a year’s long journey in examining the structure behind great stories. From a slow start in January through the explosion of the Spring and Summer and then on into the final waning months of the year, StoryFanatic gained great ground in 2007 and looks forward to doing even more in the coming year.
Quick Look at Stats
Having only installed an official stat tracking program in July the stats don’t reveal as much as I’d like them to, but they’re interesting nevertheless:
- Increase in subscribers from 27 in July to a little over 65 by the end of the year.
- A little over 2,000 monthly visits in July to well over 9,000 monthlies in October.
Favorite search terms (on Google, etc.):
- amelie
- pocahontas
- Children of Men analysis
- Yertle the Turtle
- Hugh Jackman
- taladega nights
Visitors came from:
- United States: 46%
- United Kingdom: 6%
- Canada: 4%
- Italy: 3%
- Austrailia: 3%
- Phillipines: 2%
Month by Month
Here’s a look back at the year’s most popular posts — some you may have missed, some you may have forgotten. All in all, it was a great year finding and discovering all that goes into a great story:
January and February
The first two months of the year were relatively quiet - the resurgence of my fanaticism with story had yet to fully resurface. Of considerable note were these couple of posts:
Identifying the Holes in Your Story
The New World: Analysis
The second link is noteworthy for two reasons: one, for some reason it is one of the most sought after pages on my site (apparently there are a lot of people out there looking for images of Pocahontas!). Two, it was my first attempt at putting myself out there for a story analysis. I had done it once before with my review of War of the Worlds, but this was the first time I really tried to add some value to my analysis.
Now I just look back and laugh at how short it is!
March
March was the arrival of the explosion. My post count more than doubled from less than 8 to more than 20 for the month! The site redesign at the end of February reflected my rediscovery of great stories.
Stories Exist for One Purpose: Meaning
The Prestige: Identifying the Main Character
Stories and Birthday Cake
Hotel Rwanda: Story Analysis
More Than One Impact Character
4 Movie Posters Analyzed for Story Content
The Jigsaw Puzzle That Is A Story
Your Main Character’s Most Personal Issue
My favorite? The analysis of Hotel Rwanda. I really put everything I could into that analysis and tried to give it the attention it greatly deserved. At that time it was the longest post I had ever written, only to be easily surpassed in the coming months.
April
April saw a post that would come back to haunt me many months later…
While it generated a bit of discussion in the weeks following, it wasn’t until commenter Mia arrived in late August that the conversation really heated up. While I still stand by my original analysis of why the film feels like it stops short, I do see why others feel the story was complete and fully resolved. Regardless it is still the most popular post on the site, having been viewed over 2,661 times. Likewise, “Children of Men analysis” is the most common search item that brings people here.
There were several other notable posts during the rest of the month:
Impact Character Video Montage
Training Day: Analysis
Difficulty Identifying the Main Character
Casino Royale: Rewinding Your Main Character
Consistent Plot Points
The last has an interesting sidenote: I was compelled to write it after seeing a special crew screening of Bee Movie, the Dreamworks/Jerry Seinfeld CG feature that I was hired to animate on. If you have a chance to see it, or have already seen it, you’ll note that all the act turns happen as a result of some kind of decision (Barry’s lack of deciding on a job, his decision to talk to Vanessa, and the court decision to rule in favor of the bees). Ultimately though the film ends on an action - bringing the last remaining flowers back to New York in order to re-pollinate the world.
It was my opinion that the film should have maintained the structure it originally started with and end on a decision. Unfortunately this was not done and I believe the story suffers for it. The post goes further into the explanation why plot points should be of the same type.
May
The Cult of Dramatica
Little Children: When Both Main and Impact Characters Change
How to Introduce Your Main Character’s Most Important Relationship
Analysis of Deadwood: The Relationship Between Swearengen and Bullock
Yertle the Turtle Takes on Dramatica
Actual Proof of a Screenwriter Using Dramatica
Interesting how this month brought out a prevelance of pro-Dramatica posts. While I think it’s silly to have defend this revolutionary approach to the structuring of stories, I do feel that it’s important to point out the mistaken assumptions many have of it.
The last post was a bit tongue-in-cheek in analyzing an X-Files episode that so clearly used the Dramatica theory of story. The more in-depth review of that episode was to come in…
June
The Truth about Dramatica and the X-Files
South Park: Multiple Main Characters in One Story
A Simple Way to Look at the Throughlines of Your Story
Klingons Would Make Terrible Screenwriters
Deadwood: An Unlikely Relationship Between Foes
Big Love: Understanding the Goal and Consequences of a Story
Babel: Analysis
The end of June brought another monstrously popular analysis - Babel which has now been viewed over 2000 times. The film was one that explored the nature of communication and the comments that followed the original post carried on that theme. It is apparent to me now (as it was starting to be back then) that people really appreciate the in-depth analysis of films more than anything else. Like Children of Men, Babel analysis is one of the top ten search items that steer people to this site.
July
Understanding the Soul of Your Main Character
Ratatouille: Why the Film Seems So Long
Thinking of Your Audience First
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Analysis
July was a great month for this site as I finally came up with a name for it that I thought really described exactly why I go through all the trouble to write about these concepts - StoryFanatic. I love story, pure and simple, and was becoming frustrated that the previous name, daily dramatica, was too off-putting for those who might not know about Dramatica or realize fully the purpose of this site. The new name perfectly encapsulated what I was going for here. I was quick to purchase up the domain name and start the redesign of the header banner. In the months that would follow I would continue to work behind the scenes to make the site more accessible to fellow lovers of story. In the end, I’m just trying to make a site that I would love to visit.
August
300: Story Analysis
Avoid Ending a Movie with a Cheesy Line
Introducing the Visual Storyform
Stranger than Fiction: The Problem with Competing Main Characters
The Second Most Important Character in a Film
While August was the beginning of the slow down in posting frequency it also saw the introduction of the 2nd most popular post - the 300 analysis. 2,468 viewings, as of December 31st, 2007, shot this post to the top of the popularity charts. It would also be my last major analysis until the very end of the year.
August was also the month I introduced the Visual Storyform - something I was sure I would continue to do in the following months. While I have been mindmapping several films for analysis, I have yet had the chance to post them here on the site. Hopefully that will change in the coming months.
September
Only two posts in the sad month of September!
Sharing the Main Character’s Surprise
A Good Impact Character Makes Things Uncomfortable
Solid posts but not enough to keep people visiting. My main reason for the slow down? A new job animating on Dreamworks’ Madagascar 2 slated for release next November.
October
A Successful Story Locks an Audience In
The Most Important Event in A Story
Why You Shouldn’t Care How the Dramatica Theory of Story Works
The Reason Why the Dramatica Theory of Story Is the Way It Is
Of Ticking Clocks and the Ending of Stories
A brief resurgence as there was some heavy discussion on the Dramatica MailList surrounding the mechanics behind the Dramatica theory of story.
November and December
Well, really November had nothing! I spent the majority of my blogging time tagging each and every single post so that you can now search StoryFanatic with very little effort. Holiday and holiday preparation filled the rest of my time.
I tried to end the year out with a bang with my analysis of The Mist. Time will show if it becomes as popular as the other major analysis posts. Something tells me it won’t as the other films (300, Babel, Children of Men) seem to have done much better at the box office.
2008
What’s to come? No promises, but as Oscar season approaches and more movies are released on DVD you can pretty much count on further analysis. As mentioned elsewhere I also intend on putting up more video and will try to get more of those Visual Storyforms up as well.
Good luck to all in your writing endeavors in the coming year!
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