So you want to know who this guy is who thinks he knows a lot about screenwriting and making good compelling stories. Well, here you go:

Who am I?

My name is James Hull and I’ve been working in the movie industry for over 14 years doing character animation. I’ve animated on films like Tarzan, Shrek 2 and Disney’s upcoming Enchanted. I love love love animation. I may or may not (depending on whether or not I’ve closed it down) have a blog devoted to animation called Seward Street.

But I also love good stories.

Why do you love stories so much?

I have no idea. Whether it’s a great movie, a great TV series, Japanese anime, or even a single novel - I love diving into a new story and enjoy that process whereby an author attempts to communicate to an audience through character, plot, theme and genre. I love it.

Most importantly I love the structural element behind storytelling. I’ve read pretty much every single book on screenwriting and storytelling I could get my hands on. I’m a huge junkie for these kinds of books. I love reading about the structures and processes behind making a story. It fascinates me.

What the heck is Dramatica?

The Dramatica theory of story is mentioned quite a bit here. In fact, the original title of this blog was daily dramatica. Unfortunately, there is a bit of confusion regarding this theory.

First off, Dramatica is NOT a software program that writes your story for you. That claim is completely ridiculous and speaks volumes more about the person making it than the program itself. Simply put, Dramatica is an all-encompassing theory of story that seeks to explain why some stories feel more complete than others.

That’s it.

It’s not a cult and you don’t necessarily have to follow its every rule to write a great story.

But it couldn’t hurt.

But have you sold anything?

Of course not! If I did, would I be writing this blog?!

The closest I ever got was a screenplay I wrote in 2004 entitled The Greatest War - a WWI drama. I received good enough feedback to be a Quarter Finalist in the Scriptapalooza screenwriting contest. Out of 3000 I was in the top 400. It’s not great, but at least it’s something.

In addition, I’ve written about 4 or 5 more scripts, all in various stages of completion.

Why haven’t you written anything lately?

Believe it or not I finally have started writing again (after a 2 year stint of severe writer’s block - something I’m blaming on the birth of my twin boys!). This blog was the primary catalyst in getting my butt back in that chair.

Over the past couple of months I’ve discovered that I have a tremendous passion for fine storytelling; a passion that I subconsciously always knew existed, yet, until it was put into a digital reality here on this site I never really quite appreciated the magnitude of it.

Hopefully this passion comes across in my writing and helps to communicate the two or three things I know about story. Most importantly though, I hope this site somehow inspires you to write a great story.

I, for one, would love to read it.