dramatica is more than just a template

October 11, 2005

Andy Coughlan has a thoughtful piece about Dramatica and the structure it creates for you. Comparing it to Microsoft’s new UI for Office 12, he says:

It isn’t templating (that’s just prettying things up), it’s about creating structure, something that we humans struggle to create very well, especially from scratch.

While I think that good story sense is instinctual, I agree that having a “structure” to keep it all in place certainly helps.

There are some who feel that Dramatica is too rigid - that you have to fill out every box and resolve every appreciation. They feel confined by the template they think they have to follow. They might even feel like they have to completely understand every post on this blog in order to use the theory successfully.

But you don’t.

You just have to use as much as you need to make your story feel better to you.

Personally, I think it’s so overwhelming because it is so complete. More than a template of Mythic Characters on a Quest - it’s a complete “structure” that simply works.