Some stories take forever to get started; others capture you from page one. What is it about some stories that just force you to stay attentive, eagerly anticipating some sort of resolution? The answer, I think, lies within the concept of the fully explored argument.

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Everyone agrees that the Main Character is the most important character in a film. Why? Because through this person, an audience experiences first-hand the emotions and consequences of the narrative surrounding them. But there is another, less understood character that is primarily responsible for influencing growth in the Main Character. This character is known as the Impact Character.

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The Dramatica software, particularly the Query System, employs a top-down approach to figuring out your story. In other words, you start out with the broadest perspective of your story (deciding on the Throughlines) and then work your way down to the finest granules of magnification (where your character’s Problem and Solution lie). While this approach is perfect when first learning the theory, there is a different approach that can result in more creative choices.

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Even though the current incarnation of the Dramatica Story Table of Elements is based on Dynamic Pairs, there are other relationships that exist within the model. Two of these are Companion Pairs and Codependent Pairs. While the theory book does a great job of explaining it, some authors still have difficulty writing these kinds of relationships.

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Although the software is not properly set up for it, you can create the structure of your story based on how you want your audience to receive your story, i.e. how you want your story to feel to them. In order to do this, you need to understand the connections that some appreciations have with one another.

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A story shouldn’t be “a bunch of things happen to or around our Protagonist, and then at the end, they change for some reason.” That potential for growth should be buried deep within every Main Character from the very beginning. Luckily for us, Dramatica provides some great insights into the most deepest recesses of your Main Character’s soul.

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For the most part, the mechanics of storytelling cross over easily into different cultures. After all, we all have essentially the same physiology/brain chemistry necessary to comprehend the meaning of a story. Klingons, however, don’t.

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When it comes to the Crucial Element, Change Main Characters have it easy. They restore balance to the story by either giving away or receiving an element. Makes sense to most authors. But Steadfast Main Characters are a different story entirely. In these kinds of stories, what element is moved? And if the story is about a hole to be filled, which element do we write about?

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The Problem Solving Style of your Main Character can be more than just the last choice you make in a storyform. It can also be a strong indicator of how much power your Main Character has over the Objective Story.

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There are elegant ways to introduce the Subjective Story in your screenplay…and not so elegant ways. Examples of both can be found in two films from last year: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Notes on a Scandal. Care to guess which one handles this important introduction in a beautiful and artful way?

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