Story Outcome

Writing the Personal Triumph

Part 3 of a series of articles exploring the different kinds of meaningful endings a story can have. In this article, the "sweet" part of bittersweet is examined.

How to Write a Tragedy

Having looked at the triumphant ending, the focus now shifts to the ultimate downer of all endings: the Tragedy. This article examines the structural elements that help to classify a story as a tragedy.

How to End a Movie

Stories that strive to be about something must come to a conclusion with one of four meaningful endings. No matter how subtle or obvious the storytelling may be every single complete story told will fall into one of these four categories.

Same Story, Different Title

What do Sean Penn's Into the Wild and M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense have in common? Much more than you would probably think.

27 Dresses: Arriving at the Storyform

Approaching the analysis of a story using the Dramatica software.

Thinking of Your Audience First

Using concepts found in the Dramatica theory of story to write a story with your audience in mind.

The Stifling Nature of Dramatica?

Techniques to free up what might seem like a rigid tool for writing stories.

Dramatica Simplified

Dramatica can seem a bit overwhelming when you first start out. I remember flipping through the dictionary at the back of the theory book and thinking, "This is insane!" But after eight years of working with it, I've got the model pretty much memorized (at least down to the Variation level) and have a pretty good understanding of each of the terms.

plot dynamics explained

A closer look at the Plot Dynamics in a story.