Great 2-minute story structure class taught by two guys who know story. The curse of “this happened, then this happened then this happened” describes a tale. If you don’t know what a tale is, check out Captain America or Horrible Bosses.
A story, on the other hand, places the words “but” or “therefore” between plot events, insuring complications and causation, or what Dramatica would refer to as a story. See Moneyball or Win Win for more.
Discuss on Google+
Except for the fact that he actually gets paid about $2M more than I do for writing, we’re basically the same person. TextMate, Evernote, GTD, Things…all the same tools I use – he’s even a Dan Benjamin fan! Great to see a professional screenwriter who is also clearly a “geek”.
Great read.
Discuss on Google+
John August opens up a BEAUTIFUL site devoted to simply answering questions about the craft of screenwriting. The best part about this site? One question, one answer per page. Stunning in its simplicity, awe-inspiring in its value…you can bet there will be some story structure sites heavily influenced by this one.
Discuss on Google+
Roger Ebert:
I watch as many movies on TV as most people, and they’re okay that way, but when a movie is on fire I want to sense the audience burning. To be carried along in the dark on a wave of laughter of tears is exhilarating.
Discuss on Google+
More clarification on how Dramatica considers theme. This explanation of the difference between “Journeys” and “Signposts” finally hit home:
as a story plays out, the audience gradually builds up the same “after the fact” view of the author, act by act and scene by scene. So, the audience will see the journeys as they unfold, but will gradually see the topic shifts as act breaks when, for example, the characters have arrived at an Understanding and finally begin Doing. That marks the end of focusing on Understanding, which is no longer a topic of consideration in the story, having been fully explored.
Intellectually I’ve always known the difference between Journey and Signpost, but for some reason this explanation makes it clear why. The Audience sees the Journey perspective because they have no idea what is coming up next – they can only appreciate where they have been and where they are going. They have no idea when it stops, or where the last bit ends, they can only feel the Journey.
Fifteen+ years in and I’m still learning…
Discuss on Google+
Out of respect to those working on the film and crafting the story there will be no quotes of the original Ain’t It Cool article(now removed) that criticized Pixar’s Brave. However, there was one witless notion of story structure that cannot go unanswered.
The “protagonist” of a story does not have to have the greatest “character arc.”
If you need examples of this please take the time to watch Chinatown, The Silence of the Lambs, Amadeus, Braveheart, Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?, Iron Giant, The Fugitive, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and/or In The Heat of the Night. You might also want to read Romeo and Juliet. If you can’t read, there is a video here. Either way, stop using shallowness as a base point for analysis.
In addition, don’t use “protagonist” when you really mean Main Character. There is a difference between the two explained in the article Redefining Protagonist and Main Character. The old ways of thinking must die. Even A-List Hollywood screenwriter John August gets it. The central character of a story does NOT always have the greatest arc.
So tiresome to continually have to read reviews and critiques that come from a complete lack of understanding of how stories work.
Discuss on Google+
Sharing this because of this:
Many years ago I used to teach authors that we all get excited by the subject matter, but in truth, all of those bits of information can’t possibly live together in peaceful coexistence in the same story structure. The job of the structuring author is to pick the most important subject matter first, boil it down to story points in the structure and then continuing picking until you hit the point where something you want won’t fit into the structure. This is when the Dramatica Story Engine in the software is doing its job by telling the author, “if you include that extra piece, you’re weakening your own structure – working against yourself.”
So, when Dramatica doesn’t match what you want to do at the lower levels, its not broken. In fact, that what it was designed to do – save you from yourself (save your subjective self from making a big objective mistake!).
The biggest frustrations in helping writers structure their stories occur when they refuse to change anything because “That isn’t how it really happened.” They become so caught up in telling their life story that they don’t – tell a story.
G+
On Quora, screenwriter Sean Hood had this to say about his work on the latest incarnation of Conan:
…when the reality of the loss sinks in…you don’t sleep the rest of the night.
For the next couple of days, you walk in a daze, and your friends and family offer kind words, but mostly avoid the subject. Since you had planned (ardently believed, despite it all) that success would propel you to new appointments and opportunities, you find yourself at a loss about what to do next. It can all seem very grim.
You make light of it, of course. You joke and shrug. But the blow to your ego and reputation can’t be brushed off. Reviewers, even when they were positive, mocked Conan The Barbarian for its lack of story, lack of characterization, and lack of wit. This doesn’t speak well of the screenwriting.
Still haven’t seen it, but if it lacked story, characterization, and wit – how could you not see that during the development?
The Infinite Adventure Machine:
TIAM is a proposal for a computer program which generates fairy-tale plots. While fully automatic story generation remains an unsolved problem for computer science, this project explores the links between imagination and computation.
While the screenshots and typography look gorgeous, Benqué’s Adventure Machine lacks the one key element to solve all his story generation problems: Dramatica and its theory of story. Combine that engine with his obvious talent for design, and fairy-tale generation doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.
With an air of cynical disdain, the writer behind Slaughterhouse Five lambasts computers and their attempts at “graphing” story structure. Probably never got a chance to see [Dramatica][] in action, and even if he did, he probably would have been disgusted at its accuracy in predicting his own work. A know-it-all that obviously didn’t know it all.
