When you come to the end of a story and you look back on everything that happened, what event could you call the most important? Was it the one at the end that brought everything to a satisfying close? Was it that tragic downturn that brought the Main Character to their lowest point? Or was it in fact, that event that started everything off; that event that, if removed, would erase the need for anything that came after it?

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By far, this was the funniest Google search term someone used to find this site. In an effort to provide more of what people are looking for when they come here, I installed a statistics program called Mint a couple of weeks ago. Alongside the countless searches for “children of men analysis” (people seem to really like that film!), this quote - “the cult of Dramatica” really stood out. How can a theory of story be so easily equated with the kind of fervor that sometimes accompanies religion?

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In a story, the major plot points are either driven by decisions or actions. While a story may naturally ebb and flow between both, when all is said and done, one of these will be seen as the primary driving plot force in a story. This is because meaningful stories are really just an argument and effective arguments have a pattern they must adhere to.

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Authors can sometimes get sidetracked as they get sucked into the process of writing their story. A great idea often supercedes the story’s requirement of being consistent. In my review of Taladega Nights I point out some inconsistencies in the story that could’ve been averted with Dramatica.

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If you’re analyzing a film, or writing one of your own, and you’re having trouble identifying that first Driver event (which most people refer to as the Inciting Incident), there is something you should consider.

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When writing a story, typically you start out with a character who is more or less balanced at the beginning of the story. Not so much that they’re at peace, but that they’ve come to terms with the way things are for them. Then some event happens - commonly referred to as the [...]

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