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. Beyond the obvious differences in genre and subject matter the basic structure of each story is almost exactly the same…except for one major difference.

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But not every character should necessarily change. This runs contrary to the prevailing wisdom in modern storytelling. From screenwriting gurus to studio executives, a successful screenplay is thought to be one in which the principal characters in a story undergo significant change. But is that really true? Must every character grow in such a way that they see the world through different eyes? Partly yes, and partly no.

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In my previous analysis of the film I Am Legend, I examined the meaningful differences between the theatrical and the alternate version released on DVD. In this “deeper” look into the film, I’ll go into more detail why I made the choices I made using the Dramatica theory of story as my key reference point.

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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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Little Children, directed by Todd Field, provides an insight into modern parenting that some would say hits a little too close to home (especially for those of us directly experiencing this role!). The film thrives on wonderful performances by both a dowdy Kate Winslet and a believably creepy Jackie Earle Haley. Unfortunately for us lovers of fiction, the film fell victim to a little glitch in storytelling right near the end.

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The ultimate most important element of any story. This one part of your story is so important that it was sanctified with the word crucial. Without it your hollow storytelling would crumble like dried leaves…Or would it?

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In Children of Men, rich thematic elements of hope play out against despair in a dystopian vision of the future. Many have commented that while they found the film highly entertaining, they felt cheated at the end. They often go on to complain that the movie was half-finished. I disagree. I would say it was 3/4 finished…

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Binary choices stifle authors. Does your story end in Success or Failure? Does your Main Character Change or Remain Steadfast? Dramatica questions like these offend seasoned and fresh authors alike. Turns out these questions might not be as binary as they seem.

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Trolling through the Dramatica archives, I came across something interesting in the Tip of the Month for January 2000:
It is not important whether it’s the steadfastness of one character that forces the change in the other, or the change in one that supports the steadfastness of the other.
Well that’s a new one for me. All these [...]

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Something I wrote about a looong time ago, was what some of the biggest things were that typical authors leave out of their stories. To me, that’s one of the coolest aspects of Dramatica - it helps to point out the missing pieces or holes in your story. Previously I had listed the [...]

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