One of the most important things I learned from the Dramatica theory of story was this idea of a separation between the Main Character’s storyline and the overall storyline. It’s a basic concept but one that, if not done correctly, can cause all kinds of problems when trying to write a meaningful story. The biggest is the idea that the Main Character is always the Protagonist.

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Everybody loves Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The 1961 romantic comedy by Blake Edwards is so beloved that it even inspired a pop song several years ago. Central to everyone’s love for this film is the spirited performance by Audrey Hepburn. So captivating is this performance that most people assume, as did I, that Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly was the Main Character of the story.

Further examination proves that this is not the case.

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Daily Dramatica has exploded over the past couple of months, nearly doubling the amount of subscribers since the first of the year. Most of this is due, I’m sure, to the fact that posts appear practically every day of the week. In addition, a sincere attempt has been made to provide really valuable information when it comes to structuring a screenplay (or any story for that matter). There were, however, some helpful posts that appeared years ago when the interest was not as great…

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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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Believe it or not, one of the more difficult things to do when analyzing a story is deciding who the Main Character is. Because the Dramatica theory of story separates the concept of Main Character from the Protagonist, determining that essential character calls for a more precise analysis. This became a problem when analyzing the last film for the Dramatica Users Group - Laura.

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The Protagonist and the Main Character do NOT have to be the same character. While they very often are, splitting them apart can help give a story more dramatic depth.

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I can.
Or at least I did this afternoon as I trolled through the Dramatica website. A smile crossed my face as I stumbled across the same extensive Dramatica AOL log transcripts that I had read over 10 years ago. Of course, back then there was only America On-Line and Netscape and Windows 3.1. [...]

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Sometimes Dramatica can be so precise that an author can become confused trying to determine even the simplest of concepts. The concept of the Protagonist is one of them.

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