Bolstered by a captivating performance from Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix serves up one visual delight after another for fans of the book series. Unfortunately, for those of us who have not read the books, the film fails to provide enough story information to go along with the spectacle.

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Ensemble stories are always elusive when it comes to interpreting their meaning. Typically, these kinds of stories bring together several separate throughlines with the intention of making some “greater point.” Unfortunately for many, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s Babel is not typical. While compelling and thought-provoking, the film lives up to the confusing nature of its Biblical namesake.

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Using this theory to analyze great films or TV series is not always an easy thing to do. Unlike other story paradigms which simply seek to find out whether any “commandments” or rules are broken, Dramatica is chiefly concerned with deciphering the author’s original intent. It’s always nice then when you can have your analysis verified by the original writers…

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Some readers aren’t aware that you can actually ask me questions if you feel so inclined. While I don’t profess to know everything about this theory, or screenwriting in general, I do feel like I have a unique voice on the matter and enjoy helping to make stories and, more specifically, screenplays, better. The following is an example of the kind of feedback you’ll expect when you click on “Contact” above…

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The relationship between the Main Character and Impact Character provides the heart of a story. Unfortunately, this emotional connection is often overlooked in many a screenplay. The heap of forgotten films teems with stories that made the simple error of not engaging their audiences passionately. It seems strange then, that Deadwood, a series often referred to as vulgar and crude, should present us such a successful attempt at this essential relationship.

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There are elegant ways to introduce the Subjective Story in your screenplay…and not so elegant ways. Examples of both can be found in two films from last year: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Notes on a Scandal. Care to guess which one handles this important introduction in a beautiful and artful way?

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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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There is a cheat that a lot of writers use when their Impact Character confronts the Main Character. The dialogue usually goes something like this: “You and I are both alike” or “You and I are not so different.” Ever wonder why those lines, as cliched as they are, work so well?

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A recent review in the New York Times labeled Disney’s newest animated film, Meet the Robinsons, “one of the worst theatrically released animated features issued under the Disney label in quite some time.” While I have to agree that the first half of the film was excruciatingly painful, when all was said and done there actually was a decent story buried in there. If only we as an audience had been informed of that a bit earlier…

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All this theory. All these terms. All of it can really get in the way of writing a great story. And isn’t that why you bought that laptop and that screenwriting software in the first place? To share with the world your own personal viewpoint on life?

Guess what? You can throw it all away…as long as you incorporate these three things into your story.

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