J.K. Rowling, in her recent Harvard commencement address, details what she considers to be the true power of imagination when it comes to storytelling.

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My original plan for tonight was to write reviews of some films I’ve seen recently. But then I made the mistake of watching the following video interview with David Milch and those plans were quickly tossed out the window. If you ever want to be inspired to write, this is the man to listen to.

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Can there be anything more dramatic than a story of revenge?! That initial stinging feeling of being unjustly wronged, the wicked and intensely private scheming that goes on as one plans what is dutifully owed the offender, and finally the execution of said sweet reward. Nothing is more universal than the satisfaction of one getting what one so rightly deserves.

But how does one go about constructing a story like this?

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Need some inspiration to write your next screenplay? A quick look at the most talked about screenplays in Hollywood for 2007 might just be what you’re looking for.

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Every author that seeks out Dramatica to help them write better stories eventually comes to a point where they resent it. “Why is this program forcing me to write my story this way?” they ask. “I never wanted my Main Character to have an issue with expediency…I don’t even know what that means!” Often this resentment leads to the long and winding rabbit hole that is the attempt to perfectly understand the theory.

There can be no greater waste of an author’s energy.

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Is it possible that four throughlines are too much to think about during the early stages of writing a story? I’m beginning to think so.

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A story shouldn’t be “a bunch of things happen to or around our Protagonist, and then at the end, they change for some reason.” That potential for growth should be buried deep within every Main Character from the very beginning. Luckily for us, Dramatica provides some great insights into the most deepest recesses of your Main Character’s soul.

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The New York Times recently ran an article about writers and the software they use. The most shocking aspect of the piece? One writer admitted to using Dramatica. GASP!!

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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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Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t crack the code of a story. Whether it’s a film you are analyzing or a spec screenplay that you’ve been working on for weeks, the storyform can remain frustratingly elusive. There is a technique I’ve found that works, and although it’s not revolutionary, it might help you get over that Dramatica-imposed writer’s block.

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