dramatica software

Never heard of it, but the blurb on the web page had me scratching my head.

I'm going to move this to Tech Help and Discussion.

Dramatica is essentially story boarding/plotting software.

Although I've worked on similar apps as a developer, I'm not a fan.

Dramatica started out as research project into story telling. It's a complicated theory. The result is a methodology that does a few things right compared to other approaches:

1) Maximizes conflict between characters and across the story's timeline. Although Dramatica can deal with a cluster of characters, the simplest (and IMHO the most comprehensible) form is between two characters.

2) Forces the author to go through character attributes (Need, Desire, Weaknesses, etc.) first and plot comes second.

3) Generates a POV-less and genre-less story structure. There is no Protagonist nor Antagonist and the story structure doesn't enforce - or converges to - a genre. It's like writing in omniscient. The author can decide which character becomes the main POV afterwards. The genre sort of emerges from that.


PROS

- Forces authors to think about characters first along with the conflicts between them. Plot comes naturally from that.
- The line of questions opens up more questions from which you derive opportunities and more ideas.
- Works well with open-minded "I don't know yet what it's gonna yield" type of story development.
- Having been designed with TV dramas in mind, this approach is well suited to developing series.


CONS

- Convoluted underlying theory. If you must know how this works, be prepared to spend some insane amount of time.
- Superficial definitions and interpretations. You have to stretch your imagination to make them fit your story.
- Genre is not enforced. If all you want to write are thrillers, you will curse.
- $$$$$. Some parts of the software are patented, hence the high price.


CONCLUSION

If you are stuck with a character or two, maybe three, tiny story fragments with nothing connecting them, and have no clue where the story goes from there, then this might be the muse you have been waiting for. Otherwise don't bother; it'll be a huge piss-ass waste of time.

Hope this helps.

-cb

If you can't figure this stuff out with your brain, a piece of software won't help you. There are no magical solutions. No one can do your thinking for you, including the machines.

The only way the software might help is if you use it as a writing exercise, with the intention of training yourself to figure this stuff out with your brain.

And frankly, there are books you can get for free from the library which can help you train your mind like this (but only if you're willing to do the work). Why not get a few of them and apply yourself to the exercises you find within, before you start trying something equivalent that costs money?

I use the Trial Version of Dramatica Pro. There isn't really any need to purchase it, unless you want to save stuff you've written down in the software, which I would not recommend. Dramatica Pro is hilariously outdated. There's a current version for Mac, but that doesn't look that much better.

I like the Theory behind Dramatica, but unfortunately, the official website and theory book don't explain it very well (and is apparently a bit outdated). There's narrativefirst.com which makes it more approachable, but still, I think the people behind it should really try and redo their explanations.

And some general advice: Do not under any circumstance buy writing software, unless your colleagues need you to. (Everyone is wokring with Microsoft Word Version Blabla, so you have to do so as well, or something like that).