Dramatica Pro

Reviewed by Mike Hubbartt, © 2007

Introduction

Novelists, screenwriters and Playwrights have something in common: their material needs to be structured. Let’s be clear on something: structure does not imply formula – the terms are not synonymous. Novels have structure, as do plays and television shows and movies. Story structure is like the structure of a house. The house frame provides the place to add the walls, windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical wiring. Without the frame, a house is a pile of rubble waiting to become a home. The same paradigm applies to stories. Stories have characters facing problems. These elements are the framework of stories – novels, plays, television, movies, etc – and another important piece of the framework called conflict drives the story forward.

Some authors like Stephen King have the education and ability to keep novel elements in their heads and use it while they create their tales that enthrall us. I’m not a horror fan, but I truly love reading some of King’s books as they are so well crafted and I have a hard time preventing myself from turning to the next page. Stephen King and authors like him that consistently produce quality stories year after year, and they are wonderful.

On the other hand, some people with less education or no experience writing novels find they experience roadblocks when trying to tell a story that sustains itself throughout the book. It is difficult to tell a story about characters on a different world or that live in a different time than in the current world. To sustain key setting or political or sociological details of a story with characters in an unfamiliar place requires a tremendous imagination and memory, copious notes, or a product like Dramatica Pro. We can’t help you with options 1 or 2, so let’s look at option 3 – Dramatic Pro.

Getting Started

Dramatica Pro is available on disk or by download. I ordered and installed the product on my G5 iMac and it was fast and easy. No errors and no problems. I started Dramatic Pro and saw there are two options: create a new blank story or create a story using the Novel, Screenplay or Short Story templates. In either case, you see the main options toolbar.

• Launch the StoryGuide and fill in story background
• Get online Help from the Write Bros website
• Open an existing Story
• Work on existing or add new Characters
• View Plot Progression
• See a graphic view of story theme elements
• Use the Dramatica Dictionary to look up terms and synonyms
• Create a story form with the Story Engine
• View and enter Story Points
• Generate Reports and export content to other applications
• Do Brainstorming and create new characters

To initiate an option, just click on the area and follow the prompts, but before you get started, you should check and set any personal preferences. There are four types of user preferences in Dramatica: General, Report, Query System and Term Swap.

Select any of the four categories on the left of this screen, then you’re ready to start work on your story. To create a story, select File - New – Blank Story from the menu (or click on the StoryGuide area of the main toolbar) and you see this screen:

After selecting Level One, Level Two or Level Three from this screen, you will answer 60 to 250 background questions for your story. An example of the title screen is shown below:

There are various questions to answer, depending on the Level you chose in the previous step. After entering character background information in section one, it is time to create the story structure. Just as in section one, answer the questions then move on to the next areas: Illustrating, Storyweaving and the Epilogue.

After you answer the questions in the StoryGuide section of the product, you can still work on the details. To work on characters already entered during Section One of the StoryGuide interview process, select the Characters area of the main options toolbar. You not only see the characters already created, you can modify, remove or add characters as needed – no need to go back through the interview process you did when starting the story. And yes, you can add new characters that occurred to you at other points of the interview process.

If you want to see the plot progression for the story – really useful for scripts – select the Plot Progression area of the main options toolbar. If you want help with story structure elements, select the Theme Browser area of the main options toolbar. This is helpful to new writers need to better understand the aspects of situation, activity, manipulation and fixed attitude that affect the evolution of events that propel a story.

For help understanding the elements of this product select the Dictionary area of the main options toolbar. The list of information is displayed by classification or alphabetically.

If you start a story and want to return later to add details or modify the materials, select the Query System area of the main options toolbar. If you feel comfortable as a writer or comfortable with Dramatica Pro, you’ll want to bypass the StoryGuide and work with the advanced controls in the Story Engine, accessed by selecting the Story Engine area of the main options toolbar.

If you want to work directly on the story points of your work, select Story Points area of the main options toolbar. This is where you can enter information to fine tune story dynamics. And if you want to generate reports on your story, select Reports area of the main options toolbar. This is the place where you can export character and scene information from Dramatica Pro to Movie Magic Screenwriter, or you can export the information as text for importing into another application.

The last area of the main options toolbar is Brainstorming. This is the place to see if there is an existing storyboard that already matches the information you already entered, or generates new characters for you to help add interest and depth. You can use this to create 1 to 9 new characters, or you can let the software modify existing characters.

Conclusion

Dramatica Pro will not create a story for you – it prompts you for the needed structal elements and you do the creating. For people wanting to write stories but without the literary skills of an English major, this product is useful and fun. While testing it I really enjoyed the process and found it helpful in crafting a story and keeping track of the details that acted as the framework glue – my story made sense from beginning to ending.

Recommendation

It’s hard to fault a product that gets an endorsement from someone as talented as Wes Craven. His quote at Write Bros’ website “At the beginning of the project, Dramatica Pro is great...It saves you time because you're not writing stuff you'll eventually have to throw away because you hadn't thoroughly thought it through.”

I feel this product is worth the time and money to purchase. If the price is too steep for your budget, consider The Writer’s DreamKit, at $60 USD, a beginner’s version of Dramatica from Write Bros.