As mentioned in an earlier post, I now own Dramatica Pro. Santa brought it to me because I wanted something that would help me with story development and, folks, I am hear to report that it works. At least for me…
I’m currently writing my sixth screenplay which, right now, I refer to as “The Screenplay” since I need to keep it anonymous. My first five screenplays were written “by the seat of my pants”. Most had outlines which were developed “after the fact” so I could figure out what I had already written.
Dramatica helps me refine characters before I use them in the screenplay, their relationship to each other and the storyline, making them stronger, more unique. Of course I developed strong characters on other screenplays but much of the work was done during the rewrite process. With the Dramatica approach, I’m defining them more at the beginning. I’m hoping this will change the rewriting process.
I have written the first act of “The Screenplay”. I’m refining it right now, and Dramatica is helping me … primarily because of the work I’m doing on the characters.
With prior screenplays, I have had to eliminate entire characters because I found out they really didn’t contribute much to the story. Since I start to “like” my characters as I develop them, it is difficult to just “zap” them out of the story. I’m hoping the procedureal changes I’m making this time will reduce how many characters I have to “eliminate” in the future.
I really like the “scene list” aspect of Dramatica Pro. I’m developing a way to make it work for me. It is really easy to “move” scenes around to see how a move will impact other scenes.
Anyway, I’ve been using Dramatic Pro for a couple of weeks now. Granted, I still have a lot to learn about the approach but, right now, I’m pleased…