Dramatica for Screenwriters [Paperback]

Armando Saldaña-Mora (Author), Chris Huntley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0918973031 | ISBN-13: 978-0918973030 | Edition: cs

Dramatica for Screenwriters by Armando Saldaña Mora is a must for any writer who wishes to get the most out of the Dramatica® Pro story development software. Written by a working screenwriter, this book gives real world, practical applications for using Dramatica to develop and write screenplays. Book topics include: What Dramatica offers the screenwriter, Dramatica in thirty seconds Characters: Beyond the archetypes, Character Relationships as subplots, Note and sketch story development, How to get a complete plot, Four Dramatica Acts, Three Classical Acts, Narrative flow & writing the screenplay and many more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Armando Saldana Mora has been a professional writer since 1985. "The key to succeed in this profession," he says, "is being able to create top quality material for any genre, any format, any medium." Accordingly, his career has taken him from authoring and producing stage plays, to crafting and editing novels, to originating and redrafting screenplays, to scriptwriting and conducting writer's workshops for TV networks. "I couldn't have done all this without Dramatica," he says, "Really. What else can I say?"

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Write Brothers(r); cs edition (July 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918973031
• ISBN-13: 978-0918973030
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read and easy to understand, March 31, 2006

By 

Joy Higgins "Wordweaver" (Denair, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dramatica for Screenwriters (Paperback)

Although written with script authors et al in mind, Dramatica for Screenwriters is the perfect companion book for Dramatica: A New Theory of Story.

Using witty and easy to understand examples, the author takes you systematically through the process of turning a meager idea into a full-blown, grand argument story via Dramatica Theory definitions. With a slight mental adjustment, the tips and advice in this book fit the novelist's dilemma as well as the screenwriter's. If you are exploring the world of Dramatica, you need this book on your shelf.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have, March 30, 2006

By 

Richard Hierro (Paris, France.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dramatica for Screenwriters (Paperback)

Sorry for any mistake I could do here, English is not my first language.

While Dramatica is a powerful tool for building a story, it is complex and sometimes overwhelming. Armando Saldaña-Mora found a way to demystify Dramatica and give a lot of practical advices and principles for creating a story with Dramatica.

"Dramatica for Screenwriters" is easy to understand, fun and thought-provoking. The only drawback is that this book is not useful if you do not know the Dramatica Theory or do not use Dramatica software. Now, if you're a Dramatica user or if you plan to seriously evaluate the software, it is a must-have.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Confusing, April 5, 2008

By 

David I. Salter (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dramatica for Screenwriters (Paperback)

I purchased this book based on the other reviews claiming that it "demystifies" the Dramatica theory and software. Unfortunately, I found the opposite to be the case.

I've made numerous attempts to get my head around the principles of the Dramatica theory, with the intention of finally being able to put to use the rather pricey Dramatica Pro software I bought years ago. Both the software itself, and the book of theory explaining it ("Dramatica: A New Theory of Story") are so riddled with specialized (and somewhat proprietary) jargon that I've long counted myself among the number of users for whom the effort to grasp the principles involved outweighed the potential benefits. (And BTW, I'm no newcomer to the basic premises of story structure; I've got an MFA from a respectable film school, and have worked for many years as a film editor.)

I'd had high hopes for "Dramatica For Screenwriters", figuring it would serve as a practical layman's guide to understanding and using the software. Unfortunately (there's that word again), despite claims in the author's introduction to the contrary, a few pages in the jargon begins coming at the reader hot and heavy, and unlike in "Dramatica: A New Theory of Story", which I already found to be too opaque, here much of the jargon is not even explained in a cursory manner. Reader familiarity is assumed, which would seem to defeat the purpose of the book in the first place. So the reader is left with a bit of a Catch-22: if you need the book, you probably won't understand it, and if you can understand the book, you probably don't need it.