Customer Reviews

Dramatica for Screenwriters

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I think the hardest thing for people coming to Dramatica the first time is understanding that the theory and software are not designed to write your story for you (or tell you what your story is about), but rather to tell you, based on the way you answer all the hundreds of questions, what the best storyform or context is from which to tell your story in the way you want.
[...]

I did the work to know the theory, but "Dramatica for Screenwriters" really helped me understand it. Even though I am a fiction writer and not a screenwriter, I found that most of this book applies to any kind of fictional world building. I highly recommend it.

Don't buy the book thinking it's going to take the place of doing the work of getting to know the theory. It assumes prior knowledge.

Beauty is in the bones. This book gives your story good bones, and you end up knowing why. It is a clear explanation of how to do the structure of a story so the end product is a top model. You have to supply the writing, a big commitment, but you won't have the feeling when you're done that something is incomplete or wrong - and all your work goes to something which misses the mark.

We have all seen too many movies where the verdict is "Interesting!" To a writer, this is deadly. It means that all the work of director and actors and film crew, editors and producers, went for naught because the starting place, the script, had the final flaws buried in its pages. Use this book and your story will have a coherence and an internal logic that will be solid and subtle - and when you put on it the forensic anthopologist's 'layer of flesh,' what will stare back at you will be a thing of beauty.

I am finding out that my 10 years old copy of Dramatica may be worth Something. I know about Armando from early adopters and listserve participants. I have poured over many times my dogeared notes of Instant dramatica before....Then I got distracted but knew this book was coming...That was 2005...but I am starting with this book now.

I am at just part 3 of the book now and I am already feeling like a skilled storyteller.

Thanks to Armando for sharing invaluable wealth of PRO information getting me back on the road....And restoring my belief in usefulness of Dramatica.....

It's just awesome, even better than what you can read online about using dramatica of Armando. If you want to use Dramatica - and don't want to get lost eventually - you really, really, really need this guide to get to some point you can call your plot really a plot. This book just makes you very, very happy. For it will boost your efforts to really WORK with dramatica. I only wish we had had that book ten years before. So I do highly recommend it. Even if you aren't a native speaker like me, having german as my mother tongue. I would never have made it with the DRAMATICA SOFTWARE if I haven't had this book. Believe me. It's worth every Cent (I payed in Euro). Though I tried very hard for roundabout 2 years I was coming to fail with Dramatica 4.0. This book saved my ass. Let it save yours too. It's making me happy. Thank you so much, Armando. Greetings from Germany, Cologne