Why Dramatica Is Different From Other Story Paradigms
by Chris Huntley

PART 3—April 7, 2006

I have just read through Robert McKee’s book, “Story.” It’s a good book with lots of great story examples. His “Chinatown” example of writing from the inside out is brilliant (pp 154-176) and shows his writing technique to its best advantage. There is no question that McKee loves story, knows film and theatre intimately, writes well, understands screenwriting as a specialized form, and has a lifetime of experience to back up his writing advice. In many ways, “Story” is inspirational. I recommend reading this book, especially if you are a screenwriter.

As comprehensive as McKee’s description of story is, however, it differs from Dramatica in many of the same ways other story paradigms differ.

For one thing, McKee approaches story from the audience’s perspective whereas Dramatica approaches it from the author’s perspective. McKee speaks of author and audience but always with an eye on the story’s meaning—a view only available to someone looking at story from the inside. This view is great for understanding audience reception but limited when trying to fix story structure problems. In this regard McKee is in the same boat as Syd Field, Christopher Vogler, Michael Hauge, Lajos Egri and probably most all other story mages.

For another thing, McKee sees two throughlines, collectively called the “The Quest” (or Central Plot), instead of Dramatica’s four. To be fair, McKee’s “Quest” is really a blend of what Dramatica calls the Overall Story throughline and the Main Character throughline. McKee calls the Overall Story the protagonist’s Quest for his conscious desire, and the Main Character throughline as the protagonist’s Quest for his unconscious desire. He sees relationship throughlines (e.g. romances) as non-essential subplots separate from the Quest/Central Plot. So, like the other paradigms, McKee sees two threads of a single Central Plot, not four. BUT…McKee is aware that there are at least three areas in which a character finds conflict. He calls them Inner Conflicts, Personal Conflicts, and Extra-personal Conflicts.

Implied in these three levels of conflict are the makings of three of the four throughlines. I say “implied” because the throughlines are neither deemed essential nor explicit. They are presented as a set of writer’s tools available to create conflict for his characters. The Inner Conflicts are those associated with Dramatica’s Main Character throughline. The Extra-personal Conflicts are those associate with Dramatica’s Overall Story throughline. The Personal Conflicts is a strange blend of Dramatica’s Impact Character throughline and Main Character vs. Impact Character relationship throughline. McKee lumps friends, family, and lovers in the Personal Conflicts level and describes them by their relationship to the Innermost Self. He obviously recognizes the importance of the MC/IC Relationship throughline but can’t seem to separate it from the Main Character (I) perspective. His writer’s instincts are on target, he just can’t see how they all fit together objectively. That’s the disadvantage of analyzing and creating stories from the audience’s perspective.

This brings me to another way in which Dramatica is different from other story paradigms.

• McKee calls the principle character in a story the Protagonist. “The PROTAGONIST has the will and capacity to pursue the object of his conscious and/or unconscious desire to the end of the line, to the human limit established by setting and genre.”

• Syd Field calls the principle character in a story the Main Character. The Main Character is driven by a Dramatic Need (goal) and a strong point of view.

• Both Vogler and Hauge call the principle character in a story the Hero. The Hero goes on two parallel journeys: The Outer Journey (plot) and the Inner Journey (a journey of fulfillment).

Dramatica separates the concept of the character who leads the efforts to achieve the Story Goal (protagonist), from that of the character through whose eyes the audience experiences the story on a personal level (Main Character).

• The Protagonist is one of many Objective Characters in the Overall Story throughline. The OS characters are defined by their function in the Overall Story throughline. For example, an archetypal protagonist represents the motivation to pursue and consider the goal and problems. Other Objective Characters in the Overall Story throughline include archetypes such as the antagonist, the sidekick, the skeptic, and more.

• The Main Character is a Subjective Character and gives the audience a personal view inside the story. It is through the Main Character’s perspective that the audience gets the first person (I), “This is what it’s like to have personal problems” experience. The other principle Subjective Character is the Impact Character who consciously or unconsciously challenges the Main Character’s world view by offering an alternative way of seeing or doing things.

One advantage to separating the Main Character from the Protagonist is to be able to work with the Main Character and Overall Story throughlines separately. Here’s a simple example:

Let’s say the Overall Story Goal is to find the Holy Grail. Bob is the protagonist leading the efforts to find it. Fred is the antagonist and wants the Holy Grail to remain hidden at all costs. We also have Sally, Bob’s assistant and sidekick, and Angela, Fred’s skeptical sister.

So, who is the Main Character? ANYBODY WE WANT.

• Following storytelling convention, we would make Bob the Main Character. A “hero” is typically both the Main Character and Protagonist, among other things.

• Perhaps we want to get the personal view from “the other side” and make skeptical sister Angela the Main Character.

• We might want to go the Sherlock Holmes route and make the sidekick, Sally, the Main Character—a la Watson in the Sherlock Holmes books.

• Or we might want to pick the antagonist as the Main Character.

By separating their “objective” functions from their “subjective” functions, Dramatica lets you go beyond the confines of storytelling conventions. And that is the simplest advantage of separating the two.

Though connected, each Dramatica throughline has unique story elements and dynamics. I’ll leave exploring those for another article.

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