Dramatica Theory Book

Chapter 18: The Progression of Plot

Plot Progression

There are Objective Story Throughline appreciations, Main Character appreciations, Obstacle Character appreciations and Subjective Story Throughline appreciations. There are even appreciations that are the synthesis of all four points of view such as Goal, Requirements, and Consequences. These central appreciations seem the most plot-like because they affect the Concerns of all four throughlines.

As varied as all of these appreciations are, there is one quality they share: they stay the same from the beginning to the end of a story. For example, if a story's Goal is Obtaining, that never changes during the course of the story. If the Main Character's Problem is Logic, then Logic is always that character's Problem from "Once upon a time" to "They all lived happily ever after." True, the Main Character may solve his Problem, but he will never magically stop being driven by one kind of Problem and start being driven by another. Appreciations of this stable nature are called Static Appreciations.

Static Appreciations are thematic in nature because they form a bias or commentary on the story as a whole. Even the eight Plot Appreciations have a Theme-like feel to them, for they describe what the plot is about. But there is more to plot that this. In fact, there is a completely different kind of appreciation that moves from one issue to another as a story develops. These are called Progressive Appreciations, and it is through them that story explores the series of events in the Objective Story Throughline, the growth of the Main Character, the changing nature of the Obstacle Character's impact, and the development of the relationship of the Main and Obstacle Characters in the Subjective Story Throughline.