Dramatica Theory Book

Chapter 25: Storytelling and Plot Appreciations

Plot Appreciations come in two varieties: Static Appreciations, and Progressive Appreciations. Static Appreciations are dramatic items such as Goal, Requirements, and Consequences, and may also include the Concerns of each throughline. Progressive Appreciations deal with the order in which each Domain's Types are arranged to become a throughline's Acts. In this section we shall first explore the issues involved in selecting the Static Plot Appreciations, then turn our attention to what influence the order of Acts will have on our story's impact, and consequently on our audience.

Static Plot Appreciations

Story Goal

A story's Goal is most often found in the Objective Domain for stories written in our culture. Aside from that bias, the story Goal might just as properly be found in any of the four Domains. As we now consider how to select the Goal for our story, we need to know a little bit more about what a Goal really does for an audience, and what kinds of control over our audience we can exercise simply by choosing where we place the Goal.

An audience sees a story's Goal as being the central objective of the story. As such, it will be of the same nature as the Concern of one of the four Domains. Which one depends upon which throughline an author wants to emphasize in his storytelling. For example, suppose your Main Character and his experiences are the most important thing to you, the author. Then you will most likely want to make the Main Character's Concern your story Goal as well. On the other hand, if your story is about a problem that is affecting everyone, you will probably want to make the Objective Story Domain Concern your story Goal.

Each throughline will have its own Concern. When the audience considers each throughline separately, it will focus on that Concern as being the principal objective from that point of view. When the audience considers the story as a whole, however, it will get a feel for which throughline is most emphasized by the author's storytelling, and will see that throughline's Concern as the overall story Goal.