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Dramatica Theory Book
Chapter
27: The Art of Storytelling--Stage Two: Encoding
Introduction To
Storyencoding
Storyencoding is simply
the process of turning the raw appreciations of a storyform structure
into the flesh and blood people, places, and events of a story that can
be told.
As an example, suppose in our storyform we have selected an Objective
Domain of Universe. As we have learned, this means that the Objective
throughline revolves around an external situation. Now, when it comes
to actually writing our story, we are not going to put down on paper,
"The Objective throughline was revolving around an external situation."
Our audience would have a lot of trouble getting involved with that! Instead,
we're going to connect that bare appreciation to something concrete so
the audience can relate to what we're talking about.
To make this appreciation real, we ask ourselves, "What kind of a
situation is it?" One author might choose to say, "The situation
around which my Objective throughline revolves is that a group of travelers
are trapped in a sunken ship." That fulfills the dramatic function
called for by the appreciation that the Objective Domain is Universe.
Another author might choose to encode an Objective Story Domain of Universe
by saying, "The situation around which my Objective throughline revolves
is that the parents of five children have died in a car crash, leaving
the children to fend for themselves."
Clearly, each appreciation might be encoded in any number of ways. Which
way you choose depends only on the kinds of subject matter you wish to
explore. How you encode each appreciation will determine much of the setting
of your story in a Genre sense, the kinds of things that might happen
in you plot, the thematic issues that are likely to rise to the surface,
and the nature of the people populating your story.
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