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Dramatica Tip of the Month
September 2007

Finding your Story Throughlines through Emphasis

Q:   I’m not sure I know what my Overall Story throughline is at all. The reason I’m having such difficulty is that my gut is telling me for some reason that my Overall Story has to bring all the characters together in some way – either that each character has a different manifestation of one concern or that what my Main Character is going through has to affect them all but the second option I’ve mentioned feels weaker to me for some reason.

I looked at some previous tips and noticed that for the movie Garden State you had the following: “In Garden State, Andrew Largeman is the Main Character and is concerned with his health (short but blinding headaches) after a lifetime on lithium.  In the Overall Story throughline, everyone is concerned with reconnecting with the "famous" actor ("Hey, aren't you that retarded guy on TV?") after his mother dies and he returns for an extended weekend to attend her funeral."

To me this overall story throughline seems weaker than: In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling is the Main Character and is haunted by the screaming of slaughtered lambs (and has transformed that drive into protecting the "lambs" of the world from "wolves" like Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill).  In the Overall Story throughline, the serial killer, Buffalo Bill, has kidnapped the Senator's daughter and will kill her and others if he is not stopped.

Any help you can give me in working out a strong overall story throughline for a story where the Main Character and Impact Character stories come to you first.

A:   Every complete story has the four throughlines, but they do not need to be given equal weight or emphasis.  Action films typically emphasize the Overall Story throughline.  Romance films typically emphasize the Subjective Story (MC/IC relationship) throughline.  Personal dramas (e.g. Hamlet) tend to emphasize the MC throughline.

Part of the emphasis comes from screen time.  Another part of the emphasis comes from how it is encoded.  Garden State is a small personal film so its Overall Story throughline is suitably small and personal.  Silence of the Lambs is flashy, almost operatic story (FIB, psycho serial killers, etc.) so its Overall Story throughline is suitable grandiose. 

The Overall Story throughline involves ALL of the characters in your story.  It's best to think of them in the Overall Story by their roles.  In Silence of the Lambs, you have the FBI trainee, the serial killer, the incarcerated master mind, the asylum director, etc.  Identifying your characters by their roles objectifies them and makes it easier to see how they fit into the "big picture."