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Dramatica Tip
of the Month
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Basic Overall Story Concern Question
Q: I'm just getting a handle on Dramatica, so some of the terms have not soaked in yet and become clear. I have on Overall Story Throughline of Situation. Basically, it's a monster story, so that's the situation: a monster shows up. Now, for the Concern, I can't quite figure out which is the best choice: The Past, The Present, The Future, or How Things Are Changing. Any thoughts?
A: Any of them can work as Overall Story Concerns in your story. The main thing an Overall Story throughline in the Situation domain is about being trapped in a bad situation. For instance, a bunch of miners trapped in an abandoned mine with a monster fits the "Situation" scenario.
Use the concerns to identify the SPECIFIC SHARED concern by all the characters in the OS throughline. EXAMPLE:
THE PAST: An ancient enemy has returned to repeat it's past terrors on everyone trapped on a luxury liner in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
THE PRESENT: A group of scientists must survive the night while trapped in a remote station with a band of blood sucking vampires.
THE FUTURE: A band of humans, captured by an alien race that has destroyed Earth, must find a way to keep the human race from extinction.
PROGRESS: (How things Are Going) A group of vacationers find themselves cast on a remote island and become infected with a slow-growing fungus that threatens to turn them into living slime.
Choosing clarity over originality, you can see how each of the above are in the Overall Story throughline (it involves everyone), are a situation (they are stuck somewhere with something bad), and are concerned with something appropriate to the Concern.
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