Sheldon Wannabes, you can try 'Dramatica'

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): If one of your longtime obsessions is to become a best-selling author like Sidney Sheldon, James Clavell and Frederick Forsyth, have you ever given it a shot? If you got stuck after page three, don't kill the idea! Just try out Dramatica, the computer software that can help you finally publish that story.

No, the software is not going to churn out a story by itself. You won't be able to make the same claim that William Chamberlain made in 1984 when he published his book The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed. In the introduction, Chamberlain wrote that the book was entirely produced by RACTEL, a program that he had written with Thomas Etter and was run on a Z80 computer with only 64K of RAM. Skeptics suspected that the claim was too good to be true (if you're interested, go to www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/ai/racterfaq.html for some discussion on RACTEL and the book).

Dramatica is different. It's not only a computer software package, it's a complete course in story writing. It comes complete with a theory of the story called Dramatica Theory, which actually provides the foundation for the program.

Of course you can become a very good story writer without the help of this computer software. Pak Sori Siregar, my favorite writer, would be able to share with you how he achieved the prowess for writing those excellent pieces of his that you can read in this newspaper from time to time.

Like any other creative processes, there is simply no right or wrong approach to learning and producing your work. The sky is also the limit as to the number of approaches you can use.

However, Dramatica may take you along a shorter route to fame. The theory itself was developed by Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley. Melanie has her own homepage at www.heartcorps.com.

Story Engine

Dramatica lets you work on your storytelling project using either one of two approaches. You can start writing the story first and then make the necessary adjustments so that everything fits together, or you can first lay the foundation by creating your characters, plot and theme and then build your story from there. Even after you've completed the first draft, you can use the software as a collaborator that will also help you analyze your story. The software has all the tools that will guide you step by step regardless of the approach that you take.

The tools can be loaded by clicking one of the buttons on the software's launch pad called Dramatica Desktop. You can see it at the bottom of the accompanying screen picture. There is the Characters tool for organizing your characters. There is the Plot Progression tool to help you analyze your plot (or plots). There is also the dictionary and brainstorming tool. In fact, you have all the tools for each of the stages called story forming, story encoding and story weaving. For first-time users -- inexperienced or seasoned alike -- the best place to start is the StoryGuide path.

You build your story basically by answering the questions that each of these tools poses. What is the title of your story? You can alter it later on, but you'll start off more quickly if at least you already have a working title. Who is your Main Character? Who is your Obstacle Character? And so on.

Answering all these questions may take from three hours to four days -- depending on whether you have chosen the Quick Start or the Advanced path. If you choose Quick Start, you'll have to answer 50 questions. In the Advanced StoryGuide, you'll be presented with 200 questions. Along the way, you can click on the Explain button and get a more detailed explanation for each question. If you cannot answer the question at the time, you can leave it blank and return to it when you know the answer. Even before you've finished answering these questions, the software can produce a 100-page report.

As you answer each of the questions, you can also learn the theory behind it. Just click on the Theory button, and Dramatica will display the relevant part of the theory. To make it easier for you to understand the theory, examples are taken from popular works ranging from Hamlet to Alien.

If you write your story without first developing the structure, there may be pieces that do not fit. You may have inserted scenes, dialog and action that do not belong to the story, but you included them anyway because you like them. An experienced writer will have developed the intuition to sense the incompatibilities, but a novice writer may not have such sensitivity. Fortunately, when the completed draft of the story is fed into the program, the Story Engine will point out the incompatible pieces for you so you can fix them. Dramatica is flexible enough to allow you to leave them as they are, though, because there may be times when you would like to break the rules.

Indeed, the Story Engine is the heart of the software. It keeps track of the dramatic relationships between your characters, plot and theme. It treats your story as a system. Any change you make to one element will have an impact on other elements, and it will measure the impact of the changes and tell you if they make sense or not.

The software also comes with a dictionary, a brainstorming tool and a set of 60 sample stories, There is also a worldwide Dramatica user group that you can join. Online discussions cover more current stories and movies such as Titanic.

A full course

Dramatica, as mentioned before, is not just a software product. You can take the online course using Real Video on your home PC. Or, if you prefer, a nine-week course is also offered at the UCLA extension. The Internet discussions will sharpen your understanding of how stories are developed and polished according to the Theory of Story.

The digital version of the 450-page Dramatica Theory book is included in the US$399 package. The company, Screenplay Systems, specializes in both story writing and movie making. Other products that they offer include Movie Magic Screenwriter, Movie Magic Scheduling and Movie Magic Budgeting.

Today Dramatica is already in Version 3.0. You can download a demo version -- which I have used for this review -- from their website (www.dramatica.com). Try it, who knows whether you can contribute to the resurrection of our literature as well as our movie industry.