Dramatica Term

the difference between a story's structure and the way it is told

There are two parts to every communication between author and audience: the Storyforming and the Storytelling. Storyforming deals with the actual dramatic structure or blueprint that contains the essence of the entire argument to be made. Storytelling deals with the specific way in which the author chooses to describe that structure to the audience. For example, a story might call for a scene describing the struggle between morality and self-interest. One author might choose to show a man taking candy from a baby. Another might show a member of a lost patrol in the dessert hoarding the last water for himself. Both what is to be illustrated and how it is illustrated fulfill the story's mandate. Another way of appreciating the difference is to imagine five different artists each painting a picture of the same rose. One may look like a Picasso, one a Rembrandt, another like Van Gogh, yet each describes the same rose. Similarly, different authors will choose to tell the same Storyform in dramatically different ways.