Mysteries and Detective Stories
Q: I drafted my own work without proper plotting and storyforming - which is where I hope Dramatica will help me out. If we take Philip Marlowe as a detective, he seems to function without a mentor or obstacle character. The same goes for Poirot and Miss Marple. How do you accommodate these characters in Dramatica theory? If my detective story doesn't fit the grand argument model, it seems that Dramatica may not be the right tool. Have I got something wrong?- Many "classic" mysteries seem to be focused on the logistics of the case and often stayed away from an earnest exploration of a Main Character's personal demons. Without that, there's little point in showing the alternative paradigm provided by the Impact Character.
- Even when the four throughlines exist in the story to keep the story structure sound, the IC and MC/IC throughlines are often given minimal exploration.
- Culturally-speaking, the first half of the twentieth century tended to be more "objective" about itself which is reflected in Western literature (and I don't mean cowboys and Indians). Gone were the romantic 19th-century views (e.g. Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters). The post-industrial age was into science and technology. The "objective" view found in the Sherlock Holmes novels (1987-1927) seemed to set a standard for storytelling style. Depression era and pre and post-war periods brought a grittiness to the genre storytelling style. It wasn't until the late 1950's and early 1960's that exploration of the personal journey became popular again. This isn't to imply that grand argument stories were not popular during that time. They were and are. RE: PLOTTING Dramatica will help you figure out what is REALLY going on in your story. That's what we call Plot. However, it won't help you with the storyweaving you'll need to do to write your finished work. Storyweaving is the process of choosing what and when to deliver bits of your story to your audience. Mysteries are "mysterious" because key information is withheld from the audience (e.g. who done it) until the end of the work. Those early PLOT events are delivered to the audience out of order through the STORYWEAVING. Ultimately, it's up to you to judge if Dramatica is the right tool for your working needs and style. I hope it's a good fit.