Sequences

Come here to ask questions or give advice about the theory that forms the basis of Dramatica.
Pieta
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Sequences

Postby Pieta » Nov 14, 2010 2:49 pm

I've just got the Power Structure program and I'm trying to structure my story. I've heard in a novel you use chapters, where in a play or movie script you use sequences. I'm writing a novel and want to get my theme in there. Do I need to write sequences or chapters?

jerryar
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Re: Sequences

Postby jerryar » Nov 19, 2010 6:10 pm

Starting with the fact that I don't know a lot about it, but I am also trying to write a novel and a screen version at the same time, I would say devide into chapters, maybe leaving a hook or question (not necessarily in the form of a question but suggesting a question) so the reader will want to go farther. A sequence might be made up of several chapters. It's a broader structure, sort of like an act.

Hopefully, someone else will have more insight.

Jer

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Clint541963
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Re: Sequences

Postby Clint541963 » Jan 22, 2011 5:29 pm

I would say use the 28 "Magic" scenes as chapters for a novel but for a screenplay I would use the 28 scenes. I question calling these scenes. It seems it would be better for screen writing to call these 28 sequences. Of course, this is just my opinion but I would say a screenplay is closer to 48 scenes or so and for Dramatica one would use scenes to make 28 sequences in 4 signposts with a journey from one signpost to the next (3 journeys) within each of the four through-lines. 4 signposts + 3 journeys = 7 sequences. 7 sequences in each through-line = 28 sequences. I hope Chris or someone with more authority chimes in. This is just my 2 cents.

Story Structure: beat, scene, sequence, act, story.

from screen writing science
http://screenwritingscience.com/sequenc ... finitions/
SEQUENCE: 'A scene, or a series of connected scenes, that present a succession of related events that constitute and advance a distinct component of the story narrative, plot and/or character development'.

In the case of Dramatica a "distinct component of the story" would be a SIGNPOST or a JOURNEY in each THROUGH-LINE.

Check out the screen writing science page above. It uses "On the Waterfront" to illustrate. It is good.

Cheers,
Sam
Clint541963
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Sam Potter
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Clint541963
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Re: Sequences

Postby Clint541963 » Jan 23, 2011 5:54 am

I read on another post from Chris Huntley that Dramatica has different templates and the book template has 60 chapters instead of 28 when you get to the story (forming?) at the end of part 3 of the story guide. :mrgreen: :oops:

Which still leads me to ask, am I far off on my 28 sequences suggestion instead of 28 scenes in the Dramatica Screenplay template?

Sam
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Sam Potter
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stephenbuck415
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Re: Sequences

Postby stephenbuck415 » Jan 23, 2011 6:34 am

Clint541963 wrote:I read on another post from Chris Huntley that Dramatica has different templates and the book template has 60 chapters instead of 28 when you get to the story (forming?) at the end of part 3 of the story guide. :mrgreen: :oops:

Which still leads me to ask, am I far off on my 28 sequences suggestion instead of 28 scenes in the Dramatica Screenplay template?

Sam


Hi Sam.

I would like to offer you some additional food for thought:

I'm using Dramatica to write novels and short stories. Monday (Jan. 24) begins my first screenwriting class so I'm not comfortable commenting about screenplays, but with respect to novels I feel it's a huge time-saver to begin with either the short story or novel template.

The novel template comes with 60 pre-mapped scenes, and the short story template has 20. Those scenes obviously serve as an outline, but the real time-saver is that they are mapped to relevant storyencodings. Scenes mapped to the storyencoding is very useful when running reports, and when exporting to Screenwriter.

Additionally, both novel and short story templates come with pre-build Archetype characters that are easily modified into Complex characters.
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Clint541963
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Re: Sequences

Postby Clint541963 » Jan 23, 2011 7:39 am

Cool! 8)
Thanks.

Sam
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Chris Huntley
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Re: Sequences

Postby Chris Huntley » Jan 24, 2011 5:26 pm

Here's a Dramatica tip (one of several) on creating scenes with the Dramatica Pro software:

http://dramatica.com/theory/tip_of_month/tips/tip0308.html

Cheers,
Chris Huntley
Write Brothers Inc.
http://dramatica.com/
http://screenplay.com/


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