Plot Sequence Report

[SilentRuse]

I've been studying Armando's Dramtica for Screenwriters book and there's a section in which it uses the Plot Sequence Report to help illustrate your story (Which, from what I gather, is close to, if not completely, a grand argument story). Couple things I noticed about it that threw me for a minor loop.

In the Overall story section of the report, the first line reads "In act one, "what has already happened" (The Past) is explored in terms of Truth, Evidence, Suspicion, and Falsehood"

Well I go to my theme browser so I can jot down those specific terms, and what I find isn't related to what is said above.

In the theme browser "The Past" has Fate, Prediction, Interdiction and Destiny as it's four theme's. So right now I'm wondering why is it switched up like that? I notice this is the same for all the concepts in the Plot Sequence Report, so has this been affected by all my Story Encoding options?

Now on that subject itself (As I'm writing more for a novel than a screenplay right now) when it explores those various topics (Such as Fate, Truth, etc) it uses those four sub topics of say (In this example, Fate) Knowledge, Order, Chaos and Thought.

In terms of OS Throughlines I believe it would be beneficial to use characters that represent those traits to be in those scene's.

But in terms of IC or MC Throughlines, is it appropriate to still use characters associated with those situations, or am I allowed to say substitute those characters as feelings inside the MC or IC, or at the very least situations that involve people, other than the overall characters (Important one's anyways) to demonstrate those situations? That way to give a better feel that it is a MC throughline or an IC Throughline.

Thank you for your time and input is well appreciated.

[Chris Huntley]

Here is a link to a Dramatica tip that addresses these issues with the Plot Sequence Report:

http://dramatica.com/theory/tip_of_month/tips/tip1203.html

Cheers,

[SilentRuse]

Thank you very much for the response, Chris, and the link! It definitely cleared up a lot of questions for me (Some that I didn't even ask). I can now understand why different story forms present different elements in the PSR.