Up until now we've referred to the act structures and patterns as if they described an entire story. On the whole, that's the way a story may seem. The reality is far more complex.

 

•In a Dramatica Grand Argument Story, there are four throughlines.

•Each throughline will have its own act pattern.

•Sometimes these patterns will align and create a predominant pattern.

•Other times the patterns will be wildly different, creating a relatively complex set of act patterns.

The four throughlines in Dramatica are the Overall Story (OS) Throughline, the Main Character (MC) Throughline, the Impact Character (IC) Throughline, and the Subjective Story (SS) Throughline. In the quad structure, the MC and IC throughlines are a dynamic pair, and the OS and SS throughlines are a dynamic pair.

The complexity of patterns is best illustrated through the use of real story examples. The following examples are a sample of the story analyses shipped with the Dramatica Pro software: