Simply having a feeling or a belief does not an author make. One becomes an author the moment one shows an intent to communicate. Usually some intriguing setting, dialog, or bit of action springs to mind and with it the wish to share it. Almost immediately, most authors leap ahead in their thinking to consider how the idea might best be presented to the audience. In other words, even before a complete story has come to mind most authors are already trying to figure out how to tell the parts they already have.

As a result, many authors come to writing carrying baggage. They have favorite scenes, characters, or action, but no real idea how they are all going to fit together. A common problem is that all of these wonderful inspirations often don't belong in the same story. Each idea is fine by itself, but there is no greater meaning when added together--the whole is no greater than its parts. To be a story, each part must also work as a piece of the whole.

Some writers run into problems by trying to work out the entire dramatic structure of a story in advance. They finish with a formulaic and uninspired work. Conversely, other writers seek to rely on their muse and work their way through the process of expressing their ideas. They find they have created nothing more than a mess. If a way could be found to bring life to tired structures and to knit individual ideas into a larger pattern, both kinds of authors might benefit. This is why we developed Dramatica.