Although encoding places the argument of a story about real life, the storyform itself is not real life at all. It is an analogy to the mind's problem-solving process. We know what it is like to face problems in our own lives. However, we have no way of knowing what our manners of dealing with problems looks like from the outside from a more objective viewpoint. Storyforms deal with only one problem seen from two principal directions: The inside and the outside. When we look at the problem from the inside, we can connect with experiences we have had. The view is familiar and we connect emotionally to situations that touch our personal nerves. In fact, we tend to substitute our own experiences in place of what we see in the story. This subjective view holds our feelings and gives credibility to the objective view.

Out of Body Experiences

When we take an external view of a story, however, we no longer identify with the Story Mind directly but view it more like we would in an "out of body" experience. It is as if we had stepped out of our own heads, then turned around to see what we were thinking. From this view the author makes his rational argument, telling the audience, "If it feels like this from the inside, you'll want to be doing that."

Even this simple message carries value for an audience since the audience members can benefit from good advice born of experiences they have not had to suffer personally. In this way, when similar situations occur to them subjectively they can recall the objective dictum from the story giving them at least one plan to try.

Characters as the Author's Positions

A story's characters represent all the ways of considering each problem. Because they represent parts of the argument, Overall Story Characters must be called in the proper order and combination to support each of the author's positions. This all sounds complex and manipulative. It is. But as authors, when we are on a roll we don't stop to consider each aspect of what we are doing. Rather, it all blends into the smooth flow of creativity that we feel through our writer's instincts. If the complexity is not there beneath it all, however, there will be noticeable holes in our plot and inconsistent characters.

Dramatica identifies every point of view that is essential to the objective argument. It allows an author to divvy them up among his characters, and then tracks the progress of the characters through the story. In this way, an author can cut loose with creative fervor until the muse fails. Then he can call on Dramatica to find the end of the thread so he can begin to weave it again.