Vocabulary Grammar

Dramatica's terminology has its own grammar with structures, designations, and usages that are reflected in the vocabulary listings. The individual Vocabulary listings are constructed as follows:

Vocabulary Item • [the type of item] • if a Vocabulary term is a semantic item, the term's Dynamic Pair (dyn.pr.) will be noted • short definition • long definition • synonyms (syn.)

Example:

Chaos • [Element] • dyn.pr. Order<-->Chaos • random change or a lack of order • Chaos is disorder, randomness, anarchy. The Chaos characteristic is brilliant at cutting through a Gordian knot. But then it just keeps cutting every rope it sees until the chandelier falls on its head. It "stirs the pot" just to see what will bubble up to the top • syn. randomness, anarchy, disorder, formlessness, noncohesion

The varieties of items noted in the Vocabulary references include:The varieties of items noted in the Vocabulary references include:

Structural Semantic Items:

[Classes]

The 4 basic areas a story can affect: Situation, Activity, Manipulation , and Fixed Attitude.

[Types]

The 16 basic categories of what can be seen from a specific point of view or Class.

[Variations]

The 64 terms which describe the thematic message and its development within a story as well as the ways of evaluating this message (semantic items).

[Elements]

The 64 descriptions which represent the highest resolutions of approaches and attitudes required to solve a story's problem (semantic items).

Story Points Items:

[Overview Story Points]

Items relating to the widest appreciation of your entire story, including the Character and Plot Dynamics which describe its dramatic mechanism and basic feel.

[Character Dynamics]

Items relating to your Main Character's essential nature, behaviors, and attitudes.

[Plot Dynamics]

Items relating to the entire story (both Objective and Subjective Story) in terms of the forces that drive the plot forward and the outcome to which they lead.

[Structural Items]

Items relating to the thematic arenas to be emphasized in a particular Storyform, focusing on goals, events, and activities.

[Archetype]

A specific type of character reflecting one of eight quintessential arrangements of 64 Characteristics required to solve a story's problem.

[Dynamic Pairs]

Implied by every term is a specific term that is its reciprocal. Together they create a paired unit where the presence or absence of one affects the presence or absence of the other. Every term that is a structural semantic item is part of a dynamic pair.

[Storyform]

The skeletal blue print of story points that are at work in any single story. It contains the story points at work in the story which are independent of how an author chooses to illustrate them.

[Throughlines]

The story points that are developed from the four distinct perspectives common to all stories (the Overall Story, Subjective Story, Main Character, and Impact Character perspectives) create a line of observations from each of those points of view which can be followed through the course of the story. These are called the throughlines--one throughline for each perspective.

[Storyforming]

Determining the story points that will be explored in a story, the perspectives from which they will be explored, and the order in which these explorations will occur within the world of a story is called Storyforming. This is independent of any Storytelling and instead deals with ordering the pieces common to all stories.

[Storytelling]

Illustrating a storyform with the cultural signs and artistry that an author feels are appropriate to his story.

[Storyweaving]

Combining the Storytelling of a story with its Storyform.