By positioning the audience's four points of view on the Class/modes of expression grid, we can accurately predict the feel our story will have.

Suppose we wanted to write a Comedy with the Overall Story Throughline of Situation and the Main Character Throughline of Activity. We could assign all the Throughlines to the grid in the Comedy mode of expression like above.

If we were good storytellers, all four throughlines would have a consistently humorous (comedic) feel to them. The Overall Story would be a situation comedy; the Main Character would be a physically goofy or funny person (e.g. Stanley Ipkiss in The Mask). The Impact Character might be someone constantly mistaken for someone else or mistaking the Main Character for someone else. The Subjective Story relationship between the Main and Impact Characters would be conflicting over silly or exaggerated differences of opinion.

Though a story like this covers all the storyforming bases, its single mode of expression lacks the emotional depth that comes from variety. This monotone form of storytelling is fine (and often preferable) for some forms of storytelling. Many audiences, however, prefer to have greater variety of expression in their stories. As it stands, this example story lacks any educational intent (Information), any sense of seriousness (Drama), and any pure diversions (Entertainment).

How does one diversify? Assign each Throughline to a different mode of expression.

A story of such a completely mixed arrangement has no single, overriding feel to it. What it gives up in consistency, however, it gains in variety.

The Overall Story (Situation/Entertainment) set in some unique or viscerally intriguing setting (perhaps a Western, the distant future, or the dark side of the moon) in which something is amiss. In this setting we find our Main Character (Activity/Comedy), perhaps clumsy (for example Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther), or excessively active like Ace Ventura. Providing a contrast to the humorous nature of the Main Character is the serious impact of Impact Character's manipulations (Manipulation/Drama). Finally, we add the Subjective Story relationship (Fixed Attitude/Information) as it describes how the Main and Impact Characters' fixed attitudes conflict over what it all means."

This is the heart of Dramatica's approach to Genre. At its most basic level it is a choice between four modes of expression. At its most exciting and elegant, it concerns the sophisticated relationship and dynamics created when we bring together the four modes of expression, the four structural Classes, and the four Throughlines. The Class/modes of expressions grid allows authors to select Throughlines using their feelings and intuition. By carefully setting these Dramatica relationships in a story, you can create a powerful Genre experience for your audience with exactly the impact you intended.

Finally, there is a greater depth to Dramatica theory that offers more information about what is really going on in Genre. It may be more than you need to consider for your style of writing and the kinds of stories you create. If you'd like to explore this final aspect of The Elements of Structure, read on.

The Class/modes of expression table we have been using makes it appear as if a throughline must remain in one mode for the full duration of a story. In fact, this is only the Static Story Points of Genre. In practice, the Genre of a story develops as the story unfolds. It may appear" to be simply a Drama as it begins. When it is over it will have defined exactly what kind of Drama it is.

Beginning as one among a broadly identifiable group of stories and ending where no other story has gone before, each story develops its own unique Genre. The manner by which this happens relates to the Progressive Story Points of Genre, which we will now explore.

First, once you assign a throughline to a Class, creating a Throughline, that particular combination remains for the entire story. Therefore, when we examine how the Mode/Class table is laid out, we can see that each Throughline will fall in a vertical column and stay there. We see the Progressive nature of Genre when each Throughline slides up and down its particular column so during the story it may touch on all four modes of expression. Each Throughline always in its same Class gives them consistency; the ability to shift modes of expression gives them versatility.

Just as with Progressive Plot story points there are limits to how a Throughline can move from one mode to another. Like the Acts in Plot, Throughlines must move through modes of expression in a particular order. The rule of thumb is that a Throughline cannot skip over a mode (according to the order used in the table) but must go through each mode of expression in between to get to the desired one.

This limit is real. Neither the human mind nor the Story Mind can shift mental gears from first gear to third gear without going through second gear. Modes of expression are largely emotional concerns. The human mind must be allowed to experience the transition from one emotional state to the next if it is to feel natural.

A good example of the awkwardness that results from ignoring this rule of thumb exists in the motion picture, Hudson Hawke, starring Bruce Willis. The filmmakers made a brave effort to break convention and have a serious heist thriller jumbled up with comedy and even song and dance numbers in the middle of a robbery! This might have worked, had the audience gone through the intermediate modes. Alas, such was not the case and therefore the story simply came out jumbled and impossible to get a grip on emotionally.

Please note that sometimes an author wants to shock an audience. This can be carried out in several ways, including breaking structure or skipping the transitional modes of expression. We explore these kinds of techniques fully in the Storyweaving section of The Art of Storytelling. For now, we'll limit our discussion to what a consistent progression of Genre would be.

If you have closely examined the table, you may have wondered if the mode at the top (Information) could ever connect to the mode at the bottom (Entertainment) without having to go through both Drama and Comedy first. The answer to this question is, Yes."

If you were to clip the Class/modes of expression table out of this book (not recommended!) you could bend it around from top to bottom to make a cylinder. When presented in this form, Information appears right next to Entertainment and Drama. So, during a story, a single Throughline might shift up or down or all around, as long as it stays within its Class column.

Taken together, all four Throughlines could shift from scene to scene into different relative positions, not unlike a combination lock, making the story all comedic at one time, serio-comic at another, and so on. By the end of the story, the progressive shift of Throughlines provides the combination for the unique Genre of a story.

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