Last time we looked at a sample map from a story structured as a procedural, and saw how it achieved its up and down beats with the pass/fail cycle.

Dramas, where the characters are primarily driven to fulfill inner need as opposed to an external mission, find their rhythm in the emotional state of the character. A useful way to look at this is to break scenes down as actors would. An elementary step in this process is to determine who has the power in a scene. In movies, one character often holds the power throughout a single scene, or to gain it at the end of a scene. On stage, power shifts occur many times within a scene, breaking it into multiple scenes for mapping purposes.

Actors approach scenes by determining what their characters want and what tactics they’re using to get them. The character with the power is the one who gets what he or she wants, at the expense of the other character(s.) A scene in which everybody gets what he wants without significant conflict is not an especially strong one. It probably serves to provide exposition, as a tonal interlude, or for some other supporting purpose.

For an interesting discussion of actors and their choices around character power, listen to the actor commentary track on the deluxe Se7en DVD. Referring to a scene near the end, Brad Pitt regrets the choice he made on the day, to play his character as if he had the power. In retrospect he sees that it would have been stronger if he’d surrendered more power to the Kevin Spacey character.

By following shifts in power, we get an equivalent rhythmic map for dramatic stories. This example takes us about halfway through The Graduate:





Mapped this way, a drama is not so much an upward arc as a wavy line that dips under and over a central axis. When the viewpoint character(s) lacks power, we are below the emotional line with him, hoping he gets above it. Dramas can keep protagonists below the power line for a fairly long sequences of consecutive scenes. Procedurals usually don’t let their heroes repeatedly fail. A dramatic scene where the protagonist lacks power can, but does not necessarily, put him a worse position than he was before. Things will tend to get worse for him before they get better, but repeated scenes of low power don’t automatically send him. or us, into an unrecoverable emotional death spiral.

Tags: gaming hut, turning points

(Leave a comment)