Grand argument story

The grand argument story is a central idea posited in the Dramatica theory of Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley, and embedded in the writing software product, Dramatica Pro. A grand argument story would be a type of story that is intended to be conceptually complete and to answer a core argument from both an emotionally and logically comprehensive perspective. The elements of a grand argument story should follow the argument and attempt to answer it. The Dramatica theory posits that every complete story is a model of the mind's holistic problem solving process (the "story mind").
The following is a brief exposition of Dramatica theory's notion of a grand story argument:
There are a number of qualities which determine whether a story is a grand argument or not. These are seen in the story’s structure, dynamics, character, theme, plot, and genre. These parts of a grand argument story combine in complex relationships to create its "storyform". A storyform is like a blueprint which describes how these parts shall relate in a particular story, regardless of how they are symbolized for the audience. It is a shared storyform that allows such different stories as West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, or Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne, to share the same meaning while bearing little resemblance to each other.
The underlying relationship between the parts of a story describe its structure. A grand argument story has a very specific structure. The moving, growing, or changing parts of a grand argument story describe its dynamics. In a grand argument story, the theme is tied to every structural and dynamic element. It provides the various biases and perspectives necessary to convey the story’s subject matter or meaning. The plot is the sequence in which a story’s thematic structure is explored. Plot details the order in which dramatic elements must occur within that story. Genre in a grand argument story classifies the audience’s experience of a story in the broadest sense. Genre takes into account the elements of structure, dynamics, character, plot, and theme to define significant differences between various complete grand argument stories.
Characters
Grand argument stories deal with two types of characters: overall story characters and subjective characters. These characters provide the audience with the experience of moving through the story in both a passionate and an intellectual sense.
Overall Story Characters
There are 8 character archetypes:
*Protagonist (drives the plot), example: Luke Skywalker
*Antagonist (opposes the plot), example: the Empire
*Guardian (shows guidance toward the goal), example: Obiwan Kenobi
*Contagonist (creates temptation away from the goal), example: Darth Vader
*Sidekick (shows loyal faith), example: Droids
*Skeptic (shows doubt), example: Han Solo
*Emotion (shows emotional responses), example: Chewbacca
*Reason (shows logic), example: Leia
The elemental characteristics for each archetype can be mixed and matched to create complex characters, such as the Scarecrow and the Tin Man switching internal and external Emotion and Reason characteristics in the Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man is externally composed like a Reason character, but inside emotionally longs for a heart (and in fact had one all along). The Scarecrow is externally frenetic like an Emotion character, but is always creating a Reasoned plan.
Taken together, the characters represent all the different ways a person can analyze a problem, and function in the story as characters of a single "Story Mind" trying to solve the story problem.
Subjective Characters
On a subjective level, one character is chosen to serve as the "Main Character" -- who is the window through which the audience experiences the story. The plot is given meaning and perspective through this character, while another character tries to change the initial perspective of the "Main Character". That second character is called the "Impact Character" because of its impact on the Main Character's approach. Any character can serve as the Main and Impact characters, and they do not need to represent the Protagonist or the Antagonist. In To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, the story is experienced through the Main Character Scout, and not through the Protagonist Atticus.
Relation to Other Theories
The genesis of Dramatica theory comes from an initial observation of the archetypal structure of the original Star Wars trilogy, which was itself based on the mythological analysis of Joseph Campbell in his Hero With a Thousand Faces, and which was in turn based on the archetypal studies of Carl Jung.
Although the Grand Argument Story was independently developed from a wider observation of many movies, it retains a similarity with other Jungian based writing theories. Christopher Vogler's 8 primary archetypes bear some overlaps with the 8 archetypes in Dramatica theory.
Chris Huntley gives an analysis of the relationship of Dramatica theory (both comparison and contrast) in his How and Why Dramatica is Different From Other Story Paradigms.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu