Writing Erotica with the aid of Dramatica

[sunandshadow]

If you haven't heard of it, Dramatica is a writer's aid program - possibly the most complex one that currently exists, and one of the only one's not based on the hero monomyth. It's intended to help people go from story concept to outline, including figuring out your theme, developing characters, making sure your story is well-rounded, and a 4-act structure. It's quite flexible in what it allows you to write, and even greater flexibly can be gotten out of it if you are willing to do some bits by hand rather than doing everything within the program.

Someone in a Dramatica writers community I belonged to asked if anyone had advice specific to writing erotica, especially fantasy erotica, with the aid of Dramatica. I thought, hey, there's something I could actually write easily - some intro on what erotica is, general design principles of erotic novels (or screenplays), and a walkthrough of me demonstrating how Dramatica could be used to develop two different erotic story concepts, one a steamy romance novel and one a non-romance.

So my question for you all is, are any of you interested in this article? I'm currently taking requests and suggestions for what to put in the article, and what the non-romance example story should be. If you have no interest in Dramatica only the first few paragraphs of the article would be accessible to you, so take that into account.

 

[sunandshadow]

24 hours, 25 views, no responses - guess I'll take that as a "no one's interested in Dramatica." :/

 

[mynameisben]

24 hours, 25 views, no responses - guess I'll take that as a "no one's interested in Dramatica." :/

Someone bought Dramatica for me a few years ago for Christmas or a birthday or something. I'm still thinking one of these days I'm going to open it.

 

[sr71plt]

OK, I'll respond. Yuck to the whole idea of writing erotica by mechanical formula.

 

[sunandshadow]

OK, I'll respond. Yuck to the whole idea of writing erotica by mechanical formula.

There isn't any mechanical formula involved, unless you see act theory as a mechanical formula. What Dramatica does is ask you questions. It prompts you to brainstorm and helps you organize the results into a plot outline.

 

[mynameisben]

OK, I'll respond. Yuck to the whole idea of writing erotica by mechanical formula.

Why do you think 8 years later the shrink wrap is still on mine?

 

[sunandshadow]

Someone bought Dramatica for me a few years ago for Christmas or a birthday or something. I'm still thinking one of these days I'm going to open it.

Heh. Want a comic book instead? If you read this you will know for sure whether you are interested in opening it or not:
http://www.dramatica.com/downloads/Dramatica_Comic_Book_2004.pdf

 

[sunandshadow]

Dramatica exists to help people with two types of problems: Those who have trouble going from vague idea to story at all, and those who write stories but the result is poorly structured or underdeveloped in some areas. If this isn't you, you have no real reason to use it.

 

[mynameisben]

Dramatica exists to help people with two types of problems: Those who have trouble going from vague idea to story at all, and those who write stories but the result is poorly structured or underdeveloped in some areas. If this isn't you, you have no real reason to use it.

Oh, that's definitely me all right. But if I open the box and admit I use it, they'll kick me out of the AH. And I just had my sherlock pipe cleaned and my ascot pressed. So, mum's the word, okay?

 

[Pure]

note

hi sun

don't be discouraged. it's a holiday time. discussion of writing aids, and which, if any, are useful, is certainly welcome.

happy new year,

'pure'

jan

 

[sunandshadow]

hi sun

don't be discouraged. it's a holiday time. discussion of writing aids, and which, if any, are useful, is certainly welcome.

happy new year,

'pure'

jan

Thanks for the encouragement

 

[JackLuis]

I bought Dramatica a few years ago and tried to follow it. It made no sense to me. Well it made sense but I couldn't figure out how to use it, it just confused me. Now after writing a few hundred thousand words, I can see it could help, IF
1. You had a rough plot.
2. You had the time to devote to it, vs writing the damn story.
3. You can separate your 'musing' from your drafting.

Working now on a story that might need this kind of help. Maybe I'll dig it out?

 

[sunandshadow]

I bought Dramatica a few years ago and tried to follow it. It made no sense to me. Well it made sense but I couldn't figure out how to use it, it just confused me. Now after writing a few hundred thousand words, I can see it could help, IF
1. You had a rough plot.
2. You had the time to devote to it, vs writing the damn story.
3. You can separate your 'musing' from your drafting.

Working now on a story that might need this kind of help. Maybe I'll dig it out?

Well, if you do decide to dig it out, I can probably answer questions.

There's a "do have a rough plot" way to use Dramatica and a "have no plot ideas" way to use it. The trouble is when people have something in the middle; the don't have enough information to go the first way, but what they get doesn't match their vague ideas when they go the second way.

I'm curious what you mean by separating your musing from your drafting though. You mean, compared to people who normally get ideas while writing?

 

[Smooth_Steve]

If you haven't heard of it, Dramatica is a writer's aid program - possibly the most complex one that currently exists, and one of the only one's not based on the hero monomyth. It's intended to help people go from story concept to outline, including figuring out your theme, developing characters, making sure your story is well-rounded, and a 4-act structure. It's quite flexible in what it allows you to write, and even greater flexibly can be gotten out of it if you are willing to do some bits by hand rather than doing everything within the program.

Someone in a Dramatica writers community I belonged to asked if anyone had advice specific to writing erotica, especially fantasy erotica, with the aid of Dramatica. I thought, hey, there's something I could actually write easily - some intro on what erotica is, general design principles of erotic novels (or screenplays), and a walkthrough of me demonstrating how Dramatica could be used to develop two different erotic story concepts, one a steamy romance novel and one a non-romance.

So my question for you all is, are any of you interested in this article? I'm currently taking requests and suggestions for what to put in the article, and what the non-romance example story should be. If you have no interest in Dramatica only the first few paragraphs of the article would be accessible to you, so take that into account.

Dramatica is a heavyweight program, and I'm sure has a steep learning curve. I certainly like the idea of using it to write an erotic novel and would welcome some guidance on using Dramatica for this purpose.

I can't see you getting much response from Literotica members, as this site is aimed fair and square at short stories, for which Dramatica is, I think, way over the top.

 

[sunandshadow]

Well, people do post novella and novel length fiction to the Literotica archive, but I agree most stuff is short stories and Dramatica isn't aimed at pieces that short.

What sort of guidance would you like? Did you have a type of erotic novel in mind, or a specific story, or...?

I created the Big Four as an alternate way to get started:
http://www.dramatica.com/downloads/BigFourLarge.png

You just go down the first column of burgundy, green, blue, and purple boxes and pick which one feels like a story you want to write. Romances are usually type 1 (burgundy box) unless they are a mystery/suspense/thriller with a romantic subplot.

 

[autoplot]

I would be interested in seeing if the results of using such a program produced a more interesting story than your average piece of Lit erotica.

I can't imagine shelling out $200 for a program like that, though.

 

[sunandshadow]

I would be interested in seeing if the results of using such a program produced a more interesting story than your average piece of Lit erotica.

I can't imagine shelling out $200 for a program like that, though.

Oh, the price is ridiculous, although theoretically it includes the value of the theory books you are getting for free online. I got my copy used for under $100, and a lot of people just use the free trial version - certainly you can decide from that whether you care enough to buy it.

The program and theory aren't really intended to produce more-interesting-than-average [published] material, they are designed to help people who are on their own producing unbalanced material which is being rejected by publishers, or producing incomplete or no material. Though on the other hand I've heard sever people describe the average quality of Lit stories as near the bottom of the scale compared to published erotic novels. Also the software and theory are designed for screenplay and novel length pieces, so if your average piece of Lit erotica is a short story it's just inapplicable.

 

[cowgirlbrumby]

If you haven't heard of it, Dramatica is a writer's aid program - possibly the most complex one that currently exists, and one of the only one's not based on the hero monomyth. It's intended to help people go from story concept to outline, including figuring out your theme, developing characters, making sure your story is well-rounded, and a 4-act structure. It's quite flexible in what it allows you to write, and even greater flexibly can be gotten out of it if you are willing to do some bits by hand rather than doing everything within the program.

Someone in a Dramatica writers community I belonged to asked if anyone had advice specific to writing erotica, especially fantasy erotica, with the aid of Dramatica. I thought, hey, there's something I could actually write easily - some intro on what erotica is, general design principles of erotic novels (or screenplays), and a walkthrough of me demonstrating how Dramatica could be used to develop two different erotic story concepts, one a steamy romance novel and one a non-romance.

So my question for you all is, are any of you interested in this article? I'm currently taking requests and suggestions for what to put in the article, and what the non-romance example story should be. If you have no interest in Dramatica only the first few paragraphs of the article would be accessible to you, so take that into account.

Hi, I'm new here, and this certainly caught my eye. I am currently reading the rest of the posts.