Twelve story-questions

(I promised to send this to HurleyMurley after the Colchester write-in this week, but prob'ly easiest to do it as a public post.)

There's a story-framework model and matching software called Dramatica, which I've used for screenwriting but is also good for novels. The public domain (non-commercial) site for the model is at http://www.dramatica.com/ One of the key parts to it is twelve story-questions, which might be useful here if anyone (e.g. me...) gets stuck on plot and structure.

The twelve questions are at http://www.dramatica.com/theory/essential_questions/twelve.html , with more (free) info at http://www.dramatica.com/theory/index.html if you want it.

I've also listed the twelve questions below:

(MC=Main Character)

1: MC Resolve: does your MC Change their way of dealing with the problem, or are they Steadfast / unchanging?
2: MC Growth: does your MC Start a new behaviour to resolve the problem, or Stop an old behaviour?
3: MC Approach: does your MC adapt to the environment (a 'Be-er') or attempt to change it (a 'Do-er')?
4: MC Style: does your MC try to solve problems by Logic / deduction or by Intuition / 'feel'?
5: Story Driver: is the story driven more by Actions (and decisions in response) or by Decisions (usually resulting in actions)?
6: Story Limit: is the story limited by a Timelock (running out of time) or an Optionlock (running out of options)?
7: Story Outcome: does the protagonist achieve Success or Failure in relation to the nominal aim of the story?
8: MC Story Judgement: regardless of 'success' or 'failure', is the story outcome Good or Bad from the MC's perspective? (e.g. it can sometimes be 'good' if the goal is not achieved, or 'bad' if it is)
9: Overall Story Throughline: from a 'helicopter view' of the overall, what is the general area of the problem that all characters are dealing with? does the 'conflict' arise from a Situation (e.g. disaster-movie), an Activity (e.g. action-movie), a Fixed Attitude (e.g. many rom-coms) or Manipulations (e.g. psych-thriller)?
10: Overall Story Concern: which area of concern are all the characters engaged in regarding the story goal? (i.e. external world)
11: Overall Story Issue: what is the common theme that affects all of the characters in the story? (i.e. internal world)
12: Overall Story Problem: what is the source of the central problem that affects all of the characters in the story?

Hope this helps.
- tom g
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- tom g.