Orson Welles On The Dramatica Theory Of Story

Great artists sense the presence of a storyform, yet sometimes lack the means to explain it.

Reading Ryan Holiday’s book Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts, I came across an enlightening quote from Orson Welles.

He said a movie

“must be better to see the second or third time than it is the first time. There must be more in it to see at once than any one person can grasp. It must be so ‘meaty,’ so full of implications, that everyone will get something out of it.”

You know what he means.

That “meaty” compulsion that comes when there is “more in it to see at once than any one person can grasp” is the result of a comprehensive storyform.

Writing complete stories gives the viewer or reader something unattainable in real life: meaning. It is impossible for us to be both within our own subjective experience and without to view the course of events from an objective point-of-view.

A complete storyform grants us that taste of the impossible.

Impossible to grasp at once; possible and full of possibilities on repeated viewing–a whole narrative improves with another reading or another screening.

Want to guarantee that your Audience will get something out of your work?

Give them the gift of a complete storyform.