Complex narrative systems and the minimisation of logical inconsistencies in narrative and dramatic writing

Abstract

ABSTRACTDue to the large amount of multi-layered and hierarchically structured information, fundamental narrative dynamics and mechanisms, a screenplay, or any work of narrative for this matter, may be better understood if it is examined under the perspective of complex narrative systems (CNS). The notion of complex narrative systems is a mindset that attempts to explain a narrative system not by separating and analysing its parts individually but rather by examining the whole, the entire work of narrative. A screenplay is constituted of a large number of autonomous narrative components such as the story’s setting, structure, characters, their psychological motivations, needs and conflicts, and the interactions and interrelations between these characters. Such interactions are non-linear and underlie the screenplay’s emergent behaviour that can be understood as the derivative consequence of the holistic cause-and-effect sum of all its narrative parts. The interactions between the narrative components create dramatic conflict, the most fundamental property of drama, that in turn adds forward progression and direction to the screenplay. The characteristics of CNS describe the principles that allow a screenplay to function as such and explain why a screenplay is contextually larger than its individual narrative parts while it maintains its structural integrity, functional form and logical consistency throughout.