Story 101: The Central Dramatic Question
No matter how we’re telling a story - play, film, novel, video game, or even TTRPG - one of the most difficult challenges for creators is shaping all of the elements of your story into a cohesive, active momentum.
The answer is simple: focus on your Central Dramatic Question.
The Central Dramatic Question (CDQ) of your story is a deceptively simple tool, but it can help to shape the entire arc of your story, for both your audience and yourself.
It Tells You What Story You’re In
As creators, we can feel a pressure to prove our talents by shoehorning fifteen different subplots into one story. There may be a romance, a heist, a redemption, anything we can think of to account for everybody’s tastes. What we’re often left with, though, is a traffic jam of stories, as they all fight for airtime.
Ruffy as the Storyteller in Tattletales (Ponydog Production).
Photo by Ezekiel Rodofili
Defining the CDQ not only helps you to highlight a particular storyline, but it also establishes a genre for you and the audience, helping give shape to the other subplots.
Let’s look at Hamlet as an example. It has the following plots all at once:
A relationship that the girl’s family don’t approve of
A son grieving for his late father
A death in suspicious circumstances
An impending invasion from another country
A young man coming home from college
A ghost haunting the castle and seeking revenge
A son resenting his mother for her choice of new husband
A group worried for the mental wellbeing of one of their friends.
So already, this play could be a:
Star-Crossed Lovers Romance
Tragedy
Murder Mystery
Geopolitical Thriller
Coming of Age Story
A Gothic Horror
Family Drama
Buddy Movie
So how does Shakespeare craft all of these plots into a cohesive story? He lays all of the groundwork at these stories (meet the characters, build the world, sample the plot-lines we might follow), and then he gives Prince Hamlet a piece of information that nobody else receives - his father was murdered by his uncle, who then married his Hamlet’s mother in order to become King. This information sets up the Central Dramatic Question for the audience as much as for the character:
Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death?
Alan Cumming as Hamlet, 1993.
Photo: Donald Cooper / Alamy
Once Hamlet (and the audience) know what the Central Dramatic Question is, all of the other plots are affected. Hamlet’s sole focus is on avenging his father and restoring the kingdom, and his relationships, his friendships, even his own mental wellbeing, are sacrificed in order to achieve this aim. And as we see his singular focus destroy everything around him, we understand why Hamlet is such a tragic figure.
Look back at the list of plot-lines in Hamlet. They each have potential to carry the Central Dramatic Question. Can Hamlet prove that he is worthy of marrying Ophelia? Can Hamlet discover the truth about his father’s mysterious and sudden death? Can Denmark fend off the invading forces of Norway? For this play to be most effective, however, Shakespeare chooses the most dramatically active question for his play. A question that requires conflict and action, and yet is emotionally complex, and deeply personal. This means that we, as an audience, become invested in the journey, and we feel with and for Prince Hamlet.
Think of other great works from any genre: they are defined by their Central Dramatic Question.
The Book of Everything (Guus Kuijer) - Will Thomas learn to be Happy?
The King of Comedy (dir. Martin Scorsese) - Will Rupert Pupkin become famous?
Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens) - Will orphan Oliver find a loving family?
Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games) - Will Arthur Morgan die an honourable man?
Finding Nemo (dir. Andrew Stanton) - Will Marlin find Nemo?
No matter how we’re approaching stories - as writers, game designers, or even actors - we can easily find clarity, direction and structure by understanding and emphasising a Central Dramatic Question.