#dramatis personae

[spockvarietyhour]

Star Trek Deep Space Nine "Dramatis Personae"

[skybson]

1x17 - Dramatis Personae

[soylent-robot]

nerevar do you think this look is a little much? be honest

[spain-sama]

So i’m reading also a lot of orv fic and decided to draw some moment of Hidden Scenario- [Dramatis Personae] i loved

Warning for orv novel spoilers !!!

Another one :

[some-small-mercy]

Successors and Scavengers - The Tyrant

Velkaal Isidore Lotar sol Cimbri is the trueborn heir of the legendary conqueror who swept away the Great Kayal and ushered in the current epoch of the continent’s history. For nearly two centuries, his family has dominated the more fertile valleys and lucrative mines of the old empire, feuding over the division of the clan’s vast estates while (mostly) uniting against outside interference and native rebellion alike. Lotar himself is - after several years of brutal internal vendettas - the patriarch of the clan, acknowledged inheritor of its glorious legacy of conquest and all the imported noble lines his ancestors have married into since. By right of blood he is lord of the grandest estates and most productive plantations in what was once the heartland of the Great Kayal—and by the blood of his subjects working the soil, he is quite possibly the richest man in all the Diamond Sea.

Born in a truly palatial manor-house - one partially built with the ruins of the old Kayal kings' summer palace - Lotar was schooled from birth in the arts of rulership and domination. Of the lesser members of his own house, of rival branches of the family, of servants and hirelings, and most of all of the serfs and slaves upon whom all the dynasty’s power is built. He proved an able student, and since the deaths of first his father and then the great-uncle who held preeminence among the Velkaal before him, there is not a soul alive he is capable of showing deference to with any sort of grace.

His obvious self-regard aside, Lotar does not on first inspection appear to be a brute. He is polite and well-spoken, generous to his guests and punctual with his creditors. His temper is so carefully controlled that the sheer volcanic force of its eruptions shocks many who witness them—and so he tries to avoid such humiliating losses of self-control in the presence of anyone whose opinion carries weight. He considers himself an honorable man, a man of society and business, and considers violence something distasteful and best left to servants or poorer relations while his own hands remain clean. Which is not to say he is in any way squeamish, as the dramatic fate of more than one embezzling manager and dynastic rival has helped teach everyone who deals with him.

[farnwedel]

Hochzeit der Vampire 00 - Prolog und Dramatis Personae

Vielen Dank, @bonsaibovine :D Es mag nicht so aussehen, aber ich hatte schon auch Spaß mit diesem Buch.

Hochzeit der Vampire von Hagen Ulrich, deklariert als „Gay Phantasy“ und mit einem Siegel des „Bundesamts für Magische Wesen“ versehen, ist laut Autor entstanden, als er 2011 aus Versehen in eine Ladys Night zu Twilight geriet. Deutsch, schwul und männlich, hat sich der Autor gedacht: „Das kann ich besser und außerdem fehlt mir da die Bürokratie!“ Das BAfmW ist eine Gruppe deutscher Fantasyautoren, um deutsche Fantasy etwas bekannter zu machen, aber offensichtlich gibt es auch Personen, die es für eine echte Behörde halten. Grüße an Ben Aaronovitch!

Damit wir ein gutes Gespür dafür bekommen, womit wir es hier zu tun haben, lohnt es sich, einen Blick auf die Dramatis Personae zu werfen:

Die Meyer-Frankenforsts (in Bonn – Bad Godesberg):

Jan, 26, extrem fokussiert auf Studium und Gym, hat seit dem Tod seiner Eltern bei einem Attentat islamistischer Extremisten Vorurteile, Agoraphobie und einen enormen Frauenverschleiß

Nina, 21, Jans und aller Kranken Schwester, aufbrausendes Temperament, war aber im Gegensatz zu Jan in Therapie

Clemens, 74, Jans und Ninas Großonkel, Hauptschullehrer i. frühzeitigen R., jetzt Vollblutimker und Orchideenzüchter, mag klassische arabische Musik

Monika, 72, Clemens‘ Frau, „die gute Seele der Villa Meyer-Frankenforst“, die am Ende des Buches vermutlich einen Blumenstrauß dafür bekommt, dass sie Clemens und den Kids „immer den Rücken freigehalten hat“

Dr. Hubert Schäfer, 78, Nachbar, Hausarzt i.R., tiefenentspannt

Die Bucharis (Atlas-Gebirge, Marokko):

Elias, 22, seit Neuestem Erbe der Familie Al-Buchari und nicht glücklich damit

Mounia, 22, Elias‘ Zwillingsschwester, Partygirl, schicksalsergeben und willensstark

Kerim, 19, Cousin von Elias und Mounia, sieht sich als Jäger

Lalla Sara, ??, Matriarchin des Clans („Lalla“ ist eigentlich die Bezeichnung für eine Heilige, wird aber auch als eine Art Adelstitel genutzt)

Et al.

Jacob Mierscheid, 63, Anwalt, und niemand kann mir erzählen, dass der Autor den Namen nicht von Jakob Maria Mierscheid geklaut hat

Henning von Leistikow, 61, Graf, Mitarbeiter in einer Regierungsbehörde, die „irgendwas mit Nachrichten“ macht (BND, ick hör dir trapsen), Gast in der Villa Meyer-Frankenforst

Dr. Klöbner, Abteilungsleiter im Amt für Militärkunde; ob er ein Quietscheentchen besitzt, ist nicht bekannt

Oberst Bachem, Leiter des Amtes für Militärkunde

Faris Lamine, Musiklehrer für klassische arabische Musik i.R., Oud-Virtuose, sein Institut wird von den Al-Bucharis gefördert

Wenn ich mir das so ansehe – die Geschlechterquote von 5:2, die easter eggs, die Konstellation aus Nahem Osten und Bonner Regierungs- und Militärbehörden, dann macht das Buch schon jetzt einen gewissen Eindruck. Und der Eindruck sagt „ich würde eigentlich gerne launige Leitartikel in der FAZ schreiben, aber schwule Vampire sind das Nächstbeste“.

Aber gemach. Noch ist nichts passiert. Gehen wir also möglichst unvoreingenommen in die Handlung, was meint ihr?

[novella-november]

Dramatis Personae: Why, When, and Where

Something I've seen a lot of people debate about recently in authors groups, is whether or not to include a Dramatis Personae in your book.

I have my own, rather staunch opinion, shaped by reading many series with Dramatis Personae, but first, let's define what a Dramatis Personae is!

For those unfamiliar with the term, you probably recognize it in action: A Dramatis Personae is a term that originates from stage-play scripts, and is a list of character names, and a very short, catchy description of their role in the story, *or* their backstory, to set up their role in the story.

Dramatis Personae will usually focus exclusively on the key, named players in a work: the main characters, main villains, and very rarely, main locations.

So, *why* should you have a Dramatis Personae?

It depends!

A Dramatis Personae can be a helpful tool to use as a refresher during an ongoing, long series with a wide cast, and a lot of time between publications!

Some like it just for the Fantasy Vibes it gives to a book, similar to having a map :D

So, *When* should you have a Dramatis Personae?

It really depends on your style, genre, and length of your book: If you are writing an epic standalone novel that is 800 pages and a large cast, you might want to consider having a Dramatis Personae.

If you're not writing doorstoppers with 10 named main characters... you probably do not need a Dramatis Personae, and can simply trust your readers and more importantly, *trust your writing* to make your characters memorable to your audience, and make sure you're actually introducing and establishing your characters in the text, and that they are unique and well-rounded to have the audience not only remember them, but love them!

And... *Where* should you have a Dramatis Personae?

Again, it really depends on your style, and what number book you are in your series!

Most books that I have read they are at the back as optional supplementary material, but I also know its very common to have them at the very beginning of the book, before the first chapter. In my opinion, Dramatis Personae should be reserved for books that come *after* the first entry in a series, to function as quick and snappy refresher for readers who aren't reading the series back-to-back, either due to publication dates of an ongoing series, or slowly picking up books here and there as the budget allows, *and* they should be at the back of the book as purely optional content, with a note on the first few pages signalling it's location.

Most of the modern-published books I've read (read: anything post 2010s, especially post 2020!) that have a Dramatis Personae at the front of the book..... have not been good.

They've all followed the same bad path of *using the Dramatis Personae as an easy way out* and ruining their book in doing so: instead of introducing and establishing characters firmly in the text, the post 2010's books I've seen with a Dramatis Personae at the start of the book have all just had a character show up on page, not introduce or describe them or even really give them a personality outside of Trope/Stereotype, and then steamroll ahead with whatever the current plot point is, clearly expecting the Dramatis Personae to do all the heavy lifting for the text..... when it's supposed to be the *other* way around!

If you have a Dramatis Personae at the start of your draft, and you don't want to fall into this very bad writing mindset, whenever you've had your Big Pause between drafts, and you're about to sit down and read through your First Draft in one go to actually start making your Second Draft... skip over the Dramatis Personae entirely during your reading, and see if you've actually got the characters down pat in the text, or if there's just a lot of names floating around, and you can't keep track of who is who because they all blend together.

And now imagine how a reader, who didn't create these characters and know them intimately from the ground up, would feel being tossed into the deep end like this, either empty handed, or potentially clutching a leaking inner-tube that can only hold them for so long in the form of a Dramatis Personae-- because if your book leans too heavily on the Dramatis Personae, and the willingness of readers to double check it for information every five seconds, the whole thing is going to end in disaster, with readers who are not just unsatisfied, but actively frustrated and annoyed at your book.

A good book's A Dramatis Personae is a brief refresher, *not* a study guide.

If your Dramatis Personae is required reader that must be revisited throughout the course of a book, you need to do another draft, because I can promise you, most readers are not going to waste their time on what feels like a dense and boring, overcomplicated textbook, when they could be reading something they enjoy and can stand on its own text.

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller [dramatis personae, s1ep18]