Author Archives: Melanie Anne Phillips

Writing Prompt Level: Expert!

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Here is a writing prompt picture I posted recently and the amazingly creative response by writer Bill Williams Bill Williams – This is actually pretty easy to explain. *sips coffee* The cats in the front are feline overlords. They were … Continue reading →

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Smothered in an Avalanche of Ideas

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

One of my old story development clients recently wrote to me about getting drowned in a sea of ideas for his story, unable to organize his material, make choices, or more forward. Here is the note I wrote him in … Continue reading →

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Children at the Border – Narrative in the Real World

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Here is how you use narrative in the real world: My conversation today with someone defending taking children away from their parents at the border… (I’m a grandparent, and this cannot stand!)

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Children at the Border – There’s a Narrative Here…

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

I’m sorry. I just heard the audio clip of the children taken from their parents by the border patrol – crying in fear for their father. And I thought about my 18 month old grandson who is about the same … Continue reading →

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Narrative in the Real World: The North Korean Summit

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Trump and Kim Jong Un. Let’s consider the narrative behind the summit. In a movie, it is easy to see when a character does not ring true – when he or she acts in a way contrary to human psychology … Continue reading →

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Narrative and Politics: Pardon Me, Mr. Trump

Posted on June 5, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Rather than getting caught up in whether or not Trump has the power to pardon even himself, step back and see the larger narrative. In the past controversial pardons would sometimes inflame the public, and when newly minted President Ford … Continue reading →

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What’s In Your Story’s Mind?

Posted on June 2, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

As with people, your story’s mind has different aspects. These are represented in your Genre, Theme, Plot, and Characters. Genre is the overall personality of the Story Mind. Theme represents its troubled value standards. Plot describes the methods the Story … Continue reading →

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Why a “Story Mind?”

Posted on June 2, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

The Story Mind concept is a way of visualizing story structure that sees every story as having a mind of its own and the characters within it as facets of that overall mind.  So, one character represents the Intellect of the … Continue reading →

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The “Story Mind” Concept

Posted on June 1, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

  The Story Mind concept is a way of looking at a story as if all the characters were facets of a larger personality, the mind of the Story itself. To illustrate, imagine that you stepped back from your story … Continue reading →

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The Creativity Two-Step

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

The concept behind this method of finding inspiration is quite simple, really: It is easier to come up with many ideas than it is to come up with one idea. Now that may sound counter-intuitive, but consider this… When you … Continue reading →

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