Author Archives: Melanie Anne Phillips

The Story Mind (Part 10) – The Four Throughlines

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica The structure of a story, then, is the psychology of a single mind made tangible. For the story to be sound and ring true, the psychology must be complete … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 9) – The Story Mind Revisited

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica So what, exactly, is the Story Mind made of? Dramatica says that “Every complete story is an analogy to a single mind trying to deal with an inequity.” Now … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 8) – Writing Remakes

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica What happens if you mess up and just alter part of a structure without considering the structure-wide impact that change may have? Here’s an example…. Consider the Bill Murray … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 7) – Story Structure vs. Storytelling

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica By now, you’re likely pretty familiar with the concept that every story has a mind of its own – a psychology (the structure) and a personality (the storytelling). But, … Continue reading →

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The Danger to Writers from Convenience

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

“Dramatica doesn’t make writing easier; it makes it harder.” That was opening comment we made in a video interview by the BBC that was intended to show how Hollywood writers were ruining drama by relying more and more on computerized … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 6) – Audience Reach

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica Who is your audience? And for that matter, does a single story structure affect all audience members equally? Let’s find out…. In Dramatica, there are some story points that … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 5) – The Grand Argument Story

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica Over the years a number of my students have asked how the Dramatica chart can possibly describe the fullness of the human experience, especially since we, as a species, … Continue reading →

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Introducing the Story Mind

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Watch the entire 113 part  series free on our web site… Transcript of the soundtrack from this video: Dramatica Unplugged Class One: Introduction 1.1 Introducing the Story Mind Let’s look at the central concept in Dramatica: the Story Mind. It’s … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 4) – The Dramatica Chart

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica A part of the Dramatica Theory book, we developed the Dramatica Chart of Story Elements (which is not unlike the Periodic Table of Elements in chemistry). Download a free … Continue reading →

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The Story Mind (Part 3) – A Story Is An Argument

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Excerpted from the Book “Dramatica Unplugged“ By Melanie Anne Phillips, Co-creator of Dramatica So a tale is a simple linear path that the author promotes as being either a good or bad one to take, depending on the outcome. There’s a certain … Continue reading →

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