Author Archives: Melanie Anne Phillips
Objective and Subjective Characters (video)
The 8 Character Archetypes (part 1)
Famous Novels’ first sentences mapped!
Read the complete article including graphs on the Popular Science web site
Characters vs. Players (video)
Pirate Lingo Translator
Turn ordinary text into Pirate Speak:
Dramatica Theory Overview (video)
First part of our class on the story structure of characters
Archetypes: Characters, Narratives and Mind
New Book on Archetypes and the Mind
Can a Class be explored in more than one Throughline?
Just received this question from a writer through our Facebook page. Here’s my reply:
No – each Class is associated with a single one of the four points of view (Main Character, Influence Character, Objective (overall) Story and Subjective (relationship) Story. When a point of view is attached to a Class of considerations, it creates a structural bond. That means that each Class will be explored through a single point of view, making it a Throughline. If Classes could be explored by more than one point of view, it would remove the bias from the overall story’s structure – the Story Mind. It is that bias that describes how the Main Character relates to the story universe – in essence, it describes how all that exists is biased in relationship to the Main Character. And, it also illustrates how Main, Influence, Overall and Relationship Throughlines are biased relative to one another. The message of the story is that when a particular arrangement of biases exist, it is better (or worse) to stick with one’s guns (remain steadfast in one’s bias) or to change (alter one’s bias, adopting the opposite one represented by the Influence Character. And so, only by linking and hardwiring only one point of view (Throughline) to each Class can the underlying dynamics be accurately and definitively explored that surround the choice to remain steadfast or change.



