Category Archives: Story Development

Your Plot Step By Step!

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

Here are some general guidelines to help you structure your story’s plot, step by step. Act One Beginning The beginning of act one is the teaser. It may or may not have anything to do with the actual plot of … 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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About Your Story’s Title

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Melanie Anne Phillips

A writing tip from Dramatica Story Structure Software What’s in a name?  Having at least a working title will help you start your story, even if you ultimately change the title. The title of your story may or may not … 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 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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Character Development Tricks!

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Melanie Anne Phillips

As trite as it might seem, ask yourself “What would a story be without characters?” The answer can help you get a grip on exactly what characters really do in a story, and therefore how to build them effectively. Although … Continue reading →

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Your Story as a Person

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Melanie Anne Phillips

All too often, authors get mired in the details of a story, trying to cram everything in and make all the pieces fit.  Characters are then seen only as individuals, so they often unintentionally overlap each other’s dramatic functions. The … Continue reading →

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How “StoryWeaver” Came to Be

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Melanie Anne Phillips

When Chris Huntley and I created the Dramatica Theory of Narrative Structure back in the early 90’s, we originally envisioned it as the end-all of story models – the one single paradigm that explained it all. In fact, it was – … Continue reading →

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When to Apply Structure to Your Story

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Melanie Anne Phillips

In every developing story there is already a fuzzy proto-narrative forming within your subject matter. This proto-narrative occurs because though people think ABOUT topics, they think IN narrative form. Narrative is just a map of all the perspectives we have … Continue reading →

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Do You Want to Write a Tale or a Story?

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Melanie Anne Phillips

The difference between a tale and a story is that a tale is just a linear step by step progression through plot events and character growth in which the next step can be anything at all, as long it makes … Continue reading →

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