Excerpted from the book, Dramatica: A New Theory of Story For some authors, applying Dramatica at the beginning of a creative project might be inhibiting. Many writers prefer to explore their subject, moving in whatever direction their muse leads them until they eventually establish an intent. In this case, the storytelling comes before the structure. […]
Excerpted from the book, Dramatica: A New Theory of Story It has been argued that perhaps the symbols we use are what create concepts, and therefore no common understanding between cultures, races, or times is possible. Dramatica works because indeed there ARE common concepts: morality, for example. Morality, a common concept? Yes. Not everyone shares […]
What’s “Ability” have to do with story structure? If you look in Dramatica’s “Periodic Table of Story Elements” chart (you can download a free PDF of the chart at http://storymind.com/free-downloads/ddomain.pdf ) you’ll find the “ability” in one of the little squares. Look in the “Physics” class in the upper left-hand corner. You’ll find it in a […]
Just updated – your favorite articles on creative writing, story development, story structure and narrative science: Our Most Popular Articles on Writing of All Time Title Views The 8 Archetypal Characters 7,562 Dramatica Audio Program 2,303 Dramatica Theory Book 1,746 Dramatica Video Program 1,526 Sidekick & Skeptic Archetypes 1,297 The Best Story Structure Articles of […]
This morning/s thoughts on narrative: 1. In the real world, narratives exist in the caustic solution of society. They either continually replenish themselves or dissolve into a sea of memes. 2. Narrative structure operates as a difference engine, but one made of magnets rather than gears. As one turns, the other adjust due to polar […]
Dramatica: The “Lost” Theory Book Read it free online at http://storymind.com/articles/page15.htm Before the final version of “Dramatica – a New Theory of Story” there was an earlier draft that contained unfinished concepts and additional theory that was ultimately deemed “too complex”. As a result, this material was never fully developed, was cut from the final […]
The last couple of days I’ve been thinking about what elements would be in quads of dynamics. In the current Dramatica structural model, dynamics are only in pairs, such as Timelock and Optionlock. So, if these two items were in a quad of dynamics, what would the other two items be? Today, I have my […]
For all you Dramatica “theory hounds” out there, here’s one of the newest parts of the theory which grew out of my ongoing development of the new dynamic model of story structure. Dramatica theory has always had eight equations that describe the relationships among elements in a quad. They are all based on permutations of […]
2012 External and Internal Dependencies Posted on December 31, 2012 by Melanie Anne Phillips As co-creator of the Dramatica theory, I often take some of the concepts so for granted that I forget to consider wider application of them. For example, in my classes I often speak of the three kinds of character relationships: … Continue reading → Conversational Inertia […]
As I approach my sixtieth birthday, I imagine the time is ripe to resolve some of the questions I’ve been getting in regard to the origin and development of the Dramatica Theory of Story and its principal concepts and implementations. So, here is how it happened (to the best of my recollection). The Beginning Chris […]