DRAMATICA:

The Lost Theory Book .JPG (27012 bytes)

Written by
Melanie Anne Phillips

Based on the Dramatica theory of story
originally developed by Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley

Before the final version of "Dramatica - a New Theory of Story" there was an earlier draft which 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 version of the book, and has never seen the light of day -- until now!   Recently, a copy of this early draft surfaced in the theory archives.  The following are excerpts from this "lost" text.

CAVEAT:

Because the text that follows was not fully developed, portions may be incomplete, inaccurate, or actually quite wrong.

It is presented as a look into the history of the development of Dramatica and also as a source of additional theory concepts that (with further development) may prove useful.

Introduction

"Why Dramatica?" and an alternative explanation of the differences between story structure and storytelling

How Stories Came to Be

A Story Mind

Problems & Dilemmas

Dynamics & Quads

24 New Archetypes

8 Methodology Archetypes

8 Evaluation Archetypes

8 Purpose Archetypes

Objective Characters

The Chemistry of Characters

Subjective Characters

Pivotal and Primary Characters

The Tie Between Objective and Subjective

Character Justification

Levels of Dramatic Structure

Theme (Variations)

More excerpts coming soon!

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Index of Dramatica Theory Materials

Storymind.com is pleased to present this collection of materials about the Dramatica Theory of Story. We hope you find it both useful and through-provoking.

This information is divided into three sections:

The Dramatica Theory
A complete exploration of the theory in every detail

Historic Documents
The development of Dramatica from the beginning

Speculations
Dramatica applied to psychology, physics, religion and more

The Dramatica Theory

Dramatica Theory Book Online
Free online edition of the 400+ page book, Dramatica: A New theory of Story, in which Melanie Anne Phillips & Chris Huntley originally documented their work.

Dramatica Dictionary
Official definitions of all terms in the Dramatica theory and software.

Dramatica Writing Tips
Useful and informative articles on how to approach and employ both the Dramatica Theory and Software.

Constructive Criticisms
Practical illustrations of how applying the Dramatica theory could have made some well-known successful story's even better!

Dramatica Q & A
Answers to questions from users of the Dramatica Theory and Software.

Instant Dramatica
Even more directly practical essays on using Dramatica for real-world writing situations and problems provided by noted screenwriter Armando Saldaņa Mora.

Historic Documents

Dramatica - The Lost Theory Book
Early attempts to document the theory, including many unfinished conjectures and false starts.

Dramatica Development Archives
Early documents created during the development of the foundations of Dramatica.  Often later discarded, they show the roots of the thinking that ultimately evolved into the theory as it stands today.

Speculations

Deep Theory
Transcript of a class on the outer fringes of Dramatica Theory I taught as part of a now-defunct Dramatica Certification course.

Dramatica Math
A mathematician takes a stab at describing the Dramatica model in terms of dimensional distortions.

Mental Relativity
An exploration of the theory of psychology modeling which grew out of the development of Dramatica.

Dramatica I Ching
Several of our users have noticed a similarity between the character grid in Dramatica and the elements of the traditional I Ching.  Though unintentional, perhaps all models that look deeply into the mind will resemble each other.

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