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Written by Melanie Anne Phillips Based on the Dramatica theory of story originally developed by Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley   DRAMATICA -  THE LOST THEORY BOOK   Prologue Before the final version of "Dramatica - a New Theory of Story" there was an earlier draft which contained unfininished 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 Everybody loves a good story. "Good" stories seem to transcend language, culture, age, sex, and even time. They speak to us in some universal language. But what makes a story good? And what exactly is that universal language? Stories can be expressed in any number of ways. They can be related verbally through the spoken word and song. They can be told visually through art and dance. For every sense there are numerous forms of expression. There almost seems no limit to how stories can be related. Yet for all of its variety, the question remains: "What makes a good story, "good"? What makes a bad story, "bad""? This book presents a completely new way to look at stories - a way that explains the universal language of stories not just in terms of how it works, but why and how that language was developed in the first place. By discovering what human purposes stories fulfill, we can gain a full understanding of what they need to do, and therefore what we, as authors need to do to create "good" stories. To that end, Dramatica does not just describe how stories work, but how they should work.   Storyforming vs. Storytelling Before we proceed, it is important to separate Storyform from Storytelling. As an example of what we mean, if we compare West Side Story to Romeo and Juliet, we can see that they are essentially the same story, told in a different way. The concept that an underlying structure exists that is then represented in a subjective relating of that structure is not new to traditional theories of story. In fact, Narrative Theory in general assumes such a division. Specifically, Structuralist theory sees story as having a histoire consisting of plot, character and setting, and a discours that is the storytelling. The Russian Formalists separated things a bit differently, though along similar lines seeing story as half fable or "fabula", which also contained the order in which events actually happened in the fable, and the "sjuzet", which was the order in which these events were revealed to an audience. These concepts date back at least as far as Aristotle's Poetics. In Dramatica, Story is seen as containing both structure and dynamics that include Character, Theme, Plot, and Perspective, while classifying the specific manner in which the story points are illustrated and the order information is given to the audience into the realm of storytelling. Storyforming: an argument that a specific approach is the best (or worst) solution to a particular problem Storytelling: the portrayal of the argument as interpreted by the author Picture five different artists, each painting her interpretation of the same rose. One might be highly impressionistic, another in charcoal. They are any number of styles an artist might choose to illustrate the rose. Certainly the finished products are works of art. Yet behind the art is the objective structure of the rose itself: the object that was being portrayed. The paintings are hung side by side in a gallery, and we, as sophisticated art critics, are invited to view them. We might have very strong feelings about the manner in which the artists approached their subject, and we may even argue that the subject itself was or was not an appropriate choice. Yet, if asked to describe the actual rose solely on the basis of what we see in the paintings, our savvy would probably fail us. We can clearly see that each painting is of a rose. In fact, depending on the degree of realism, we may come to the conclusion that all the paintings are of the same rose. In that case, each artist has succeeded in conveying the subject. Yet, there is so much detail missing. Each artist may have seen the rose from a slightly different position. Each artist has chosen to accentuate certain qualities of the rose at the expense of others. That is how the un-embellished subject is imbued with the qualities of each artist, and the subject takes on a personal quality. This illustrates a problem that has plagued story analysts and theorists from day one: Once the story is told, it is nearly impossible to separate the story from the telling unless you know what the author actually had in mind. Certainly the larger patterns and dramatic broad strokes can be seen working within a story, but many times it is very difficult to tell if a particular point, event, or illustration was merely chosen by the author's preference of subject matter or if it was an essential part of the structure and dynamics of the argument itself. Let's sit in once more on our first storyteller. She was telling us about her run-in with a bear. But what if it had been a lion instead? Would it have made a difference to the story? Would it have made it a different story altogether? If the story's problem was about her approach to escaping from any wild animal, then it wouldn't really matter if it were a bear or a lion; the argument might be made equally well by the use of either. But if her point was to argue her approach toward escaping from bears specifically, then certainly changing the culprit to a lion would not serve her story well. Essentially, the difference between story and storytelling is like the difference between denotation and connotation. Story denotatively documents all of the essential points of the argument in their appropriate relationships, and storytelling shades the point with information nonessential to the argument itself (although it often touches on the same subject). In summary, even the best structured story does not often exist as an austere problem solving argument, devoid of personality. Rather, the author embellishes her message with connotative frills that speak more of her interests in the subject than of the argument she is making about it. But for the purposes of understanding the dramatic structure of the piece, it is essential to separate story from storytelling. Traditionally, theories of story have looked at existing works and attempted to classify patterns that could be seen to be present in several stories. In fact, even today, computer scientists working in "narrative intelligence" gather enormous data bases of existing stories that are broken down into every discernable pattern in the attempt to create a program that can actually tell stories. Dramatica was not created by observing existing stories and looking for patterns, but by asking new questions: Why should there be characters at all? What is the purpose of Act divisions? What is the reason for Scenes? In short, Why are there stories in the first place? [Lost Theory Book Contents]

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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. Our Most Popular Products StoryWeaver Story Development Software By far, our most popular product, outselling all of our other products combined!  StoryWeaver takes you step by step through the entire process--from initial inspiration to completed novel or screenplay.  At just $29.95, StoryWeaver is affordable for any writer.  (Details) Movie Magic Screenwriter is one of two industry standard word processing screenplay formatters, the other being Final Draft.  Each of these programs offers a complete suite of screenwriting tools to make your next script a breeze to write.  (Details)  Dramatica Pro Unlike any other story development product, Dramatica Pro uses a patented Story Engine to interactively help you build a structure, find and fix dramatica holes and inconsistencies.  (Details) 20 Hour Writing Course on CD ROM This intense program features 20 hours of video documenting the entire college-level course in creative writing given by Melanie Anne Phillips, creator of StoryWeaver and co-creator of Dramatica.  Just $19.95  (Details) More Contact Us - About Us - Lowest Price Guarantee - Shipping - Return Policy - Bonus Package Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips - Owner, Storymind.com, Creator Storyweaver, Co-creator Dramatica