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Chapter
1 - The Story Mind 1.3 A Story is an Argument A
tale is a simple linear path that the author promotes as being either a good or
bad one to take, depending on the outcome. There’s a certain amount of power
in that. It wouldn’t take our early storyteller long to realize that he
didn’t have to limit himself to relating events that actually happened.
Rather, he might carry things a step farther and create a fictional tale to
illustrate the benefits or dangers of following a particular course. But what kind of power
could you get as an author if you were able to not merely say, “This
conclusion is true for this particular case,” but rather “This conclusion is
true for all such similar cases”? In other words, if you
begin “here,” then no matter what path you might take from that given
starting point, it wouldn’t be as good (or as bad) as the one I’m promoting.
Now, rather than saying that the approach you have described is simply good
or bad in and of itself, you are suggesting that of all the approaches
that might have been taken, yours is the best (or worst) way to
go. Now that has a lot more
power to it because you are telling everyone, “If you find yourself in this
situation, exclude any other paths; take only this one,” or, “If you
find yourself in this situation, no matter what you do, don’t do this!” That kind of statement has
a lot more power to manipulate an audience. But, because you’ve only shown the
one path (even though you are saying it is better than any others) you are
making a blanket statement. An audience simply won’t
sit still for a blanket statement. They’ll cry, “Foul!” They will at least
question you. So, if our caveman sitting around the fire say, “Hey, this is
the best of all possible paths,” the audience is going to say , “What about
this other case? What if we tried this, this or this?” If the author was able to
successfully argue his case he would compare all the solutions the audience
might suggest to the one he is touting and conclusively show that the promoted
path is clearly the best (or worst). Or, a solution might be suggested that
proves better than the author’s, in which case his blanket statement loses all
credibility. In a nutshell, for every
rebuttal the audience voices, the author can attempt to counter the rebuttal
until he has proven his case. Now, he wont’ have to argue every conceivable
alternative solution – just the ones the audience brings up. And if he is
successful, he’ll eventually exhaust their suggestions or simply tire them out
to the point they are willing to accept his conclusions. But the moment you record a
story as a song ballad, a stage play, or a motion picture (for example), then
the original author is no longer there to counter any rebuttals the audience
might have to his blanket statement. So if someone in the
audience thinks of a potential way to resolve the problem and you haven’t
addressed it in your blanket statement, they will feel there is a hole in your
argument and that you haven’t made your case. Therefore, in a recorded
art form, you need to include all the other reasonable approaches that might be
tried in order to “sell” your approach as the best or the worst. You need to
show how each alternative is not as good (or as bad) as the one you are
promoting thereby proving that your blanket statement is correct. In order to do this, you
must anticipate all the other ways the audience might consider solving the
problem in question. In effect, you have include all the ways anyone might think
of solving that problem. Essentially, you have to include all the ways any human
mind might go about solving that problem. In so doing, you create a model of the
mind’s problem-solving process: the Story Mind. Now, no caveman ever sat
down by a fire and said to himself, “I’m going to create an analogy to the
mind’s problem-solving processes.” Yet in the process of successfully
telling a story in a recorded art form (thereby showing that a particular
solution is better than all other potential ones) the structure of the story
becomes a model of psychology as an accidental byproduct. Once this is understood,
you can psychoanalyze your story. And you find that everything that is in the
human mind is represented in some tangible form in a story’s structure. That’s what Dramatica is
all about. Once we had that Rosetta Stone, we set ourselves to documenting the
psychology of story structure. We developed a model of this structure and
described it in our book, Dramatica: A New Theory of Story. Beyond that, we implemented
this construct as an interactive software engine – the Story Engine, which
sits at the heart of the Dramatica software. It allows authors to answer
questions about their dramatic intent in any story they are developing, then
cross references the impact of their various dramatic choices and predicts the
remaining structure necessary to achieve that particular impact.
*Try either or both for 90 days. Not working for you? Return for a full refund of your purchase price! About Dramatica and StoryWeaver Hi, I'm Melanie Anne Phillips, creator of StoryWeaver, co-creator of Dramatica and owner of Storymind.com. If you have a moment, I'd like to tell you about these two story development tools - what each is designed to do, how each works alone on a different part of story development and how they can be used together to cover the entire process from concept to completion of your novel or screenplay. What They Do Dramatica is a tool to help you build a perfect story structure. StoryWeaver is a tool to help you build your story's world. Dramatica focuses on the underlying logic of your story, making sure there are no holes or inconsistencies. StoryWeaver focuses on the creative process, boosting your inspiration and guiding it to add depth, detail and passion to your story. How They Do It Dramatica has the world's only patented interactive Story Engine™ which cross-references your answers to questions about your dramatic intent, then finds any weaknesses in your structure and even suggests the best ways to strengthen them. StoryWeaver uses a revolutionary new creative format as you follow more than 200 Story Cards™ step by step through the story development process. You'll design the people who'll inhabit your story's world, what happens to them, and what it all means. How They Work Alone By itself Dramatic appeals to structural writers who like to work out all the details of their stories logically before they write a word. By itself, StoryWeaver appeals to intuitive writers who like to follow their Muse and develop their stories as they go. How They Work Together But, the finished work of a structural writer can often lack passion, which is where StoryWeaver can help. And the finished work of an intuitive writer can often lack direction, which is where Dramatica can help. So, while each kind of writer will find one program or the other the most initially appealing, both kinds of writers can benefit from both programs. Try Either Program Risk Free! We have a 90 Day Return Policy here at Storymind. Try either or both of these products and if you aren't completely satisfied we'll cheerfully refund your purchase price.
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Contact Us - About Us - Lowest Price Guarantee - Shipping - Return Policy - Bonus Package Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips - Owner, Storymind.com, Creator Storyweaver, Co-creator Dramatica |
Format:
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