By Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator of StoryWeaver

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Write Your Novel or Screenplay Step By Step

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Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips - Owner, Storymind.com, Creator Storyweaver, Co-creator Dramatica

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Thousands of writers use StoryWeaver to build their story’s world, characters, plot, theme,
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Thousands of writers use Dramatica to find and refine their story’s structure and to find and fix holes and missteps.

• 200 Interactive Story Cards guide you from concept to completion, step by step.

• Help Buttons with Writing Tips, Example Stories, Hints, and Tricks.

• Work on multiple stories at once.

• Jot down creative notes from anywhere in StoryWeaver.

• Placeholder: Pick up writing where you left off.

• Develop multiple levels of detail for your plot and characters.

• Intuitive navigation path helps you follow your Muse.

• Works on any device: desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, Windows, Macintosh, iOs, Android & Chrome

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• Patented Story Engine cross- references your dramatic choices to create a structure map.

• AI style narrative model finds holes, missteps and suggests how to fix & fill them.

• Automatically generates a timeline from your story’s structural map.

• Offers three levels of detail depending on the complexity of your story.

• Includes hundreds of examples, tips, tricks, and techniques.

• Comes with more than sixty structural maps for classic and popular novels, movies and stage plays.

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~ Step 125 ~

Extending Message Issue – Act Two

For this step, remember that the message issue and the counterpoint should each be in every act, but never in the same scene (dramatic moment) or at the same time.

Here in act two, you have the opportunity to change your readers’ assessment of the value of the message issue.  Through additional illustrations, an issue that originally appeared positive may be made to appear highly negative, neutral, or even more positive.

Your readers will "average out" their intuitive determination of the value of the message issue based on the mean average of its individual values in each act.  Later, in act three, you will put the final spin on the message issue to create a final value judgment of that side of the emotional argument.

For now, keep in mind where you are headed so as not to tip the scale so far in act two that you might not be able to bring the final assessment to the level you want to establish by the end of act three.

From the illustrations and scenarios you have already developed in the Exposition Stage, select for act two the instances that will contribute to your message issue and give it additional depth and meaning.