Narrative First: where story is always king: Recent Episodes
James R. Hull
Updates & analysis of all things story. From screenplays to novels to deep theoretical story structure, this podcast is aimed at providing the secrets to great storytelling.
Is the process involved in the analysis of a Dramatica storyform truly objective, or is everyone fooling themselves? Jim answers these questions as well as giving an update on our app, Subtext.
(Note: This episode was recorded April 11, 2018--at that time, Subtext was called the "Narrative First Atomizer")
In addition, we dive into what it feels like when a storyform just clicks into place--when you know you've found the unique set of thematic Storypoints that create the message of the narrative.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Story Development Services from Narrative First. Stop rewriting and finally finish that story with our expert advice.
Show Notes & Links
- Objectivity, At the Wrong Level - Discuss Dramatica online discussion covering the objective analysis involved in discovering the unique storyform of a narrative
- Pretty Woman the complete Storyform, as found in Subtext
- The Throughlines of Pretty Woman a visual representation of this film's Four Throughlines
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
A deep-dive into the two narrative structures driving the classic action/adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark.
While many consider Raiders to be evidence of a "5-Act" or "6-Act" structure, the truth is the presence of two completely different 4-Act structures. Using the Dramatica theory of story, we take a look at these two individual arguments and explain how Kasdan masterfully wove them together to appear as a single "story."
In addition, we discuss updates to our Subtext service (referred to as the "Atomizer" in the podcast), and examine the thematic structure of the Tonya Harding biopic, I, Tonya.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Ark Storyform
- Raiders of the Lost Ark - Raiders Storyform
- I, Tonya Storyform
- Objectivity, But At the Wrong Level a post referred to in the podcast regarding Genre in Dramatica
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
An in-depth look at the narrative thematics driving these two classic films.
For this, our special 64th episode, we explore the storyforms found in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Using the Dramatica theory of story as a basis for our analysis, we find two separate narratives in Empire: one that focuses on psychology as a basis for conflict, and another that takes the expected physics approach.
For Jedi, we find an usual set of narrative thematics that explains why this film stands out from the previous two in terms of shape and feel.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Show Notes & Links
- The Empire Strikes Back - Enemies and Allies Storyform
- The Empire Strikes Back - Romance Storyform
- Return of the Jedi Storyform
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
In this episode, we take a look at the key story events that shift a narrative from one contextual Act to the next. In addition, we discuss what the Dramatica theory of story identifies in a story--namely, the subtext of narrative conflict. If you previously thought subtext was something that could never truly be defined--prepare to learn the truth. Using examples from both The Florida Project and Call Me By Your Name, we offer a first look insight into the reason for re-branding our service with the more appropriate name: Subtext.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for Subtext
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Uncovering the Major Plot Points of a Functioning Story an in-depth article explored in this episode
- The Difference Between Neo and Luke Skywalker why the Hero's Journey explanation is insufficient to truly describe what is going on in these films
- The Florida Project complete analysis on Subtext
- Call Me By Your Name complete analysis on Subtext
- Rethinking an Analysis of The Florida Project complete article explaining the message behind the beauty
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
If you want to make meaning out of the meaningless, if you want to ensure that you don't write a pointless story, a Dramatica® storyform ensures that what you have to say promises purpose and a reason for the audience to listen. With that in mind, we take a look at the differences between The Disaster Artist and Darkest Hour. Guess which one contains a solid narrative?
In addition, we explain why The Accountant seems so jam-packed with story and answer questions about the separation between the Influence Character perspective and the Relationship Story perspective.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for Subtext
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- The Accountant storyform
- Podcast of The Accountant* Dramatica Users Group analysis
- Coco storyform
- The Shape of Water storyform
- Narrative analysis of Darkest Hour
- The Disaster Artist storyform
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
This episode explores the connection between a high score on Rotten Tomatoes, nominations and recognition for great writing, and a complete Dramatica storyform. More than correlation, a solid storyform guarantees favorable critical response.
In addition, I relate my experience of being to predict the specific structural items of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri while watching the film for the first time. Again, another instance of a film recognized for its great writing with a solid and appreciable Dramatica storyform.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for the Narrative First Atomizer here
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Dunkirk an analysis and the message behind unintentional propaganda
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri storyform
- Coco storyform
- The Shape of Water storyform
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in-depth Dramatica analysis
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in-depth Dramatica analysis
- The Shape of Water in-depth Dramatica analysis of this year's Best Picture
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
A look at how you can dramatically improve the quality of your storytelling by thinking of the central relationship as a character. I follow-up with listener email regarding the difference between Wisdom & Enlightenment within the Dramatica theory of story. And I cover the usage of Time and Space in setting the context for a full and complete narrative.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for the Narrative First Atomizer here
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Black Swan analysis & storyform
- her analysis & storyform
- Jane Eyre analysis & storyform
- An analysis & storyform for the entire Harry Potter series
- An analysis & storyform for the entire first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Wrangling the Scope of an Entire Narrative a look at the difference between Time and Space within a narrative
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
In this episode, I cover the importance of connecting the Main Character's problem with the Overall Story problem & a method for constructing the Narrative Argument of your story. The former explains the difference between an OK story and an amazing story; all the great narratives of the past take this approach of pitting subjective vs. objec tive. The latter is helpful in determining the narrative drive of a story and keeping you on track with your story's purpose.
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for the Narrative First Atomizer here
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Seth Godin's new podcast Akimbo inspiring new podcast from the guy who tends to inspire
- Problems of Character Reflected in Story read how to find resonance between the Main Character and the Overall Story throughlines
- Enough Said storyform
- Mother storyform
- Lady Bird storyform
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel storyform
- Dramatica Makes Things Harder it really does
- Building a Narrative Argument read how to construct one of your own using key storypoints from a Dramatica storyform
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
In this episode, we catch up on all things Narrative First from the past three months and kickstart our year of plenty. This includes everything from updates to the Narrative First Atomizer, new Dramatica analyses, the site redesign, building an animated television series, developing a complete story from scratch, and the biggest update to the podcast...
...transcriptions!
You can read the entire transcription of this episode here.
Register for the Narrative First Atomizer here
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Dramatica Theory Book free & online and available to you right now!
- Narrative First Analyses literally hundreds & hundreds of story structure analyses from a Dramatica point-of-view
- Dr. Strangelove analysis satire with no story
- Boardwalk Empire: Season One storyform the first ever Dramatica analysis of an entire season of television
- Columbus storyform beautifully sublime film with a solid story as its foundation
- Narrative Arguments a sneak peek at this new revolutionary feature found within the Narrative First Atomizer
- Storyform Connections a look at a quick & fun way to find stories with similar structures
- The Florida Project an engaging film that almost tells a complete story
- Professor Marston and the Wonder Women an engaging film that tells a complete story with confidence
- The Throughlines of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women a visualization of this film's narrative structure
- Not Your Usual Approach to Developing Stories in-depth article on using the Atomizer to quickly find the structure of your story
- Dramatica: The Journey Towards a Better Understanding of Story a look into the importance of keeping things accurate
- Unravelling the Story Structure of Tangled: The Series discover the narrative thematics that propel this show
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace.
In this, the final--and most epic--episode of Season 2, I finish off the initial development of my story and introduce the various features of the new Narrative First Atomizer.
But first I kick things off with an analysis of Thor:Ragnarök--NOTE: in the episode I inaccurately assess the Story Outcome as Success. Clearly the efforts to reach the Overall Story Goal--Saving Asgard from Ragnarök--fail. Switching this Story Dynamic also changes the Relationship Story Throughline Problem and Solution. The Atomizer link below presents an accurate and updated account of the storyform.
Listener mail paves the way for an extended discussion about the Crucial Elements, particularly in regards to a Steadfast Main Character. I finish off my first pass of The Red Lake by briefly outlining the Main Character, Influence Character, and Relationship Story Throughlines. And finally, I cover all the features of the Narrative First Atomizer--a brand new service that sheds light on the elements of story structure.
Register for the Narrative First Atomizer here
See you next year!
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Thor: Ragnarök analysis in the Atomizer an up-close and detailed look at the story structure of this film
- The Throughlines of Thor: Ragnarök a visual representation of the story's major thematic elements
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople analysis in the Atomizer as promised, the updated storyform for this film
- The Throughlines of Hunt for the Wilderpeople as found in the original Throughline Thursdays feature
- The Crucial Element archives everything you ever wanted to know about this important ingredient of story
- The Red Lake a live link to the outline for this story developed during this and the previous podcast
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace. You can hear this episode's opening theme here: World Opening
If it sounds like this episode was recorded before Thanksgiving, that’s because it was. Facilitating the initial release of the Narrative First Atomizer consumed most of my waking days and nights these past two months—but the show must go on.
If nothing else, I️ can’t let The Red Lake go unspoken. Follow along as I️ craft a fully realized narrative framework in less than 20 minutes. Seriously. What started out as a completely random narrative based on the story structure of Aliens and Blade Runner: 2049 became an interesting clash between dwarves and halflings high in the mountains above a dark and crimson red lake.
In addition, I️ answer listener email regarding the difference between Doing and Obtaining and its application towards The Dark Knight. And I️ cover unusual storyforms.
Show Notes & Links
- Grammar.ly a must-have SaaS for writers everywhere
- The Narrative First Atomizer also a must-have SaaS for writers everywhere
- iA Writer the only way to write on iOS. The most recent update delivers a gorgeous new font (they only let you choose between two)
- How Grammarly Quietly Grew Its Way to 6.9 Million Daily Users in 9 Years
- Quip the very best way to collaborate on the Internet
- Breaking Away in the Atomizer get to know this great film at a molecular level
- A Bronx Tale in the Atomizer see for yourself how C’s Issue of Enlightenment collides with Sonny’s issue of Thought
- The Quip document of The Red Lake the foundation for the story invented during this episode
A great story employs its own unique approach to narrative structure. The Plot Sequence Report found in Dramatica grants writers an insight into their story's foundation.
Some contend that every story is the same--that the same set of story beats or mythical elements show up every time. The truth is the structure of every story is based on the Author's intent: what he or she is trying to communicate to their Audience. The Dramatica theory of story, and the Plot Sequence found within, help writers assess the elements needed--and in what order--to effectively and deliberately broadcast what they feel deep inside. This podcast illuminates an approach towards using this report and elements of Dramatica to quickly develop your story's structure.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Victor Laszlo as Protagonist: Done Deal Pro Forums the "conversation" begins on page 5
- Additional Examples of Characteristics post on Discuss Dramatica forums suggesting new ways of interpreting objective character elements
- Dramatica analysis of Ingrid Goes West
- Dramatica for Screenwriters Armando's book on using the Plot Sequence Report
- The Plot Sequence Report an archive of articles covering this magical insight into your story's unique structure
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
While some maintain that all stories carry the same structure (they don't), these two films actually do share the same exact storyform.
After answering questions about the difference between the Past and Memory and the right way to think of Signposts, this episode dives into a Dramatica analysis of DeNiro's A Bronx Tale. Unique in its structure, the storyform explains its appeal to female audiences. Both Aliens and Blade Runner: 2049 share the same exact storyform--a rare, but possible scenario, wherein Authors seek to explore a similar approach to resolving problems.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Differentiating the Past from Memory - Discuss Dramatica forum post on difference between external and internal concerns
- Character Dimensions: McKee vs. Dramatica McKee's blended view of tertiary characters carries some inaccuracy
- A Bronx Tale - Dramatica analysis
- The Throughlines of Aliens visual representation of narrative dynamics in this classic film
- The Throughlines of Blade Runner: 2049 visual representation of narrative dynamics in this latest sci-fi epic
- The Same Story: Aliens and Blade Runner: 2049 in-depth article comparing the narrative structure of both films
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
A guy stuck in a well, The Sixth Sense, and Blade Runner:2049 top the list for this week's in-depth story structure podcast. Everything from inequities and perspectives to Throughlines and context, this episode explains the best way to find the most accurate storyform for any narrative.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Discuss Dramatica Forum
- The Domains of A Guy Stuck in a Well
- The Domains of The Sixth Sense
- The Throughlines of Blade Runner: 2049
- The Analysis of Blade Runner: 2049
- The Power of Implied Story Points to Frame a Narrative
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, I wrap up the Dramatica Users Group analysis of Jon Favreau's Jungle Book and then relate some helpful tips when it comes to weaving subplots into your narrative. In addition, I dive into #storytelling and talk a bit about "narrative fidelity". Lastly, the David Fincher thriller se7en receives the Dramatica analysis treatment.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- The Dramatica Users Group analysis of The Jungle Book contains both an audio podcast and videocast of the class
- The Terminator discussion referred to in the podcast is not yet available online. Stay tuned.
- The Dramatica Users Group YouTube channel several years of videocasts covering the Dramatica theory of story
- Dramatica Podcasts exactly what it sounds like
- The Narrative is Not Real and Stories: The Means by Which We Navigate the World two blog posts on #storytelling
- Meaningful Endings video compilations of different endings
- First look at my analysis of se7en includes a look at the whiteboard from the presentation
- The Throughlines of se7en](https://narrativefirst.com/throughlines/se7en) visual analysis of the structure of the film
- My complete analysis of se7en complete with a downloadable storyform for use with Dramatica Story Expert
- The Jerry McGuire storyforms - the Sports Story and the Romance Story
and as good storyforms * The As Good As It Gets storyforms - the Romance Story and the Neighbors Story
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Roll back to the original terminology in order to gain more objectivity in your analysis and writing. That's the best way I know how to supercharge your understanding of Dramatica. In this episode, I cover my push for Dramatica 1.0 and answer emails about the Universe and The Prestige. If you're struggling to grok the theory, start here.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Children of Time amazing book and winner of the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke award
- Atypical fantastic narrative series on Netflix the impact of autism on the family unit
- The Fugitive: Applying Jim's Lesson Universally blog post by Dramatica aficionado Mike Lucas
- The Throughlines of The Prestige quick visual analysis of the film's major throughline perspectives
- How to Use Dramatica the Right Way: Part One first in a two-part series on leveling up your understanding of this complex and sophisticated theory of story
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Why do established story gurus find it necessary to prevent progress? The base instinct for survival sometimes overrides rational thought--in this case, it leads one guru to bully theorists through name-calling. In addition, I discuss the push towards professional storyform analysis and, of course, discuss the importance of teaching the next generation of storytellers.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Robert McKee and Syd Field Hate Dramatica the original blog post about computer nerds
- Narrative First Professional Narrative Analysis quality, accurate storyforms
- The One I Love thematic analysis of this fun sci-fi thriller
- Throughline Thursdays my weekly feature explaining the basics of Dramatica story structure
- Stand By Me storyform on the main Dramatica site
- You and I Are Both Alike video montage of a key relationship between the Main and Influence Characters of a story
- The LEGO Batman Movie Makes Fun of You and I with this send-up of the previous link
- Training the Next Generation of Storytellers text message between my daughter and I about the Protagonist and Antagonist of How to Train Your Dragon
- The Ultimate Collection of Protagonists who Act as Influence Characters doesn't always have to be the Main Character
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, we take a look at Quantum Theory and how it helps to explain how an Author projects a story into existence. You'll want to put on your thinking caps for this one as we transform the endless speculation and infinite possibilities of storytelling into a singular instance based on the Author's measured and deliberate observation. Finishing a story requires an Author to write with purpose.
Deliberate Storytelling is a practice whereby the Author creates with intent and purpose. Collaborate with a story expert today and start down the path towards finally writing and finishing your story.
Show Notes & Links
- Dramatica analysis of The Imitation Game Jon Gentry's insightful and comprehensive analysis of this moving film
- Meaningful Endings a collection of videos explaining the four different kinds of endings for a complete narrative
- Deliberate Storytelling an opportunity to work with me to help write and finish your story
- My analysis of Paterson and a look at writing a story from a holistic point-of-view
- The Throughlines of Paterson visual representation of the different perspectives of conflict found in this film
- Your Story is Schrödinger's Cat this week's article on Quantum Theory, the Uncertainty Principle, and the Observer's Paradox--all understandings to help you move past writer's block
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
The return of Throughline Thursdays, an unexpected analysis of The Prestige, and an explanation of the difference between a problematic Situation and problematic Activities.
Dramatica's terminology stumps even the most talented writers. The understanding of the difference between a situation and a Situation is paramount in breaking through preconceptions of narrative structure. In this episode, I cover a common problem encountered by many new to the theory—why the Overall Story Throughline of The Fugitive falls under Situation, rather than Activity.
In addition, I reintroduce Throughline Thursdays with a visual representation of the conflict presented in Get Out.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Dramatica Analyses over 300 analyses of films, television shows, novels, and plays
- Throughline Thursdays introductory articles on defining the Domains of a complete story
- The Throughlines of Get Out
- Melanie Anne Phillips on Taking Your Story to Dinner
- My analysis of The Prestige
- Character Arc Videos
- Storyforming videos exclusive content for premium members of Narrative First
- The Dramatica Users Group analysis of Ixcanul
- The Fugitive: When a Situation Isn't a Situation a common error made by many writers new to Dramatica
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
This week I discuss a method for Authors to connect the Characters in the story with the mechanics of Plot by crossing over through the family of Thematic Issues congruent with their story's meaning. In addition, I discuss at length my analysis of Get Out and how the film played with structure in an attempt to address Audience reception issues.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Ryan Holiday's Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts a fantastic read for creatives intent on creating something lasting
- Subscribe to the Narrative First Newsletter and receive weekly updates from the world of story structure & story analysis
- Orson Welles on the Importance of the Storyform
- My analysis of Get Out
- Become a Narrative First Member and enjoy access to premium content
- Melanie on How to Structure Your Story's Signposts
- Stories are Like Birthday Cake an explanation of why some are more tastier than others
- Finding the Plot of Your Story Through Theme Character, Plot, and Theme connect seamlessly within the structure of a great narrative
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
This week I take a gander at Okja and discuss the reasons why many swayed by this film's message ultimately reverted to their old ways. Propaganda fades--complete stories last. With that in mind, I then cover the Dramatica storyform and how it holds an image of the mind's problem-solving process in its complex and sophisticated arrangement of story points. Interested in writing something that lasts? You'll want to listen to this podcast and begin to develop an understanding of story as an analogy to the processes going on in our minds.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Sean Lester's Dribbble Account the man behind the Narrative First logo and the 2016 site redesign.
- The From Logline to Treatment E-Mail Course. Enroll for a free introduction to the magic of Dramatica.
- Using Dramatica to Assess Narratives in the Real World an extensive look at using story theory to understand struggles in modern-day business, with a link to the official Dramatica analysis of the ESPN/Cable narrative
-
storytelling lots of people talking lots about narrative
- What Do You Want to Learn Today? a new section on the site designed for writers new to Narrative First
- Milanote great tool for developing stories from a holistic point-of-view
- My Okja analysis and an explanation why it feels too preachy (hint: Propaganda technique)
- The Snowpiercer analysis on the Discuss Dramatica forums. Complete with great Chris Huntley insights into the film.
- Non-Accurate the Word of the Week
- The Dramatica Analysis Filter work your way through hundreds of analyses
- Identifying the Storyform of a Complete Story the concluding article on building the inequity of your story before you begin structuring the narrative with Dramatica and Narrative First
- Preparing to Write a Complete Story a series of articles on defining the inequity at the heart of your story
- Captain America: Civil War Discussion on Discuss Dramatica the last time I will ever link to this debate. I promise!
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Wrapping up the month long discussion on this superhero epic, I explain the purpose of an Influence Character perspective within the context of a complete story. I also dive into an extensive analysis of The LEGO Batman Movie. This latest animated feature parodies both Batman and story structure. If you ever wanted an introductory film to gleam Dramatica's concepts, this would be the one.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- The From Logline to Treatment E-Mail Course. Enroll for a free introduction to the magic of Dramatica.
- The LEGO Batman Movie analysis
- Preparing to Write a Complete Story a series of articles on defining the inequity at the heart of your story
- Identifying the Influence Character of a Complete Story the Influence Character is a perspective, not a character
- My analysis of Doubt and my analysis of Moonlight both redacted for more accuracy
- Dramatica's Storymind concept
- Melanie's Storymind Site - everything you ever wanted to know about Mental Relativity and Dramatica
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Continuing the series on Identifying the Key Story Points of a Narrative, I explain a method for singling out the various perspectives within a complete story. For each Throughline, conflict appears as either a Situation, an Activity, a Fixed Attitude, or a Manner of Thinking. Effective narratives balance out these four areas throughout the Four Throughlines. In addition to explaining a process for determining these areas in your story, I also explain what Dramatica means by Conceptualizing. While easier definitions might make Dramatica more approachable, an understanding of the original terminology leads to greater accuracy. And I start things off with a brief discussion of some tools I use and practices I engage in while working on this site and my own writing projects.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- The Dramatica Writers Group offers feedback for writers and their projects.
- Ulysses Everyone's go-to text editor of the moment. My personal favorite listed below.
- DeckSet App Text-based presentation editor for creating slides
- @viticci and @shawnblanc inspirational writers who blog for a living
- iaWriter My text editor of choice for writing articles and blog posts. Opinionated and simple.
- Shawn Blanc's Ulysses Setup The inspiration for my new arrangement of article ideas and drafts
- Captain America: Civil War Discussion on Discuss Dramatica and the moment when Dramatica Story Expert Mike Lucas thought Tony Stark was not the Main Character
- An Analysis of The Big Sick Insights into the success of this narrative and its unique arrangement of story points
- The Storyforming Series A collection of video tutorials gifting tips and tricks to accelerate your application of the Dramatica theory of story to your writing
- Dunkirk: Storyforming Twenty minutes on Christopher Nolan's epic WWII film through the lens of Dramatica; what worked and what could have been improved
- My Analysis of Dunkirk An in-depth look at the thematic structure of the film, pinpointing the missing pieces that trended the narrative towards propaganda
- Episode 37: Discovering Dramatica and the Genesis of Narrative First: Part One By far the most popular podcast and a great introduction to this site and Dramatica theory
- Plot Points and the Inciting Incident Without a doubt the most popular article on the entire site, this one explains the driving forces behind key plot points of a complete narrative
- trust a hero
- The Definition of Conceptualizing from a Dramatica perspective--more integrating and fitting in, rather than a plan that someone thinks is bad
- Conceptualizing Conceptualizing Great discussion from the community regarding this complex and often misunderstood term
- On The Waterfront Analysis Storyform and podcast covering the deep thematic structure of this classic film
- Preparing to Write a Complete Story A series of articles taking the writer from initial inequity, through Goal and Consequence to Protagonist and Antagonist, and finishing with an enlightening point-of-view on the various perspectives of conflict within a story
- The Dramatica Table of Story Elements A PDF version of Dramatica's Storymind at rest. Useful when listening to the podcast.
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, I continue the discussion surrounding Captain America: Civil War focusing this time on the Protagonist and Antagonist of a complete narrative. The visual planning tool Milanote makes an appearance, along with a brand new analysis of the romantic comedy, The Big Sick. A brand new feature starts this week--The Word of the Week--where I take one of Dramatica's terms and explain the ins and outs of how it works within story. This week's word is Preconscious (starting easy!). And finally, I wrap the show up with a look at that article on how Dramatica sees the Protagonist and Antagonist of a story.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - my premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- My analysis of Logan, chronicling the changing of the guard
- A Narrative First Membership grants you access to premium content
- Identifying the Goal and Consequence of a Complete Story covers two super important story points to improve the quality of your storytelling
- Identifying the Protagonist and Antagonist of a Complete Story like the article above, only this time about the competing forces of motivation in your story
- The Discuss Dramatica discussion about Captain America: Civil War a lot, and I mean, a lot of words about one superhero movie and Dramatica
- Milanote an awesome tool for planning out your story with the Dramatica theory of story
- Fountain Markdown markup language for screenwriters
- Why you need Quiet Time in order to quadruple your word count
- A Narrative First RoadMap helps you visualize your story in an entirely brand new way
- My analysis of The Big Sick and why you’ll laugh for hours...and then some
- The Story Limit and why you need one in your story. Audiences like to know when a story will end. Don’t let them down.
- A collection of films with a Problem of Reaction and now you can add The Big Sick to it
- Preconscious The Word of the Week a new feature where I discuss and explore one of Dramatica's complex theoretical terms
- The analysis for Zootopia and In Bruges, both films with an Overall Story Concern in the Preconscious
- The analysis page for Dr. Zhivago where you will find links to both the podcast and videocast of the Dramatica Users Group analysis of the film
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this podcast, I go into a deep thematic analysis of Logan and Dunkirk, and then begin the first in a series of conversations surrounding Captain America: Civil War. If you have ever been interested in how the Dramatica theory of story works and how you could use it to improve the quality of your storytelling to the level of these films, you will want to check out this episode.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Narrative First Recent Updates - the latest in story structure and story analysis from a Dramatica point of view
- From Logline to Treatment free email course to help you start writing a great story
- My review of Logan deep thematic analysis using the Dramatica theory of story to explain why it’s so awesome
- The Throughlines of Dunkirk quick look at the Four Throughlines, well almost Four Throughlines of this great film
- You and I are Both Alike Video Montage the latest version of this key concept of narrative
- Learning Heroes vs. Teaching Heroes my article discussing a more accurate way to think of these two terms
- Dramatica Table of Story Elements download the PDF of Dramatica’s model of story
- Become a Narrative First Member and gain access to premium content like the Storyforming Videos mentioned in the podcast
- My review of Captain America: Civil War apparently the most controversial analysis of my entire career
- Sebastien deCastell read the Greatcoats series and the Spellslinger series. You’ll love them!
- The Captain America: Civil War discussion on Discuss Dramatica. Be prepared, it’s a long and intensive discussion, but you’ll learn a ton about how Dramatica works
- The Plot Sequence Report for Captain America: Civil War check out Dramatica's insane ability successfully predict the sequences of a narrative
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
The second season of story structure and story analysis begins! In this episode, I catch you up on the latest changes to the site and discuss why Moonlight won Best Picture.
In two months, I've re-written a screenplay and planned out two complete television series. The secret? Understanding how to leverage the power of the Dramatica theory of story to craft meaningful narratives. I explain why in this episode as well as successfully predict what would be wrong with Dunkirk from a story structure standpoint! (I recorded this episode before the film was released). Finally, I talk about my re-analysis of Moonlight and explain the exact part of the narrative I felt was missing the first time I saw the film.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premier service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- A Story is an Argument the difference between a series of events and meaningful events
- The Relationship Story Throughline the key to bringing heart into a narrative
- Become a Narrative First Member and gain access to insightful premium content
- My Most Recent Updates the latest and greatest in story structure and story analysis presented in reverse chronological order (i.e., a blog)
- Sing! my analysis of the film and an explanation why it seems so familiar
- Despicable Me 3 my analysis of a film that, while entertaining in parts, lacks a coherent and functional story
- Wonder Woman my deep structural analysis of a great comic-book film from DC
- Storyforming Series: Wonder Woman video tutorial on using Dramatica to analyze the thematic issues of this film. Exclusive to Narrative First Members
- My Improved Analysis of Moonlight incorporating many of the changes I discovered while hosting the...
- Dramatica Users Group Analysis of Moonlight–a 2.5-hour class explaining the Dramatica approach to breaking down a great story.
- The Throughlines of Moonlight further examination of the thematic structure of this Oscar winner
- On the Main Character’s Problem-Solving Style articles and blog posts discussing this vital concept of story structure
In addition to wrapping up the events of last month, we showcase two interviews--one with a writer new to Dramatica and the other, with a writer who discovered Dramatica.
Dramatica will save your life. Whether within the story room or out there in the real world, Dramatica's unique understanding into what makes narrative--and therefore us--work allows you to weather any storm. In the story room, where you're constantly barraged by one story note after the next, Dramatica's storyform helps ensure that you don't lose sight of your original intent. In the real world, the idea that there is no real solution--only different contexts--ensures that one day we might enjoy a little bit of world peace.
We then finish off our series on Generating Dramatic Tension by taking a look at narratives with a Four-Act structure and discuss how looking at story structure holistically might just be the thing you need to do in order to complete your beloved novel or screenplay.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Episode 37: Discovering Dramatica and the Genesis of Narrative First: Part One part one of our introductory podcast on all things Dramatica and Narrative First
- Episode 38: Discovering Dramatica and the Genesis of Narrative First: Part Two part two of our introductory podcast on all things Dramatica and Narrative First
- Main Character and Perspective thinking of the Main Character more as a point-of-view rather than an actual character
- Stalag 17 a Dramatica Users Group analysis of a film that turns out to have a collective Main Character
- Understanding Steadfastness and Change in a Character an explanation as to the shift in perspective identified within the Main Character’s Resolve
- B.F.G. our analysis of this painful, yet beautiful film
- E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Users Group Analysis our Dramatica group analysis of this beautiful tear-jerker story
- In Regards to the Inciting Incident why this popular term of story structure fails to adequately express the flashpoint of narrative
- "You and I Are Both Alike" Video montage a collection of key moments in narrative that specifically focus on the differential between seeing things as separate or discrete, and seeing things as blended
- Generating Dramatic Tension Within Each Act of Your Story: Part Five our final article on using Dramatica’s objective storypoints to define subjective tension felt within your characters
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Experience writing with us.
What happened to the Narrative First podcast? We've actually been writing on several different projects. One a big budget animated feature, the other a super low-budget indie animated film, and the last an epic adult animated cult series. Details on all to be provided in the months to come, but for now--we're freakin' busy!
When we're heads down and plugged in and focused we tend to obsess over one song. It's not unusual for us to listen to the same song over and over again on repeat simply because we're too into what we're writing to bother changing to the next track. Once we find our groove, we lay into it and listen to it incessantly for hours at a time.
At CalArts it was Van Halen, when we started it was Girl Talk (inspired by CGP Gray and Myke Hurley's Cortext podcast), and this year--at least this last week--it's something completely brand new.
So sit back, strap in, and experience the thrill of what it sounds like to write with us.
Show Notes & Links
- Run Video
- Cortex Podcast a truly inspiring podcast on workflows and simulated open road truck driving
- Redundant Office the episode where Grey discusses his writing process and "All Day" by Girl Talk
In this second part of our two part series, we continue our introduction to the development of the Dramatica theory of story and Narrative First. Join us as we unearth the top 16 articles on story structure & story analysis, everything from evaluating competing paradigms to exploring the magic of Dramatica to the essence of perfect scene structure. If you're new to Dramatica or Narrative First, this podcast series beckons you forth. And if you're not new--you just mind fond something you missed the first time around.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- Analysis of Jane Eyre the 2011 version directed by Cary Fukunaga
- The Throughlines of Jane Eyre our popular weekly feature returns with a look at this story about relationships
- Our Analysis of Arrival find out the storyform ahead of the Users Group Meeting
- The Dramatica Users Group meeting meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month
- The Narrative First Articles hundreds and hundreds of insightful articles on story structure & story analysis
- Writing Complete Stories the very first complete article that bridges the gap between the vault and the articles. Also, why every Pixar film is better than most other studio films.
- Not Everything Is A Hero’s Journey joyous relief for those who can't stand this idea of story as some spiritual growth of character thing.
- The Difference Between Neo and Luke Skywalker continuation of why the Hero's Journey is deficient in its understanding of narrative
- The Luke Skywalker Character Arc video montage showing his problem of Test
- The Neo Character Arc video montage showing his problem of Disbelief
- The MacGuffin is a Story anyone who uses this term does not hold a comprehensive understanding of story
- Plot Points and the Inciting Incident time to retire Inciting Incident in favor of Dramatica's Story Driver
- The Reason for Acts a companion article to the previous explaining why Acts even exist
- How An Inequity--And A Story--Is Made the basis for the justification process that runs Dramatica
- The Veil Between Author and Audience visualizing the place between intent and understanding
- What You’re Missing By Not Understanding Dramatica, The Real Magic Behind Great Stories, and The Magic of the Storyform all grant insight into why we love Dramatica more than anything else out there
- Forget the Cat, Save Yourself! the Hero's Journey isn't the only deficient story paradigm out there...meet orderless beats!
- Distrust the Process™ why figure it out ahead of time, when you can ruin everyone's lives with last minute changes?!
- The Fallacy of the Two-Hander taking umbrage with the idea of "two" Protagonists
- The Tragedy of James Bond the Antagonist why thinking of him as an Antagonist only confounds your understanding of Dramatica
- The Shawshank Analysis watch the Paleo version of me discuss this great narrative
- The Main Character Playground our tool for freeing your creative mind
- Writing a Perfectly Structured Scene with Dramatica the culmination of all our previous work...up to today.
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, we offer an introduction to the development of the Dramatica theory of story and Narrative First. In addition, we dive into our unique collection of Vault articles written during our first four years. Short and sweet, these articles provide a great place for writers and producers new to Dramatica to learn the basics of the theory.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- The Narrative First Vault the bulk of this week's podcast and the repository for articles written pre-2010
- The Narrative First Articles the subject matter of next week's podcast and the heartbeat of Narrative First
- Writing Complete Stories the breaking point between the old and the new, and the nexus of the Narrative First approach towards better storytelling
- Main Character & Meaning our compilation of articles bridging the gap between the Vault and Articles
- The Main Character/Protagonist Debacle an entertaining read wherein I try to teach the way Dramatica sees the difference between the Main Character and the Protagonist
- Redefining Main Character and Protagonist our original article explaining the difference between the two in a functioning story
- The Dramatica theory of story a good place to start if you want to spend the next 20 years learning story theory!
- The Throughlines of Field of Dreams our look into the sources of conflict found in this unique baseball fantasy flick
- Throughline Thursdays our weekly feature exploring a key concept of the Dramatica theory of story
- The Beginnings of Dramatica see where it all started...in Melanie's childhood backyard
- Dramatica: Past, Present, Future, and Beyond a two-hour mega video on the development of the Dramatica theory of story presented by one of the theory's co-creators Melanie Anne Phillips
- Dramatica analysis of The Americans a deep thematic analysis of the Pilot episode of this FX series
- Dramatica analysis of Stalag-17 our analysis of a film with a shared group Main Character perspective
- Seward Street my character animation blog that doesn't exist anymore (sad face Emoji)
- Spielberg's War of the Worlds My first attempt at analyzing a film from Spielberg's private screening room
- The Throughlines of Manchester by the Sea a look at the sources of conflict contained in this beautiful and moving tragedy
- Plotting Your Story with Dramatica our series of articles this podcast and the next briefly interrupted...
- James Bond is NOT the Antagonist last week's podcast on the reality of what happens when you try to warp a narrative to go against Author's intent
- Disney's Tangled: Before Ever After our work on this beloved children's series
- The Release of Saint's Blood a brilliantly fun swashbuckling adventure by Sebastien deCastell we helped develop
- What Character Arc Really Means our introductory article and video montage of Steadfast Main Characters
- Two Sides of the Same Coin the classic "You and I" moment found in many a narrative gets the montage treatment in this article
- Meaningful Endings our four-part series on the importance of drafting an ending with purpose
- Series of Articles the spot for articles tied together under a common banner of truth
- Compilation of Vault Articles a similar hangout place for likeminded articles, only these compile the Vault articles
- A Case of the Missing Heart a look at The Nightmare Before Christmas and its complete lack of emotion
- A Story is an Argument a short video compilation of successful arguments and how Author's intent figures into the creation of a successful narrative
- Stories are Like Birthday Cake Dramatica's unique perspective on story exists because it looks at the ingredients of story, not how it tastes
- Dramatica Simplified If you're new to Dramatica, this is where you should start. If you have twenty years of experience with Dramatica, this is where you should start.
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
No matter how hard you try to twist it, James Bond will always be the Protagonist--as long as you accurately account for the drive towards resolution. One of the first things a writer learns when they come to Dramatica is this idea of looking at characters from an objective point-of-view. Enticing as it may seem, the idea that James Bond works towards preventing or avoiding resolution runs counter to the holistic nature of the story points within the Dramatica storyform.
Also, with Opening Day happening across America this week we take an in-depth look at the Four Throughlines of Field of Dreams and explain why the film feels so different from many other baseball pics.
Ready to have complete stories beamed directly into your nervous system? Fear not, Narrative First and Dramatica will be there to help make the transition a smooth and painless procedure.
This week we discuss the singularity and the hope that those in charge of our Brave New World know a thing or two about the Dramatica theory of story. After all, if you're going to invade the mind you might as well have a working model of how it problem-solves and justifies, amiright?
The Spike Jonze indie-tech film her takes center stage for this week's Throughline Thursdays and we answer email concerning the wacky plot progressions Dramatica offers up for some stories. Oh, and we look at the most perfect 3-Act Structure film of all time, Witness.
Show Notes & Links
- Dramatica Why not link to it? We talk about it pretty much every single day.
- Discuss Dramatica Forums official Dramatica discussion forums...for now.
- Dramatica Writers Google+ Community Remember when Google+ was going to replace Facebook? This used to be the place for Dramatica discussion. Linked for history.
- The Throughlines of her this week's Throughline Thursdays offering
- Elon Musk's Neuralink in 70 years we won't recognize ourselves
- Dramatica - Where'd the Idea Come From? one version of Melanie explaining Knowledge, Thought, Ability, and Desire
- "You and I are both alike" the classic Dramatica montage between Main and Influence Character
- The Throughlines of Manchester by the Sea from Dramatica's point-of-view, the same Genre structurally as her
- The Throughlines of Arrival similar to her with the flopping of the Overall and Relationship Story Throughlines\
- The Narrative First Throughlines Collection our archive of Throughline studies in film
- The Difference Between Main Character and Protagonist The classic 3-Act Structure, Witness, is not as perfect as many would have you believe.
- Super positive feedback we're making a difference here, people.
- Protagonists Who Act as Influence Characters the ultimate collection of the unknown who drive stories towards resolution
- Dramatica analysis of Witness the official Dramatica analysis of this classic film
It's one thing to play God when writing a story, but wouldn't it be great if you could see what the major plot points in your story look like from the point-of-view of your characters? Well, now you can.
In this episode, not only do we present our greatest impression yet, but we also manage to cover the Four Throughlines of Manchester by the Sea, speak about the objective and subjective nature of story paradigms, and lay down a detailed approach for connecting story structure to your characters.
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
Show Notes & Links
- Narrative First Membership special goodies for friends of the show
- The Throughlines of Manchester by the Sea the Four Throughlines for this magnificent film
- The "You and I Are Both Alike" Montage the classic Dramatica introductory video. There is a structural reason why this phrase keeps popping up
- The Incredibles Dramatica analysis of this Brad Bird spectacular
- The Roman Holiday Videocast our Dramatica analysis of this classic presented in vivid color
- Episode #33: The Most Boring Storyform in the Entire World last week's episode about the Issue of Self-yawn-Interest
- Main Character Approach does the Main Character of a story prefer to take action in the external world or do they prefer to internalize when it comes to personal problems?
- Main Character Problem-Solving Style does the Main Character of a story prefer to take action in the external world or do they prefer to internalize when it comes to personal problems?
- Star Wars the Dramatica analysis of a film I saw 250+ times on my parent's first VCR
- The Matrix the Dramatica analysis of naked batteries
- Generating Dramatic Tension Within Each Act Of Your Story: Part One how to use the Story Requirements and Story Prerequisites to generate tension in your story
- Plotting Your Story With Dramatica the series of articles on how to plot your entire story out using Dramatica's insightful and powerful story points
- Subscribe to Narrative First be a friend and join the greatest living story structure site on Earth
- The Veil Between Author and Audience key insight on the difference between Dramatica and other theories or paradigms of narrative
- Screenwriting with Outliner4D and Dramatica on a Mac our experiment with reinstalling this Windows program on our beautiful Macs
- The Plot Sequence Report articles and blog posts covering this magical report from Dramatica
- Finding the Major Dramatic Question Of Your Story instead of guessing, you can actually tie it to the deep thematics of your narrative
- Dramatica: A Fractal Model of Story Structure it just keeps going...and going...and going...
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we cover the world's most familiar--and therefore, drabbest and dreariest--story structure. A popular message out of America in the mid to late 20th century, this storyform speaks of the essence what it is to be Male and focused on achievement.
Show Notes & Links
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- Why Daylights Savings is a Bad Idea Smart people agree
- Narrative First Membership Support your favorite story structure publication while receiving hidden insights into the magic of Dramatica
- "Nosedive" Black Mirror Episode Definitely check this one out--a complete story in an hour!
- Outlining a Television Series with Dramatica everything you need to know about planning four years ahead
- Tangled: Before Ever After I hear the story is good
- Episodes of Sex and the City and Ally McBeal with complete stories in them
- Dramatica analysis of Roman Holiday You can find links to the podcast and video of the meeting here
- Next month's Dramatica analysis of an episode of The Americans this replaces the Breaking Bad episode we were going to do. Sorry, but this kid hates spoilers!
- Dramatica analysis of The Sixth Sense group analysis of this scary film
- Dramatica analysis of American Beauty sad sack finds beauty in suburbia
- Dramatica analysis of The Usual Suspects the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that every story was a Hero's Journey
- Dramatica analysis filter Bookmark this link and use it as much as you can
- Rethinking and Revisiting the Reservoir Dogs Analysis the article where we show a more accurate way of determine the storyform for this indie favorite
- Storyforms with an Overall Story Issue of Self-Interest quick link so you can follow along as you listen to the excitement
- Dramatica analysis of Witness the "greatest" screenplay of the 1980s through the eyes of Dramatica
- Our analysis of Arrival our view of this spectacular sci-fi story
- Plotting Your Story with Dramatica our current series of articles outlining a specific methodology for developing a solid structure for your next story
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we make the connection between Arrival and the holistic approach to story structure offered by the Dramatica theory of story. Why speculate about how your story will end when you can make meaningful progress by developing a narrative that supports your artistic intent?
In addition we take a look into creating dramatic tension and hooking your audience into your story by looking both subjectively from within you story and objectively from outside of your story. Sound cool? Then dive in and open up your mind to a brand new way of thinking about story and story structure.
Show Notes & Links
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- Narrative First Storyforms All the Dramatica storyforms from our analyses located on one convenient page
- Arrival Our analysis of the Best Picture nominee
- The Yellow Birds Our analysis of what will probably be a Best Picture nominee next year
- Discuss Dramatica our forum for anyone interested in learning more and more about the Dramatica theory of story
- Storyform discussion of Pixar's WALL-E It was worth a shot :)
- Narrative First Membership page the place to go if you want to sign up to support our site and have access to all of our cool super secret features
- Finding the Major Dramatic Question of Your Story our third article in a series on Plotting with Dramatica
- The Story Goal the concept of the Story Goal within a narrative. Great place to start when writing a film.
- Series of articles on The Story Goal A power packed page full of insight into this very important concept of narrative.
- Inner Worlds Outer Worlds Fun documentary on the fractal nature of the Universe. Dramatica works, in part, because of its fractal nature
- The Dramatica Mentorship Program learn everything we learned about Dramatica over the past two decades in less than six months!
- On the Nature of Daylight the opening and closing score for Arrival by Max Richter. Awesome and emotional. Put on repeat for best results.
- Ex Machina Mea Culpa the podcast where I admit to getting a storyform wrong and explain where the misinterpretation came from
- Ex Machina: The Narrative Code Hidden within the Machine our article explaining the Ex Machina effect--where you see the impact from the Influence Character as the source of the Main Character's issues...not so!
- Dramatica Table of Story Elements follow along by downloading a PDF of the all-important Table of Story Elements
- More insight into the storyform for Arrival an explanation of what we discovered once we created the actual Dramatica storyform based on our initial analysis
- Tying the Towers of Story Structure Together discovering the connective tissue between the individual Throughlines of a story
- Slipstream Time Hacking GREAT summary of a book exploring productivity through the eyes of general relativity
Welcome back!
In this, our first episode of the second season of the Narrative First Podcast, we catch up on all things story structure & story analysis including a look into the Oscar winner for Best Picture in 2016. Tons of links and articles and blog posts from the past three months for you to review. In fact, too many to summarize in this short paragraph. Best to scroll down to the Show Notes and follow along while you listen.
If you have any questions or would like help structuring your story with Dramatica please contact us at http://narrativefirst.com/contact.
Show Notes & Links
- Narrative First on Apple News! Catch up with everything in story structure & story analysis
- Subscribe to Narrative First RSS Readers click here
- The Narrative First Storyforming Series Video tutorials on how to decipher the deep thematic structure of a story
- The Toy Story Dilemma Woody is clearly a Steadfast Main Character
- Rethinking and Revisiting the Reservoir Dogs Analysis a more accurate version of the storyform for this great film
- The Purpose Behind Every Great Story what makes a story a story
- The Difference Between Being and Becoming in Dramatica There is a difference. And it's important.
- Identifying the Number of Acts in Your Story Your story's thematic material determines the number of acts. Cool, right?
- Tangled: The Series Premiere! The show we consulted on premieres this month on the Disney channel!
- Outlining a Television Series with Dramatica our article describing the process of folding storyforms within storyforms to create meaningful television
- Z: A Broken Story an example of a film that blends concerns from different locations.
- I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore our analysis of this skittish film
- The Yellow Birds Fantastic Iraq war drama that brings to mind Platoon
- The Best Picture of 2016 Doesn't Have a Story But does that really matter when it comes to moving cinema?
- Moonlight Our analysis of the Best Picture of 2016
- A Grand Argument Story What Dramatica is all based on.
- Propaganda from a Dramatica perspective. It's not necessarily a bad thing.
- Sicko An example of "positive" propaganda (Listen to the podcast attached to this film for more info)
- Moonlight Deep Thematic Analysis Group analysis of the film coming this July
- Zootopia Our analysis of this Oscar-winning film
- Dramatica analysis of Zootopia the official Dramatica storyform for this Disney classic
- YouTube recording of the Zootopia analysis direct link to the 2-hour video of our group analysis of the film
- Dramatica analysis of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial Our wrap up of the night including links to the official storyform
- Stranger Things analysis a look at how the television series is basically the reverse, structurally, of E.T.
- Dramatica analysis of The Princess Bride thoughts on The Princess Bride analysis including links to the official storyform
- The Yearly Dramatica Story Embroidery Class Watch Dramatica story experts create a complete story in less than two hours!
- Predicting Who Will Listen to Your Story It's all about setting that Main Character Problem-Solving Style. If you want the bigger audience, choose Linear!
In this, our final episode of the 2016 season, we discuss the most important part of any story--the intersection of the objective and subjective points-of-view. We also discuss our analysis of Moana and wrap up our series on using Dramatica to write for Nanowrimo.
Narrative First publishes yearly from March through November. The podcast will continue to run over the holiday season and into the new year. If you have any questions or would like help structuring your story with Dramatica please contact us at http://narrativefirst.com/contact.
Show Notes & Links
- 30+ Page Forum Post on DoneDealPro about the Protagonist and Main Character Watch as I patiently try to explain the difference between a Protagonist and Main Character.
- Our Bookstore Download E-Book compilations of our articles
- The Narrative First Blog Semi-daily posting on story structure & story analysis
- Transforming Real Life into a Story and Disney's Moana Our podcast featuring an interview Disney Head of Story David Pimentel
- The Crucial Element to Telling a Great Story This week's companion article on the Crucial Element and what it means for your story
- Forget the Cat, Save Yourself! With all due respect, no more saving cats please.
- Moana Our analysis of the Disney animated feature starring Captain Kirk and Spock.
- Hacksaw Ridge Our analysis of the Mel Gibson directed WWII drama set in Okinawa 1945.
- Finding Your Own Unique Voice When Writing for Nanowrimo Last week's article where we secretly wove in the Crucial Element into our sample story.
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, we show you how to take that burning desire within your heart to be heard and apply it to a concrete and solid story structure. The Dramatica storyform is a powerful and effective tool for organizing your story's argument. But you still need to know what it is you want to say with your work. By connecting to that inner voice and discovering what is near and dear to you, you will have a better idea of what to actually attach to the storyform to give it passion and heart.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Finding Your Own Unique Voice While Writing for Nanowrimo This week's article and focus for the podcast. Measuring your heart's greatest desire up against the Dramatica storyform.
- Creating a Story from Scratch for Nanowrimo The first in our series of articles on using Dramatica to help write stories for Nanowrimo. In this article we take a first look at the Western Occult story mentioned in this week's podcast.
- A Method for Generating Conflict Last year's Thanksgiving article about generating the fire for your story's smoke by positioning one truism against another.
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, we learn how to use the storyform from an inspiring narrative to help define the structure of your own. But first, a roundup of this month's Dramatica analysis of Spotlight, and an insight into how to run a story room in order to effectively get everyone to come to a consensus as to the most important story point in a narrative--the Main Character Resolve.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Dramatica Users Group the monthly gathering of Dramatica story experts and newbies looking to better understand this complicated and wonderful theory of story
- Spotlight Analysis the home page for the official deep thematic analysis of the Academy Award-winning film, Spotlight
- Discuss Dramatica the official discussion board for all things Dramatica
- Spotlight Discussion on Discuss Dramatica original discussion earlier this year concerning the Main Character and Influence Character from the film
- When the Main Character is Not the Protagonist an article covering the important difference between these two aspects of narrative
- How to Tell if Your main Character Faces Overwhelming or Surmountable Odds our article from earlier this year describe the Audience Appreciation of Essence and how it defines how dramatic tension feels to an Audience
- Main Character Resolve the key story point to every meaningful narrative. Does the Main Character's worldview Change or does it Remain Steadfast?
- Creating a Story From Scratch for Nanowrimo our first in a series of articles showing how writers can use Dramatica's powerful Gist feature to create original and unique stories
- Brainstorming a Brand New Genre for Nanowrimo the second article in the same series showing how writers can combine Gist Collections to create something truly memorable (and insane!)
- Become a Narrative First Member! Want exclusive access to our Gist Collections and Storyforming Series video tutorials? Become a member and start accelerating your understanding of Dramatica today
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we create a brand new category of story by combining Gist Collections from two different Genres. In addition, we take a look at Dreamworks' animated film Trolls and Mel Gibson's first film in ten years, Hacksaw Ridge. One is fun and functionally broken, one is moving and solidly structured. Care to guess which is which?
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Narrative First Membership Sign up for exclusive access to our Genre Gists Collections and Storyforming Series
- Narrative First Storyforms Exclusive area for members to read and download storyforms for complete films
- Narrative First Storyforming Series Video tutorial series showing how to use Dramatica to analyze a film
- Trolls our analysis of this fun film about finding your happy place
- Hacksaw Ridge our analysis of this moving film about staying true to your convictions
- Brainstorming a New Genre for Nanowrimo this week's article on creating a completely original story with a functional and meaningful narrative
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we show how you can come up with a compelling and meaningful story in less than two hours using Dramatica's powerful brainstorming tools. We also dive into a deep analysis of the fantastic Captain Fantastic, written and directed by Matt Ross and starring Viggo Mortensen. The film is a shining example of combining both objective and subjective views into a concrete and effective narrative.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Nanowrimo National Novel Writing Month
- Captain Fantastic an analysis of this fantastic film
- Writing Complete Stories an introduction to the Four Throughlines of a complete narrative
- Podcast: Predicting Who Will Listen to Your Story our podcast on setting Audience Empathy with the Main Character's Problem-Solving Style (warning: extremely controversial!(not really))
- Creating a Story from Scratch for Nanowrimo use Dramatica's brainstorming tools to form a compelling and meaningful story in less than an hour and an half!
- Narrative First Membership subscribe and receive access to hundreds of thousands of gists for use in Dramatica!
- Main Character Unique Ability articles and blog posts covering this important story point
- Dramatica Mentorship Program our flagship service designed to drastically improve your understanding of story through Dramatica!
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we take you step-by-step through a deep thematic analysis of The Dark Horse--a tremendous independent film out of New Zealand.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Alex Hull Wins Movie of the Week on Destiny! My son, who composed and performed the theme for the Narrative First podcast won the community prize for the video game Destiny with his 15-minute orchestration of the score from the game.
- Destiny Become Legend Symphony A direct link to Alex's symphony. Couldn't be prouder!
- Nanowrimo November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo. If you need help preparing the structure of your story, you might want to consider the Dramatica Mentorship Program
- Swiss Army Man A story of a man and a dead man farting their way to happiness
- Storyforming: The Dark Horse Screencast showing how a Dramatica Story Expert unravels the hidden storyform of a great film
- The Dark Horse Our original analysis of the film
- How to Find the Narrative Code Within a Great Story Our article documenting the process of analyzing a solid narrative
In this episode not only do we cover how to successfully analyze a story with Dramatica, but we also look into four different kinds of scenes found in the psycho-technological thriller Ex Machina. And as a special bonus feature, Dramatica co-creator Chris Huntley offers his insights into how to successfully build a storyform.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Ex Machina analysis This is the updated, correct analysis!
- Rogue One trailer Join me in watching this way too many times.
- Storymind Dramatica co-creator Melanie Anne Phillip's blog
- The Fractal Nature of the Storymind the difference between a single mind and a collective mind
- Using Dramatica to Assess Read World Narratives Great article on using Dramatica to predict human behavior
- The Essence of Dramatic Tension a deeply held conviction meets the quest to achieve a goal
- Dramatica Users Group analysis of Ex Machina Two hours of story structure goodness
- Upcoming Dramatica Users Group analysis of Spotlight The Oscar winner goes under the microscope
- The Four Modalities of Scene Construction Everything you ever wanted to know about TKAD, PRCO, SRCA, and PASS but were too afraid to ask
- The Varied Scene Illustrations of Ex Machina Four different ways of illustrating scenes in this fantastic film
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Our original analysis of Ex Machina relied on subjective interpretation and proved faulty. This updated analysis clears up those issues by taking an objective point-of-view of the film's narrative. In addition we cover how Dramatica is a conflict-detection machine and how its unique set of story points identify the source of that conflict.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
The Dramatica Mentorship Program - our premiere service designed to give you the tools and techniques for applying Dramatica's powerful concepts to your stories.
- Narrative First Search Feature - Search finally installed!
- The Nice Guys Analysis - deep thematic insight of the film's story structure
- Ex Machina Analysis - if read within a day of publishing this podcast it might be wrong, if more than it will be accurate
- Dramatica Takes a Week to Learn - Alex Epstein's insight into Dramatica
- On Acts, Sequences, and Scenes in Dramatica - thoughts on improving Dramatica's implementation of various levels of story structure
- Ex Machina: The Narrative Code Hidden Within the Machine -
- Series of articles on Audience Appreciations - Four Audience Appreciations, four articles of story goodness
- How to Tell If Your Main Character Faces Overwhelming or Surmountable Odds - our brilliant look at the Audience Appreciation of Essence
- The Refusal of the Call: The Resistance or Flow Through a Narrative - an in-depth look at the Audience Appreciation of Tendency
- Predicting Who Will Listen to Your Story - our article on the Story Limit and its impact on the type of Audience that will arrive for a story
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we begin our discussion of deep thematic scene structure through the lens of the Dramatica theory of story. Typically we don't get this deep into the theory--at the Scene level the signal to noise ratio is so great that any inaccuracy will wash out when it comes to the meaning of the narrative. Still, it's fascinating to see perfect story structure working at this level.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Writing Complete Stories the first official article for Narrative First
- The Vault of Narrative First articles the vault for all the articles and notes prior to 2010
- The Narrative First Analysis Showcase over ten years of analysis organized by the very great...and the not so great...
- The Idea of the Script Consultant our article on that evil breed of leeches that suck the marrow from unsuspecting writers
- Ratatouille: Why the Film Seems Too Long a structural explanation for why the film seems to end twice
- Keeping the Story Limit Consistent
- Story Thoughts on Scenes anthology of every blog post regarding the construction of Scenes with Dramatica
- How Scenes Relate to Dramatica's Story Elements Melanie's groundbreaking insight into the Events of a Scene
This week we shorten things up a bit and take a look at one story point: the Main Character Approach. Does your Main Character prefer to solve problems externally or internally? The answer creates a pathway for the Audience to become a part of your story.
In addition, we take a quick analysis at the live action Jungle Book movie from Disney.
Remember, you can always Ask Us a Question we answer everything, or Leave a Voicemail click the microphone button and leave a message after the beep.
Show Notes & Links
- Separating out the Relationship Throughline from the relationship in the Overall Story
- Figuring Out the Act Order of Seasons for Your Show With Dramatica you can figure it out before you even start writing a single word
- A Skeleton of Scene Structure in Dramatica the beginning of our investigation into the structure of an individual scene
- The Dramatic Components of a Scene more insight into the creation of scenes using Dramatica
- All the Light We Cannot See One of the greatest novels of all time
- The Eight Essential Ingredients of Story Last week's article on the the first two dynamic questions: Main Character Resolve and Main Character Growth
- The Eight Essential Ingredients of Story Podcast Last week's podcast and first in a series on the eight dynamic questions from Dramatica
- Redefining Main Character and Protagonist A must read for anyone new to Dramatica
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In order to wind up the dramatic potential for a story, an Author must answer eight essential questions. In this episode, we cover the first two ingredients of an effective narrative.
Stories are not simply about three-dimensional characters bumping up against rising tension. Rather, they model the human mind's problem-solving process in an attempt to argue the effectiveness of a particular point-of-view. The closer a story mirrors this process the clearer it's message and the less likely an Audience will sense there are any story "holes".
We also take our first look at the animated film The Little Prince and offer a suggestion for improving the narrative drive that seems to die out towards the end of the film.
Links and Show Notes
- The Audience Appreciations of Story series of articles covering story points from the Audience's point-of-view
- From Logline to Treatment E-Mail Course sign up now and start developing that great story idea!
- How to Tell If Your Main Character Faces Overwhelming or Surmountable Odds the balance of two story points helps determine the essence of dramatic tension in a story
- What the Inciting Incident of a Story Really Is the difference between Inciting Incident and the Story Driver
- Robert the Bruce is Not the Main Character of Braveheart Robert the Bruce the Main Character? Ehhh.....
- How to Build a Strong Narrative great explanation of the inequity within a story
- The Little Prince fails to soar L.A. Times critic Charles Solomon's review of The Little Prince
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode, we wrap up our exploration of the Audience Appreciations found in Dramatica by discovering the true nature of the purpose of narrative. This is a big one you won't want to miss.
Also, our first caller!
Show Notes and Links
- Thoughts on Story Structure Our daily blog postings on story structure & story analysis
- Seth Godin's Blog Seth Godin's super inspirational daily blog
- Tim Ferris' Four Hour Work Week Blog Tim Ferris' blog (also super inspirational)
- Dramatica Users Group meeting the official monthly Dramatica Users Group meeting
- The Influence Character: The Path Not Taken a fascinating look at the relationship between the Influence and Main Character
- Paul Guliano on the Sequence Method - nice long video presentation on this popular sequencing method
- The Plot Sequence Report Dramatica's ultra-secret super weapon for understanding the structure of story from within your story!
- The Dramatica Mentorship Program Our flagship educational service
- Predicting Who Will Listen to Your Story our in-depth investigation into the Audience Appreciation of Reach
- How to Tell if You Main Character Faces Overwhelming or Surmountable Odds our in-depth investigation into the Audience Appreciation of Essence
- The Refusal of the Call: The Resistance or Flow Through a Narrative our in-depth investigation into the Audience Appreciation of Tendency
- Story Nature the Dramatica definition of Story Nature
- The Actual and Apparent Nature of Story Last year's article on Story Nature
- Main Character Resolve The story concept of Main Character Resolve: Changed or Steadfast?
- The Story Outcome The story concept of Story Outcome: Success or Failure?
- Meaningful Endings - a series of articles on how to create meaningful endings in your stories
- Dramatica and the Sequence Method our first look at how Dramatica matches up with the ever-popular sequence method
- The Veil Between Author and Audience if you read one article on story structure this year, this would be the one. The key to understanding everything
In this episode we cover the tendency of the Main Character's personal problems to either build-up dramatic resistance or facilitate a greater flow throughout the story. In addition, we analyze Nice Guys and Sing Street, two new films out for streaming that you should definitely take a look at.
Leave voicemail feedback for the show at narrativefirst.com/podcasts
Links and Show Notes
- From Logline to Treatment Our FREE email course to help you take your 2-3 sentence logline and turn it into a meaningful one-page treatment!
- How to Tell If Your Main Character Faces Overwhelming or Surmountable Odds Last week's article on the feeling of dramatic tension within a story
- Predicting Who Will Listen to Your Story Our first Audience Appreciation article on Reach -- determining the size of your audience based on key story points
- Tendency the official Dramatica definition of Tendency, the subject of this week's podcast
- The Reason for Acts a scientific explanation why every complete story consists of four Acts
- Not Everything is a Hero's Journey It really isn't, and any attempt to do so only diminishes the quality of conversation
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we take a look at the Audience Appreciation known as Essence and search for a new way to define it that is easy to understand for writers new to Dramatica. In addition, we have follow-up from last week's "controversial" podcast on Mental Sex and a brief Conversation with Melanie Anne Phillips, one of the co-creators of the theory.
Links and Show Notes
- What is Mental Relativity Melanie explains the foundation of Dramatica
- Mental Sex is Not Sexist We get letters. And sometimes they're not very well thought out.
- The Concept of Problem-Solving Last year's attempt to call me a sexist.
- Writing a Holistic Assassin Chris Huntley recommends an approach to writing a killer who prefers to solve problems holistically...
- The Throughlines of Sideways Last week's Throughline Thursdays takes a look at this Oscar-winning film
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
...and yes...
...that's me playing Journey's Faithfully at the end...:)
After follow-up, we dive into an analysis of Hell or High Water, the new Western from Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan. Following that we take a look at the Dramatica story point known as Audience Reach. By combining the Main Character's Problem-Solving Style with the Story Limit, writers can accurately predict who will be sitting in the audience.
Links and Show Notes
- Florence Foster Jenkins analysis - Deep thematic analysis of the film
- The Throughlines of Florence Foster Jenkins - Throughline analysis of the same film
- The Dramatica Table of Story Elements - link to a free PDF of the Table of Story Elements you can print out and keep with you wherever you go
- The Actual and Apparent Nature of Story - our article on the difference between Work stories and Dilemma stories
- Analysis of Star Wars, The Matrix, Braveheart, and Memento
- The Plot Sequence Report from Dramatica - a crazy report that actually shows writers what the structure of their story looks like from the character's point-of-view
- Main Character Problem-Solving Style - the story point that defines how the Main Character prefers to solve problems
- Story Limit - the story point that defines whether the story comes to an end because options have run out, or because time has run out
- Female Main Characters Who Think Like Female Main Characters - our article on the difference between Linear thinkers and Holistic thinkers
- Dramatica Analysis Filter - a collection of tools to help you discover the different combination of story points in over 300 films, novels, and plays
And don't forget...
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
We're very excited to announce that we hired our first two employees here at Narrative First! The explosion in requests for our services over the summer kicked our plans into high gear. We look forward to providing not only a higher quality of service, but also unique and compelling services not available elsewhere.
Story consultant Jon Gentry will be helping out with story analysis with an emphasis on real world narratives while vitality coach Summer De La Fuente will be using Dramatica to help locate and resolve their own personal issues.
More detailed info on our site within the coming days...
In addition, I cover my initial analysis of Florence Foster Jenkins.
Links and Show Notes
- The Dramatica Analysis Filter - search through hundreds of analyses to find just the right storyform
- Download the SparksGrove/Thoughtform analysis of ESPN, Pay TV, and OTT conflict - link to the original report provided by SparksGrove. Note that there are errors within the report that will be corrected at some in the future here on Narrative First
- ESPN Can't Stop Bleeding Subscribers - read how the cable sports giant lost 1.5 million subscribers during the 2nd quarter of 2016
- Traditional Pay TV Operators Surviving OTT Onslaught - read how Pay TV basically followed Thoughtform's analysis and found success by showing how insufficient and inadequate OTT services really are
And don't forget...
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
Download the action guide for this week's episode!
Following up last week's conversation regarding what it takes to transform real life into an actual story, we now take time out to cover the first steps you want to take when building that narrative. Starting with basic plot elements and then moving to complex character issues, we reveal the same process we use to help individuals and organizations begin to think deeply about their stories.
Links and Show Notes
- Last week's interview with Dave Pimentel, Disney's Head of Story on Moana
- Dramatica Users Group analysis of Stalag 17 watch or listen in on an analysis by Dramatica story experts
- The Master Storyteller Method Melanie's brand new process for working backwards through the Dramatica process.
-Transforming Real Life into a Story Last week's article on the foundation for transforming the real world into a narrative * 1-on-1 Story Consulting from Narrative First - our expert story service for individuals & organizations looking to tell the story of their lives
And don't forget...
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
After a brief interlude for follow-up, we cover an effective technique for turning events in the real world into a full functional complete story. Understanding the deep thematic elements of your narrative is key to connecting with your Audience.
-Transforming Real Life into a Story our article on how to do it
- Storyforming Screencast Series screencasts designed to show you how to use Dramatica to analyze a story
- The Dark Horse deep Dramatica analysis of this great film
- The Tendency of a Main Character to Drive a Story explanation of Dramatica's story point
Tendency - Dramatica's Grand Argument Story and what it means for a narrative
- Our deep analysis of Eddie the Eagle
- Our technique of Dramatic Playgrounds for use with Dramatica
- Disney's animated feature Moana
- Dave Pimentel's Instagram see what Dave looks like and all of his awesome drawings
And don't forget...
Narrative First theme by Alex Hull. Hear more on his Soundcloud, Operation Solace
In this episode we explore the Dramatica theory of story and how its ability to predict the intuition of a writer could possibly be the sole remaining piece of magic left on the planet. We then turn our attention to the latest Star Trek movie and wonder why they didn't use Dramatica to construct an emotionally fulfilling narrative.
Also. Epic music!
Links and Show Notes
Links and Show Notes
- Operation Solace: My 17-year old son's epic Soundcloud channel.
- Dramatica: Secrets of the Quad: Melanie's 2-hour mind-blowing video on how Dramatica works the way it does.
- Storyforming Series: Brand new ultra-cool video tutorial series on how to use Dramatica to uncover a story's unique storyform
- Character Arc Snapshots: Short 2-minute videos that describe the deep thematic elements behind a character's "arc"
- Story Concepts: Articles and blog posts organized by the story concept they cover
- Discussion on discuss.dramatica: Writers looking to pattern match Dramatica's storyform will always fail to arrive at a satisfying conclusion.
In this episode we look at the differences between Star Trek and Star Wars from a Dramatica point-of-view; looking at the structural differences in their narratives. We also explain why the Overall Story Throughline for The Fugitive is in Situation--not Activity as one would think.
Links
- The Narrative First Podcast - leave a message, listen to past episodes
- The Throughlines of Kramer vs. Kramer
- The Character Arc Snapshot videos Four videos showing how character arc works from a Dramatica point-of-view
- The Difference Between Neo and Luke Skywalker No more Hero's Journey, please.
- Download the Dramatica Table of Story Elements You can download a PDF of the Table at the top of the page. Grab it and put it in your Dropbox and take it with you wherever you go.
- The MacGuffin is a Joke It really is. If anyone uses this term to describe something going on in a story, run as fast as you can. They have no idea what they are talking about.
- Understanding the Personal Goal of Your Main Character
- Damatica analysis of Star Wars
- Dramatica analysis of Star Trek (2009)
- Dramatica analysis of The Fugitive
- Dramatica analysis of The Shawshank Redemption
In this episode, we offer some insight into how to really use Dramatica to increase the level on conflict in every story. Also, an analysis of the Angry Birds movie, and follow-up!
- Dramatica analysis of Kramer vs. Kramer
- Dramatica Users Group
- Six Basic Emotional Arcs research on subjective StoryWeaving
- When Backstory is Not Backstory article on backstory in Memento and Batman Begins
- Screenwriting: Beating the Odds more silly subjective research
- Understanding Dramatica's Complex Terminology Made Easier seeing all four levels of the Dramatica chart as a problem
In this episode we take a look at two blockbuster comic book movies...without actual stories. Why then did one do better than the other? Also, a recap on last week's Zootopia analysis and a brief look at Pixar's Finding Dory and the excellent short that plays with it, Piper.
This is also the first Narrative First podcast with a featured audio clip. Co-creator of the Dramatica theory Chris Huntley explains the Native American concept of 1,2,3,many and how it applies to Dramatica's quad theory...and life itself.
Links and Show Notes
- Zootopia a 3,000 word deep dive analysis of the Disney Animated Film
- Piper how Pixar encoded a complete story in under six minutes
- Writers Who Write the Same Main Character the first half of our analysis of Batman Begins
New format here for the Narrative First Podcast: a sort of rough-draft of ideas and thoughts on story and story structure. This week's analysis will cover Zooptopia--which had a bit of a story structure problem--and Batman Begins. I've been waiting 10 years to figure out the storyform and I finally did it. Hope you enjoy.
Two Sides of the Same Coin -- montage of "You and I" moments between Main and Influence Character
Narrative First RoadMap -- let me translate Dramatica for you and help figure out the unique storyform for your story
When the analyses are finished I'll post links to them here.
Narrative First Dramatica Mentorship Program -- enroll in a program designed to improve your story sense
Main Characters don't grow on their own--they need someone to come along who sees the world in a completely different light. They need an Influence Character. In this episode we take a look back at an article from the Vault, A Good Impact Character Makes Things Uncomfortable and take in our deep analysis of 99 Homes.
The Narrative First RoadMap
A Good Impact Character Makes Things Uncomfortable
Our Analysis of 99 Homes
How do you end writer's block forever? Know what it is you want to say and learn to use a tool that keeps you on the straight & narrow as you write that first draft. In addition, we take a deep thematic look at the movie Brooklyn from 2015.
Original article: How to End Writer's Block Forever
Our flagship Dramatica Mentorship Program
Our Analysis of Brooklyn
Melanie's presentation on Dramatica: Past, Present, Future, and Beyond
Our class on Learning How to Use Dramatica in a Day
In addition to taking a deep dive into Ryan Cooler's Creed, we also take another look at the Narrative First Playground Exercises--a strong and resilient system for looking at narrative makes it easier to play at writing.
Our flagship Dramatica Mentorship Program -- Rid yourself of writer's block. Forever.
Our Narrative First RoadMap service--an outline to start writing from in less than a week
New classes & workshops from Narrative First & Dramatica co-creator Melanie Anne Phillips - Foundation|Next
Continuing last week's article on generating story ideas, we take a look at how to get up close and personal with your deepest intentions. Using a tool known as the Playground Exercises, we discuss how you can use Dramatica to dive deep into your own subconscious and discover something honest for your to write.
Finding Your True Self Through Writing - original article
Dramatica Mentorship Program - a focused and specialized course designed to teach you how to do the exercises discussed in the podcast.
Narrative First Subscribe Page - the place where you can sign up for the classes and workshops being presented by Narrative First and Storymind beginning this month
In this episode we cover an introduction to the Playground Exercises--a fun and effective way to quickly produce richly thematic storylines.
Links discussed:
Generating an Abundance of Story Ideas
Finding Your True Self through Writing
Introducing The Narrative First RoadMap--a quick and easy way to have a fully formed outline of your story idea--in less than one week. Have that first draft finished in less than two months with our personalized outlines.
Narrative First analysis of Inside Out
Update on the original analysis of Inside Out - We had one teensy weensy story element that was out of place. This corrects that.
Our first blogcast episode! Here we explore the problems with opening the hood of the Dramatica story engine and why you're better served taking what the application gives you on trust...and then get back to writing.
This article originally appeared on the Narrative First website under the title The Problem with Reverse-Engineering Dramatica. Hundreds of insightful articles like this one can be found in the Narrative First archives.
Contact us with any questions or comments you may have.