from the morgue

A Ciabatta is Born, and Dramatica

Baby Rebecca got the message. Congrats to Jack and Heather! Lots of pictures here. Cal and I were rooting for you to name her Ciabatta, but Rebecca will do just fine.

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Anyone who's ever thought seriously about narrative would do well to check out Dramatica. It's a theory of story unlike any I've encountered before.

Its premise is that there is a specific type of story, the "grand argument story", that has a particular resonance. This type of story is a representation of a human mind turning over a problem and coming to a conclusion. It teases out all of the elements that must be included in order for a story to become a grand argument story.

I found it incredibly insightful. I have believed for a long time that narrative is something that is, to some extent, hardwired into us; that certain stories have special power and meaning. Dramatica is an attempt to identify the structure of those stories, so that writers can create them.

I won't go into details - there are a lot of them. There's a free-to-download Dramatica book in pdf thats a few hundred pages long. They're really trying to push the software they came up with for sale - the software takes the theory and turns it into an operation, asking questions and making suggestions to build up a grand argument story. The theory itself is free.

I find it fascinating to consider that the narrative structure that humans are attuned to is a metaphorical representation of behavioural problem-solving.

I'm not sure how this links to the Joseph Campbell myth-structure stuff. I think they would fit together well, but I'm hardly an expert on either theory.

So. Yes. Dramatica. Check it out. Within the task it sets itself it makes a lot of points that resonate. I'm currently working through a novel plan that I was stuck on, and it's giving me plenty of 'of course!' type moments, which was the goal. I wouldn't use its approach for all my writing, but it's a good tool for the arsenal.

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I really want to write a substantial response to idiot/savant's piece on 'false consciousness', because it's good and something I have opinions & thoughts on. But, as usual, it's nearing 1am and I still haven't sent out the email for this week's Ottakars club thing. So. Sleep instead. Night all.

Posted by morgue at March 18, 2004 1:41 AM Posted to