Dramatica is the name of the theory and software suite created as part of a project by Chris Huntley and Melanie Anne Phillips. The term is used in the context of

narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. The term is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretica ...

and refers to a theory of narration and literary presentation. The software guides users through the writing process by giving them a step-by-step guide that focuses on plot and theme creation as well as story structure. There are two different versions of the Dramatica software. The first, Dramatica Pro, was released in the 1990s and supports both Windows and OS X. The second, a more recent version, Dramatica Story Expert, is OS X-only.

Theory

The theory was originated in 1994 as a diagnostic modelling tool built around a concept called "The Story Mind", which describes each story as having a mind of its own with its

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

built by the story's structure and its

personality Personality is any person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life. These interrelated patterns are relatively stable, but can change over long time per ...

is determined by the

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

. Huntley and Phillips have taught the theory at the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

, where it was part of a twelve-week "for credit" course for several years. The two also released the book ''Dramatica – A New Theory of Story'' via Write Brothers Press, the publishing arm of Write Brothers founded by Stephen Greenfield and Chris Huntley.Dramatica – A New Theory of Story
online version. The software is based upon Huntley and Phillips's quad theory, which is described as " ividinga story unit into four pieces and reatingrelationships between those parts". The four quads, which makes up the Dramatic Table of Story Elements, are the

Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

(representing situations), Mind (attitudes),

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

(activities) and Psychology (manners of thinking). In later years, the ongoing development of Dramatica was split into two branches. First is ongoing exploration into using the model to understand the workings of the human mind itself – an area of research called (by the theory creators) Mental Relativity. The second area of development is the implementation of the model as a patented

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangibl ...

called "The Story Engine" which can be used to analyze story structures to find holes and inconsistencies and also used to interactively suggest how to fix and fill them.

References

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External links

Dramatica.com
– theory and software
Screenplay.com
– Write Brothers, Inc.
Dramatica at Storymind.com
– Melanie Anne Phillips' website Narratology Screenwriting software