Discovering Dramatica and the Genesis of Narrative First: Part One

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.

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• 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