An Introduction to the Dynamic View of Structure

Setting out on a new & unexplored path.

Continuing our series Mornings with Melanie, we take a look today at what we're going to be looking at in the following months and weeks.

The current model of the Storymind, the one shipped with Dramatica and an integral part of Subtxt, is 100% Structure.

It’s the Structural view of Structure.

There are still three other ways to explore narrative:

• The Dynamic view of Structure
• The Structural view of Dynamics
• The Dynamic view of Dynamics

The idea with these posts is to develop and build out these other three, starting with the first.

There’s no way we’re starting with the last—that would require a model that is continuously shifting perspective as it’s changing perspective. 😳

We’ll take the easy one first.

Plus, Melanie left a bunch of clues for that first Superclass in her book, Narrative Dynamics.

Superclass and Models of Narrative

Those four different ways to explore narrative within the Storymind are categorized as Superclasses.

Super-class because it’s one level of resolution to above the current Class distinction found in the current model of the Storymind.

That’s at the top, where you find Universe, Physics, Psychology, and Mind.

Imagine those four were gathered together into one family and were made 1/4 of a larger family. That’s the Superclass view.

The current model is the Knowledge Superclass and is where you find a Structural view of Structure.

The Storypoints and Appreciations of this Superclass focus in on the substance of Meaning. What is known as meaning.

That’s where you find the Narrative Argument found in Subtxt. At the end of a television show or feature film or novel, what is known?

Another Look at Meaning

This next iteration of Superclasses—the Dynamic view of Structure—will focus on the power of Meaning. What is thought while on the way to that knowledge.

The structural model can only tell you if something is a potential or resistance and the order in which it will come into play. But, only a dynamic model could tell you how MUCH potential or resistance was present and how long its span of time in the sequence will last: its duration.

The duration of thought on the way to Meaning.

The current Superclass is Knowledge-based.

This new Superclass will be Thought-based.