New Classes From Storymind And Narrative First

Melanie and I began our series of new classes & workshops last week.

Early last week, Melanie Anne Phillips and I began our series of classes & workshops entitled Storymind Presents. Originally I wanted to call them the Foundation|Next classes--and we might still go back to that moniker--but for now you can find them listed on the main Dramatica site at dramatica.com/learn.

So far we have completed two classes. The first, entitled Dramatica: Past, Present, Future, and Beyond, showcased an evening with Melanie as she discussed the creation and evolution of the Dramatica theory of story. Pausing briefly to mention a few current projects, she then launched into where she sees the theory heading.

As a fan of all things Dramatica and Melanie[^1]I found the almost three hour presentation enlightening, even jaw-dropping at times. The idea that after 25 years many still don't understand or appreciate what Chris Huntley and Melanie have brought to the world of storytelling is simply astounding to me.

Disappointed you missed the presentation? Here's the entire thing for you to watch at your convenience:

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On Saturday, we joined forces to teach a class on Learn How To Use Dramatica in a Day. As amazing as the theory is, learning how to apply it to your own writing is something e;se. Melanie took the morning session and covered her technique of globular clusters and getting to the heart of your story. She also blew me away with the realization that real life narratives contain chaos--and if we're to connect with our audiences we need to introduce that same sort of chaos into our own work. I'm always so obsessed with getting the narrative right that I would never to think to introduce noise and random events to make it seem more real...simply brilliant on her part.

And then I took the afternoon session. After a brief tour of the feature set of the application[^2], I set about creating an entirely new story from scratch. Taking the very simple tale of The Ugly Duckling I began to develop it into a fully fledged feature. It's always interesting being creative on demand, but I was really pleased with the opportunity to give writers an insight into how to use Dranatica for powerful and productive brainstorming sessions.

I didn't get to complete the feature, but may revisit it in future classes.

Our Saturday class was fee-based and you can learn more about how to get access on the Learn How to Use Dramatica in a Day page.

We're both looking forward to doing more of these in the near future: a free class on theory on Monday nights, and a paid practical application course the following Saturday. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do putting them together. And what's more, we hope they inspire you to write really great stories.

[^2]: And the features to avoid...I only use two of them.

[^1]: After all, the original name of this site was Story Fanatic

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