The White Robes of Dramatica

Learning at the feet of greatness.

Chris Huntley, co-creator of the Dramatica shares his horror story vision of story structure turned to religion:

Before we released Dramatica, I had a dream / nightmare where a machine had been created that 'supposedly' could transfer a storyform directly to one's mind. As a co-creator, I figured I was the best person to be the guinea pig. In the dream they put this contraption on my head and turned it on. WHITE OUT.

Next thing I knew (still in my dream) I woke up on a bed in a plain white room. No one was around. I got up and saw a glass case. Going to it, I saw a number of Melanie's and my early physical representations of our development of Dramatica, e.g. the 'writer's blocks', the paper toroid, and a bunch of other stuff. There was a floor to ceiling window with long white curtains and light backlighting the room. I walked over to the window, pushed aside the curtain, and saw that I was ten or so stories up looking down on a large plaza. It reminded me of the plaza in the movie "The Time Machine" where the Eloi go through on their way to eat. Down below were lots of people moving through the plaza and up a broad set of steps toward a huge. white, columned building. All of the people wore white flowing robes and I just KNEW this was a Dramatica cult.

I woke up with that image in my head. It's still crystal clear to me after some twenty-five years. Later that same day, when Melanie and I met to continue work on Dramatica, I made her promise that we would never allow Dramatica to turn into a cult or to be use as the basis of any religion. No joke.

So, every time someone jokingly mentions Dramatica in the same context or religion or cult, the images of that dream / nightmare comes to mind. :slight_smile:

I remember hearing Chris talk about this nightmare years ago.

So great to finally have it in print.