So I have used Dramatica to create a speech for a talk I will be giving in the capital city Kampala of my Country Uganda. I’m no expert on Dramatica but I’ve tried my best to keep accuracy to the theory based on the theory book and articles and videos from Melanie Anne Phillips and @jhull. @TerryVog probably this can give you an example of how to apply Dramatica to non fiction writing,
I personally experimenting with applying Dramatica to all forms of communication. I didn’t use the software to come up with my talking points.
Topic: Storytelling and Problem Solving with Dramatica Theory of Story
Signpost One
Point One
Learning – What is a story? Raise your hand, can anyone here define what a story is? What is your favorite story at the moment? What are you watching at the moment? Is it what is happening at the world cup or elsewhere? Why do you like that story? - Consider
Point two –
Progress – I will define what a story is according to dramatica. Reconsider – how dramatica defines a story
Point three
Feeling – Conscious – Contemplation - Raise your hand if you are facing a certain problem or challenge in your life. Raise your hand if you’ve ever faced a problem or challenge in your lifetime. -
Point four
Logic – Conceiving I present the idea that a problem is not a real thing. It is how we look at problems that makes them a problem. - Do you all agree? - Let’s take an issue like sexual harassment. - Do you think sexual harassment is a problem?
Is it a problem for every one? - What about a rapist? Do you think he saw it a problem. He saw it as an opportunity to satisfy a desire he had and it didn’t matter how he satisfied that desire. - Do you think everyone sees sexual harassment as a problem? - Are there are those who benefit from abusing ladies? - So if we had a story about the negative effects of sexual harassment on children. The people against sexual harassment could be the protagonists and those who commit sexual offences would be the bad guys. -
Signpost Two
Point five
preconscious – – so it’s how we justify things that creates the problem or solution. So in story telling, the characters are not real people, they are just different ways our minds try to justify certain things. - Any questions - feeling
Point six –
Understanding – How do people come up with stories? - Any answer is welcome. - How do you think they came up with black panther? - What about a story like game of thrones? - Consider -
Point seven
Present - Logic – there are 8 essential questions that can help us come up with a story –
Point eight
Reconsider – Developing a plan – somebody give us a story idea that we can develop together. Because of time I will favor certain responses over others. - Conceptualizing
Signpost three:
Point nine
Obtaining – Logic – Story telling helps us understand certain situations from different perspectives. It heps us understand the settings, the motivations behind why certain characters or if we reflect it into real life behave the way they behave. Stories give us a deeper understanding of each other particularly if you engage in creative writing yourself.
Point ten
Consider – Ways you can apply the Dramatica theory of story, - Future -
Fiction, non-fiction, essays, poetry, can help you learn to frame your CV writing, reality television, therapy, screen writing, biographies, any form of information gathering, presentation and communication, television shows
I used dramatica to prepare this session. You could become a dramatica story expert and help others learn the theory and use it to plan different media projects
Point eleven
Feeling – subconscious – dramatica or learning how to tell great stories is not the easiest thing to learn but it can benefit you in many ways, and with the guidance available online and from myself we can grow to collaborate on different projects
Point twelve
Reconsider –
Becoming – and another benefit, dramatica says by analyzing the process of justification, we can change how we look at certain things, the problems may not disappear but how we look at them can change, or we can consider different perspectives of looking at certain issues –
Signpost Four
Point thirteen,
Doing - Consider – How do I get started with using Dramatica as a brainstorming, problem solving tool? There’s a site called Narrativefirst.com, there are also 100s of videos on youtube talking about Dramatica,
Point fourteen
Memory – But I’m not a writer or story teller, all you have to bring to the table is to understand the dramatica term and then apply them to the way you see things, dramatica works with how you see things, justification, and then they are 100s of tools online that you can use to improve the quality of your expression, story structure and then story tellings, -
Point fifteen
Past – Feeling – I wasn’t the most intuitive writer, but the more I went online and googled and found different information I learned from it. They are 100s of sites with writing information these days besides dramatica.
Point sixteen
Signpost 4 – Being – Logic – Don’t be afraid to try out creative writing, there’s a lot you can learn from it and the principles of Dramatica can be applied to many areas of your life outside the world of fiction
Look at the document I’ve attached for more information.
rotaract - creative writing talk.pdf (422.4 KB)
