Melanie Anne Phillips

by Melanie Anne Phillips creator StoryWeaver , co-creator Dramatica Scroll down for a streaming video on this topic What is the Story Mind? Dramatica says that "Every complete story is an analogy to a single mind trying to deal with an inequity." Now that's very scientific, but what does it really mean? It means that characters, theme, plot and genre are not just people with value standards doing things in an overall setting - rather, character, theme, plot and genre are different families of thought that go on in our own minds, mad tangible, incarnate as character, thematic arguments and plot points. So a story is as if an author took the mechanism of our minds, made it tangible and put it out there for us to look at so we could examine the problem solving process. Rather than having to be involved in it subjectively, we are told by the author that he or she has the benefit of insight or experience, and that even though it may feel one way to us on the inside, there is a...

by Melanie Anne Phillips creator StoryWeaver , co-creator Dramatica Scroll down for a streaming video on this topic What is the Story Mind? Dramatica says that "Every complete story is an analogy to a single mind trying to deal with an inequity." Now that's very scientific, but what does it really mean? It means that characters, theme, plot and genre are not just people with value standards doing things in an overall setting - rather, character, theme, plot and genre are different families of thought that go on in our own minds, mad tangible, incarnate as character, thematic arguments and plot points. So a story is as if an author took the mechanism of our minds, made it tangible and put it out there for us to look at so we could examine the problem solving process. Rather than having to be involved in it subjectively, we are told by the author that he or she has the benefit of insight or experience, and that even though it may feel one way to us on the inside, there is a...

by Melanie Anne Phillips creator StoryWeaver , co-creator Dramatica Scroll down for a streaming video on this topic At the heart of the story engine is a matrix of story points: The Dramatica Chart of Story Elements (which is not unlike the Periodic Table of Elements in chemistry). You can use it to create the chemistry of your characters, plot, theme, and genre. The Dramatica chart contains all the psychological processes that must exist in a Story Mind. In fact, every human mind shares all of these processes. What makes one mind different from another is not the kinds of mental activities in each, but rather how the activities are interconnected. Just as in chemistry, various elements might be combined to create an infinite number of compounds, so too the dramatic elements of the Dramatica Chart can be combined to create virtually all valid psychological structures for stories. At its most simple level, the chart can be seen as having four principal areas (called classes) : Universe,...

Here's the mp3 download on my latest completed song, "The Beat" "The Beat" Listen or Download mp3 Enjoy!

There are only two immutable truths given to a soul: Things exist; I exist. For the span of your life, though all else may change or pass away, these two truths will remain. If you build your beliefs and your dreams upon that, though they may crumble or be washed away, the foundation will remain, upon which you can build new beliefs and different dreams. The past is only an echo; the future, a mirage. Though the present may reflect the echo or resemble the mirage, all we really have is this moment and this thought. Melanie Anne Phillips March 21, 2009 Noon

After nearly five years of living with the most wonderful man, my daughter is getting married one week from today. Very exciting! I live up in Oregon these days (always wanted to, since I first read about the Oregon Trail in elementary school) but my daughter is still down in Southern California. So, its a road trip for me this week! Teresa and I were going to take the plane, but that is WAY too expensive, especially when you own your own business and are fighting with this shrinking economy tooth and nail every day! So, we then thought we'd save a little bit and take the train. But, not only is that almost as much, but it take 30 hours from here, with all the stops along the way! Only other option is driving. But, another "but".... Teresa injured her arm a few months ago and can't take the jostling of car, train, or even plane, without being in absoltue agony. Here's what happened. We were both down in So. Cal for Christmas with my kids (and Mary, to whom...

How to get rid of the national deficit: Sell American Citizenship to immigrants - $100,000 a head. Nine million new citizens and we will have covered the entire 9 trillion dollar deficit.

Teresa just combined two photos she found on the internet into this one picture:

Hey, I actually finally finished one of the songs on this new ablum. Here's the first public release of the final mix of "The Beat". "The Beat" (Final Mix) Listen

I wrote this one in commemoration of Princess Di, shortly after she passed away. The mix wasn't quite what I had in mind, so I adjusted the levels a bit in this balance mix to pretty much what I originally intended. "Princess" (Balance Mix) Listen

This song always had problems with low levels on some of the tracks. Here's a new mix that brings them all into balance as originally intended. "Hearts" (Balance Mix) Listen

This was my theme song for a number of years. Then it fell out of favor with the new regime. It still holds a place in my heart, though. This is the third version I did of the song, mostly the same but with a different counterpoint synth voice in the last third or so. "Melsong" (Alt Ending 2) Listen

Percussion mix of my song, "Bop". "Bop" (Drum Mix) Listen

Like "Squirrel Jam" this started out as just a test multi-track of a new synthesizer. I used to have an earlier version on the web where I told a fictional tale of the history of the song as the only surviving Edison cylindar recording of a small village band in Mexico, but I can't find the text right now. So I'll just put this up - the original song with percussion added that makes it even more "home-spun" sounding. The Gazpacho Missionary Band (Drum Mix) Listen

Squirrel Jam is a song that kind of happened when I was just screwing around with a new sythesizer to see what it could do. I multi-tracked a few improptu pieces and ended up with this. Just a synth test, really, it reminded me of what you'd hear if a couple of squirrels came in through an open window and danced around on the keyboard. As long as I had it, I figured I might as well do it up right, so I added a drum track that is just as chaotic as the original multi-track of the synth. "Squirrel Jam" (Drum Mix) Listen

Percussion version of my song, "West Wind." "West Wind" (Drum Mix) Listen

Remix of another of my songs. Not much different from the original, but a tad louder and I think a subtly better balance between the lead and background synth tracks. Whirlwind (Remix) Listen

My song, "Old Movie" with drum track added. Old Movie (with Drums) Listen

A song I'm still working with - this is a poor quality transfer, but is the only copy I currently have with this mix. Pink Blues (Alt Ending 1) Listen

Here's the inklings of an idea I'm working on for a children's ' book: "Adapt to environment! Blend in, it's our way. Beside, it's your nature, your genes, DNA." "But I don't like this color," Chameleon said, "I just can't stand green, I prefer to be red." "But you'll stand out- They'll see you! You'll put us at risk!" "I don't want to fit in; I want to stand out, and let others know just what I'm about." That's the middle. I haven't got a beginning yet, but I did compose the ending, as follows: It's a question that ought to be asked, he supposed, to open out minds, before they get closed. I'll probably never get around to finishing this one either, but what the heck - with a blog you can share the good little pieces of a work in progress without ever having to do the hard work of completing it!

A Small Circle of Self The Charismatic Hermit The Cubicle of Comfort The Living Crutch Dancing Toward Neutral Ground The Time Diet After the Whiz Bang The Mobius Skinner Box Black Holes and Your Internal Ecology

I've been going through my arhives and found a bunch of old half-finished song fragments I never completed. Thought I'd start working with them again and relase my third ablum of original music. Here's the tracks as they stand currently. "What Am Who I?" rough working tracks from an album in progress Princess Listen Melsong Listen Blurb Listen Hearts Listen Pink Blues Listen The Beat Listen Drizzle Listen Church Key Listen Sleuth Listen Van G Listen Bop Listen Flip Flop Listen Gazpacho Missionary Band Listen Henry 8 Listen Test 1 Listen Test 2 Listen Majesty Listen Melsong (alt) Listen Skipper (Vocals Only) Listen Midtown Listen Old Movie Listen Ramblin Listen Roto Listen Sam Spade Listen Shanty 2 Listen Squirrel Jam Listen West Wind Listen Whirlwind Listen As I continue to work with these tracks and come up with complete polished and finished versions or alternate mix versions I'll post them here.

E/E E*E The above equation represents the distillation of our efforts in the past 13 years to solve the meaning of story and the function of the mind. It is the equation of Mental Relativity and is the essence of self-awareness. All the variables are labeled "E" to express the holistic, homogenous nature of our perceived universe as a whole. Yet, each stands for a different word: a different kind of variable. The initial E refers to Existence. The second E is Emptiness. The third E stands for Entropy. The fourth E is Extropy. The equation reads: Existence divided by Emptiness is the equilibrium of Entropy times Extropy. Conceptually, this means that what defines the edges between existence and nothingness is the balance between the opposing forces of building down toward stability and building up toward complexity. Jumping ahead, we can see that what we see as a process toward destruction or toward growth is actually the placement of the equilibrium point along a slidi...

This is way out of my league and way outside my knowledge base, but when interesting thoughts come to mind, one ought to at least pursue them a bit to see what comes of them. ***** In E=MC2, Energy equals Mass times the speed of light Constant, squared. The Universe can be described as having only four things that can be measured: Energy, Mass, Time and Space. So where are Time and Space in E=MC2? They are contained in C. To see how this works, let us see how C is figured. C is the speed of light (Constant) squared. First, how is speed figured? Speed is a measure of the distance traveled over a certain period of time. In other words, an interval of Time is held Constant, and how far something gets in that Time determines its speed. How far it gets is a measure of Space. So, when figuring speed, Time is held to be a constant and Space is the measured variable. If Time is held to be a constant, it is because it is held to be one unit. For example, we say "35 miles per ho...

What is God? Each of us represents a portion of the string of consciousness that winds from the Big Bang to the collapse of the universe. That string is built by millions of lifespans linked together, one ending where the other begins. But once the string has reached all the way to the Collapse, it starts back at the Big Bang to do it again, slightly different this time. Think of time as raster lines on a TV set. Each lifespan is an amplitude along a single line. When the line sweeps across the screen it returns to the side it began on, scanning a new line, similar but not exactly the same to the first line. When the process is over, a picture has been created that cannot be seen from travelers along the line, but only by an Observer who's persistence of vision allows him to see the results of all the lines as if they had happened all at once. Re-incarnation? Not exactly. Since the force of life, the "electron gun" of the television example, is only focused on one...

Strong arguments are made on both sides of the abortion issue, but the focus of the debate revolves around a definition of where life begins. The pro-choice argument is weakest when attempting to select an arbitrary point at which to legislate that life begins. The pro-life argument is weakest when attempting to define life as starting at the moment of conception. Clearly, life cannot be said to exist on one side but not the other of an arbitrary line. And just as clearly, a four-celled zygote is not a thinking human being. What does Mental Relativity offer as a means of defining where life begins? First, it is necessary to define life itself. Is life biologic or mental? Mental Relativity sees these as two distinct yet oft connected phenomenon. Few would argue that a fetus has no biologic life. An amoeba may be said to have biologic life, yet the state of its awareness or lack thereof has remained an unanswered question. So, the real issue is not to define life in its broadest...

Transcription of thoughts on Mental Relativity I recorded while developing the theory. SEPTEMBER 10, 1994 In the past, I've spoken about how men will see dynamic pairs, companion pairs, dependent pairs, and so on. They will always see one positive and one negative from the perspective that we've taken so far. In other words, that whatever dynamic pair relationships their looking at they'll see one positive and one negative, those will be grouped together. We have named those relationships such as dynamic pairs, companion pairs, dependent pairs; those terms are directly correspondent to the concepts of purpose, methodology, evaluation, and motivation. In other words, they see in one place, they make a positive and negative evaluation; looking at one thing they determine a purpose and measure it according to the positive and negative aspects of that particular purpose. We've also talked about how women perceive these dynamic pairs from this perspective; these pairing ...