Stories capture our attention, evoke emotions, foster empathy, and shape the way we understand and remember the world. This book offers a systematic introduction to th e principles of storytelling across different media. Drawing on classical narrative theory as well as practical dramaturgy, Joachim Friedmann, Professor of Interactive Dramaturgy and writer for television, games, and comics, explores how stories are constructed through characters, conflicts, transformations, and narrative worlds. From Aristotle's concept of peripeteia to modern film dramaturgy and interactive game narratives, the book examines the structural patterns that shape stories in literature, film, television, and digital media. By bringing together narratology, dramaturgy, and media studies, it presents storytelling as both an analytical method and a creative craft.

Autorentext
Joachim Friedmann ist Autor für Fernsehserien (ARD, ZDF, SAT1, RTL) sowie Comictexter (Disney, Egmont Ehapa, Carlsen Verlag) und hat zudem zahlreiche interaktive Online-Formate entwickelt, unter anderem für Microsoft Deutschland und den Deutschen Fußballbund DFB. Er lehrt an verschiedenen Universitäten und Hochschulen zum Thema interaktives und transmediales Storytelling, Serielles Schreiben sowie Film- und Fernsehdramaturgie, u.a. an der Universität Hildesheim, der Filmuniversität Potsdam-Babelsberg, der Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg und der Hamburg Media School. 2016 wurde er mit einer Arbeit zu Transmedialem Erzählen zum Dr. phil. promoviert. Seit 2017 ist er Professor für Serial Storytelling an der Internationalen Filmschule Köln.

Inhalt
Preface to the 2nd edition 1 Storytelling More than Just Telling a Story Part I: The Analysis 2 The Narrative Figure Life, Theme, Function 2.1 Functional Figures 2.2 Mimetic Figures 2.3 Thematic Figures 2.4 Anti-narrative Figures 3 Setting The Narrated and the Narrative Space 3.1 Juri Lotman and Semantic Space 3.2 Other Options for Spatial Semantisation 3.3 Hierarchisation of Spatial Events 4 Binary Narrative Oppositions Opposites Make Sense 4.1 The Meaning of the Narrative 4.2 Production of Meaning through Binary Narrative Oppositions 4.3 Idea vs. Counter Idea Narrative Oppositions in Film Dramaturgy 4.4 Binary Narrative Oppositions as a Structuring Principle in Serial and Interactive Narratives 5 Conflict Obstacles Generate Action 5.1 Conflicts as Initial Triggers for Action 5.2 Basic Forms of Conflict 5.3 The Universal Conflict 5.4 Conflict Types and Types of Plot 5.5 Want and Need 6 Transformation What Needs to Change? 6.1 Transformation vs. Change 6.2 Transformation as a Criterion of Closure 6.3 The Cyclic Transformation 6.4 Transformations in Interactive Narratives 7 Emotion The Progression of Feelings 7.1 Emotions as Genres 7.2 Emotional Progression as a Structural Principle of Narratives 8 Turning Points The Expected Surprise 8.1 Theoretical Concepts of the Turning Point 8.2 The Turning Point in Applied Dramaturgy 8.3 The Effects of Turning Points in Literature and Film 8.4 Turning Points and Transformation in Interactive Narratives 9 Narrative Structure The Hero's Journey in Three Acts 9.1 Dramatic Structure 9.2 Mythological Structure 9.3 Oral Structure 9.4 Interactive Structure 10 Causal Relationships Why Things Happen? 10.1 Causality as a Condition for Narrativity 10.2 Forms of Causality 10.3 Forms of Non-causal Narrative 10.4 Causality and Interactivity 11 Subtext and Gapping Involving the Recipients 11.1 Gapping as a Text and Media-Specific Strategy 11.2 Subtext 11.3 Narrative Tension and the Management of Information 11.4 Information Management in Interactive Stories 12 Semantic Objects McGuffins, Horcruxes and Holy Grails 12.1 Plot-functional vs. Non-functional 12.2 Semantic Objects in Narrative Media 12.3 The Semantisation of Objects as a Communication Strategy Part II: Creating Stories 13 The Story from Structure 14 The Story from Character 15 The Story from Theme 16 The Story from the Storyworld 17 Epilogue: Values and Worldview Glossary Bibliography Register List of Figures