Katherine J. Farmer is an American educator and researcher with a bachelor’s degree in Acting and Directing and a master’s degree in Adult Dramatic Theory and Criticism at Brigham Young University. While pursuing her PHD in Theory and Dramatic Criticism, she began to research how stories might be analyzed and judged for quality and appeal. 40 years later, the results are in. The Story Code™ System is the secret to cracking the story code.
After gathering a mountain of data on the popularity and checkout rates of hundreds of books and plays from 320 participating North American Library Systems, Katie joined forces with her husband Larry Farmer and his team of graduate students, who ran her data through a Computer Expert System he was developing for legal analysis work. The results showed consistent, clear patterns for every story with high check-out rates—patterns that were missing in less popular works. They were surprised to learn that these structural patterns were centered around the characters of the stories and the functions they serve. As they continued to test the system with a second nation-wide study, they discovered that Katie’s analysis system could predict the success of a book with 97-98% accuracy.
Katie continued to research her findings for decades, tying her system to the existing theories of Aristotle, Piaget, Kohlberg, Saussure, Peirce and others, deepening her understanding of how and why story works and how to improve the stories we create.
Amy White, Wendy Folsom, and Janet Low were lucky to take Katie’s university classes and help her in her research. They have been learning by Katie’s side for well over a decade. They love to apply Katie’s work to help writers and story-makers of all kinds discover how they can create more powerful stories. They also love teaching the analysis system to others. Amy, Wendy, and Janet want to share Katie’s incredible legacy and gift with as many people as possible.