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 library 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 and clear patterns for every story and their resulting checkout rates, for better or for worse—missing pattern elements in less popular works, complete and focused patterns in works with high checkouts—regardless of awards they had accumulated. 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 is key to targeting and connecting with audiences accurately.
Katie continues her research, adding to her decades of findings, 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 and love to apply Katie’s work helping writers and story-makers of all kinds discover how they can create more powerful stories. They also love teaching the analysis system to others. We want to share Katie’s incredible legacy and gift with as many people as possible.