Connections between story points

writing
#1

I was working with a storyform trying to encode an MC throughline. With an incomplete idea in place, I wasn’t sure yet how I wanted the thematic conflict to work out, but I wanted to have a very clear thematic conflict in this story. As I kept working with it, I realized that the Unique Ability for my MC was the same as the counterpoint to the issue. Since I had a steadfast MC and a Success/Good ending, I figured this UA would be what helps her to solve the problem and thus would be a good candidate for the winner in the thematic argument.

I know that I could have chosen the issue rather than the counterpoint, but making that connection, whether I’m supposed to or not, opened up all kinds of possibilities in how I saw the theme, the way the MC deals with problems throughout the story, and ultimately how she will solve the problem. I’m just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience in finding a connection between the UA and thematic conflict that helped you figure out a thematic issue, or maybe a connection between any of the other story points for that matter.

I know all the story points are connected and I shouldn’t be that amazed, but I love finding connections that further my understanding of my story, especially when those connections are not a requirement of the theory (at least not that I’ve seen).

1 Like
#2

Well, since you were asking for similar experiences… :sunglasses:

My story that I’m working on also has an MC whose UA (Openness) is the counterpoint to her MC Issue (Preconception). I never purposely tried to put a thematic conflict between Preconception and Openness in there, in fact I originally had the wrong storyform (Holistic MC) in which the UA was Delay. But, I think there’s a lot of cool thematic stuff anyway – I think that’s the beauty of Dramatica is you get subtle thematic conflict even without really trying. As long as you focus on encoding the conflict into your story points, at least.

I really like how in my story everything kind of works both ways. The MC Issue of Preconception is shown mainly as “bad” preconceptions coming from outside of her (prejudice because of her race/blood-type) that cause her a lot of trouble. But she is also very stubborn which causes her trouble, though I sort of see that stubbornness as a “good” thing (probably related to her being Steadfast in a Steadfast/Good story). Meanwhile, her Openness is mostly “good” from my Author’s perspective, yet at the climax, her Good judgement has to do with picking Self Interest (critical flaw) over her willingness to accept a fate that’s horrible to her (Openness UA, which would’ve been “bad” if she went with it this time). This leads to Failure in the OS, but she made the right choice for herself personally.

I think you’re right about the beauty of connections between story points where no such connection is required by the theory. Those connections are the ones you’re free to make, the ones unique to YOUR story, and deeply meaningful to you.

2 Likes
#3

Interesting. So your story is Failure, and your MC chooses not to overcome her Critical Flaw? Is it a start or stop story? I just ask so i know if her Self-Interest is inhibiting her Openness or if her Self-Interest is undoing the work her Openness did after the fact (i’m going back to the definition you pointed me to in the other thread for Main Character Critical Flaw).

Do you feel her going with Openness rather than Self-Interest would have led to a Success/Bad ending? Do you feel like her going with Openness rather than Self-Interest would have had an affect on the conflict between Openness and Preconception?

I guess those are part of what make it my story rather than Dramatica’s story. That’s just one of the big problems I found with STC. As long I followed those beats, it never felt like my story. It felt like Blake Snyder’s story about the subject of my choice, maybe because there were no deeper connections to be had.

One of my favorite parts of Dramatica is staring at a lifeless, empty storyform that you’re trying to encode and you just don’t see what the story is or how it’s all going to fit together. And then you see a connection, like how the UA is the same as the counterpoint, and that makes you want to say the counterpoint is better than the Issue, and then all sorts of thing just start clicking and falling into place and suddenly you get it and even though you got there with the help of Dramatica, it still really does feel like your own personal story.

I think I’m to the point now where I don’t even want to write stories anymore. I just want to encode one and look for all the meaning and connections until I understand it inside and out, and then move on to the next one.

1 Like
#4

My story is Stop, and yeah I guess she sort of lets Self Interest overcome her Openness after the fact. Since Openness is “willingness to re-evaluate”, what it’s doing is allowing her to even consider the horrible fate* that would help the Overall Story end in Success. She considers it and almost accepts it, but can’t quite go through with it because of Self Interest. (This is also the moment when the RS adopts its solution, and puts the IC on the verge of Changing too, so there’s a lot going on there.)

* the horrible fate is basically a permanent, super-awful form of Control, while her Steadfast Drive (MC Problem) is Uncontrolled. So this one moment decides the resolve of the MC throughline too.

Yes, I feel like if she hadn’t let Self Interest undo the work of the Openness, it would have led to Bad for sure, and possibly to Success, but not guaranteed.

That’s an interesting question. It probably would. Honestly, I don’t really worry about those thematic conflicts much. I sort of feel like Dramatica just takes care of them – as long as you make the Issue a big source of conflict, and put the counterpoint in there somehow just to show it. (But that’s only my process – if you like the thematic conflicts and find they work for you, definitely focus on them in whatever way works for you.)

No! You have to still write! But I see what you mean. You could probably do that for a bit if you wanted, I’m sure the urge to see one through would come. (Just remember, you’ll never see all the meanings and connections until you actually write it.)

#5

Okay, I think I displayed enough Self Interest talking about my story (I guess that’s openness too, lol) … What’s going on in your story? What were the UA and MC Issue and what was the connection between them? If you don’t mind sharing, of course.

#6

Of course, I’ll share. But first let me apologize for what is probably going to be a fairly wordy post. But I love talking about this stuff and have nowhere else to do it. :wink:

So this is the superhero story I posted about before. I had decided in that thread to go with a time traveler instead, but that idea got bigger than I wanted to tackle at the moment.

So I chose a few elements I knew I wanted in the story engine and let Dramatica pick the rest. I ended up with a steadfast MC and a Success/Good ending. The Issue is Worth and the Counterpoint is Value. The Unique Ability is also Value.

This story is coming from my daughters request and all she really asked for was a girl who discovers she has a superpower. The reason I wanted a strong thematic argument is because I didn’t necessarily want to explore much deeper so I could keep it kind of short. Of course that doesn’t seem to be happening.

Anyway, I was encoding MC Worth and Value without much direction. From the OS encoding I knew my story was to take place in a world where Superheroes were no longer new and amazing to everyone. The town takes them for granted and actually is getting a bit tired of the way they handle things (all the super fighting makes people late to work, leaves buildings destroyed, insurance companies no longer cover act of demigod-the first time I wanted to work this into a story it would have been a more adult story). So I had the MC judging the worth of doing the right thing vs the value others saw in it and deciding that both were going to come across as good, but that Worth was better. Something to that affect anyway. And I think an argument about the worth of doing the right thing in a world that no longer values superheroes (that is, ppl who do the right thing) would be an awesome theme to explore. But the way I had it worded at first didn’t really resonate. And it’s been done plenty anyway.

So when I got down to the UA and realized it was Value as well and that it was the unique ability that would lead the MC to solve the problem and achieve the goal, I decided to take another look at the thematic conflict and see if Value might not be the winner. Having Value decide the thematic conflict because it’s the UA felt like it would make it a simpler story somehow as well, and I was okay with that because I’m writing it for a young child anyway.

So now I have the MC wondering of its worth standing against the opposition to do what she values. The answer is the more she wonders if it’s worth it, the more value she finds in doing the right thing. So both are still good, but now value wins.

Once I found out what the theme of her throughline was, it had a huge effect on how she would solve the problem in the end, and even what wl motivate her throughout to keep going against the opposition(which works great since it’s the UA, I guess).

#7

Oh yeah, I think you nailed it. This is awesome for a Steadfast character because you can really see how issues of worth can challenge her steadfast-ness, and how she wavers before she is able to see the value in doing the right thing.

Do you have an IC throughline yet? The key there will be to just make sure there’s a lot of conflict and impact coming from the IC story points, without worrying about the MC too much if at all. That way, when you start to figure out how the IC influences the MC, it won’t be a flat “hey MC, are you sure this is all really worth it?” It will be more like, her 9-year-old son is constantly Fantasizing about things they can do together – he uses her credit card to book tickets for a tropical vacation, he brings home a lost puppy, etc. All because of the fact she is MIA in his life, due to being busy superhero-ing all the time. (Even that’s probably a bit too “on the nose” because I was thinking of the MC, it’s hard not to! But I’m sure you can see what I mean. And maybe for this story for your daughter you don’t have to make it super subtle.)

#8

Actually I don’t have an IC yet. I was focused on the OS and MC and I guess I hoped one would present itself eventually. With the events I have so far I at first wondered if I might not have a handoff IC, but I don’t want to do that and looking at it now, I really don’t think I would anyway.

What I have is an MC that’s probably going to be about 9 or 10 yrs old. There will be a bad guy she will need to defeat in the end that I do not see as an IC at all. There will also be a friend and a bully. I think these are my two best options at the moment. I just have to decide if I want the bully to change and stop bullying or if I want the friend to change and start standing up to the bully. I’m feeling the second one more, but am also hoping that looking at the storyform will give me an inspiration similar to the way it did with the UA and the thematic conflict.

#9

Cool. You could also try a couple Playground Exercises, those work really well for IC I found. (You could do one with your daughter even!)