I’m puzzling a bit over my OS consequence of Impulsive Responses. The closest I can think of is a mob mentality. Am I on the right track? Or does this mean something else?
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That’s one possibility.
It’s easier to approach if you remember that the OS Consequence is opposed to the Story Goal. If the Goal isn’t achieved, then the Consequence comes to pass (or remains in effect).
So for a Goal of Progress with a Consequence of Impulsive Responses:
“We’re running out of nicotine gum so fast, everyone will crave their smokes again before the next shipment arrives!”
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Okay, I’m writing a STOP story with a Crapsack World - so with a Story Goal of How Things Are Changing with an OS Consequence of Impulsive Responses … if things don’t change then they’ll remain in this situation which they aren’t suited for? That actually sounds about right.
Specifically mentally unsuited – as in their instinct, their temperament; their thoughtless, automatic responses will continue to put them at odds with their Universe.
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Generally to better understand this kind of dynamic, I think of the Story Goal as what the Protagonist pursues and the Story Consequence as the domain in which the Antagonist operates and drive people towards (it’s easier for me to see the dynamics of the plot incarnated by characters).
If the Protagonist is pursuing and considering something relating to Progress, then the Antagonist is trying to avoid and making other reconsider said Progress - a narrative we are often privy to in the real world : making people afraid (thus driving them to question the validity progress), encouraging them to react irrationally on the basis that it is the right way to react, etc. And if he wins, then the Progress will never happen and all the characters of the OS Throughline will be mentally stuck in this Impulsive Responses domain - ergo failure.
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All the response are great – also, the Consequence can already be in place. It’s the relationship between the Goal and Consequence that is important, not the if, then causality of it.
In your original example, the mob mentality/animal instinct for survival can already be in place from the opening scene and then your characters can try and work towards Progress to undo that.
Always think of Arrival when it comes to the storyform - as if all storypoints are available for cognition at once.
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What do you mean by Arrival?
I mean the film Arrival that came out last year. I did a Dramatica analysis of the film that should explain what I mean by thinking of the story holistically.