I’m in the revision phase of a novel where the Central Plot has a Cost of Changing One’s Nature. So I’m wondering how that works for my Steadfast IC. How does one remain Steadfast yet change their nature? (other than dying - although I could have the man die, I’d rather not)
The player in the IC role has double duty: it’s a subjective character (IC) and an objective character (OS). Cost is an OS appreciation, so your IC player has to deal with it within the context of the Overall Story, not the more personal Influence perspective.
3 Likes
Can you explain further?
@LunarDynasty Sorry to butt in.
@pattyloof
I think he means that cost being an OS appreciation means you should address the cost from an overall story perspective. By way of the archetypal character roles (traditional or complex), the cost is going to affect everybody. What was the price that was paid by any one character involved ( Reason, Skeptic, etc) in order to achieve the OS Goal. What did they have to part with? Their outlook? Their daily lives ?. What will your readers say he had to change ,from a broad strokes perspective?
Lets try this in your IC’s case. Ask yourself if his Objective role is clear to you. In what way is his nature transformed while striving for the OS goal?
Try the gists for Becoming to give you some inspiration for it.
Hope this helps.
3 Likes
In the RS, the IC is a Reconsider/Temptation character. The MC is adamantly against working with the ruling crime family (he’s one of the few good cops in the city) to solve a child abduction case, and his boss (the IC) is trying to get him to change his attitude so they can maybe find the kid.
As it turns out, the MC changes his attitude towards one of the mobsters, but only after doing something in desperation that the IC didn’t expect.
I’m thinking the IC (who’s worked there forever and has based his life on trying to change a corrupt system from the inside) is going to get demoted (and might even resign, because I can’t see him working under the new guy) because he didn’t keep the MC in line.
2 Likes
The Cost is something that must be endured on the way to the Goal. So *if the goal is to solve the child abduction case, that means everyone in the story is grappling with becoming a different kind of person in order to complete / prevent the goal.
Demoting the chief feels too much like Obtaining – it’s something that happens to him. But resigning has potential: “I can no longer do this job in good conscience.”
*I’m wondering if your goal is actually about saving the kid, since you have the police chief as a Reconsider / Temptation. Is he trying to get people to second-guess the case? Is he distracting them from it? OS player functions are all about the Story Goal.
2 Likes
Since the Story Cost is part of the Overall Story throughline, it’s best not to associate it with the IC, per se. The OS characters deal with the Costs, Dividends, etc.
1 Like
I think I may have actually had a character like this! It was the MC, not the IC, but they substantially changed their character, yet remained Steadfast. I think the important thing is, the character must not change their Resolve–that fundamental desire that drives them forward. The story I was planning involved a character trying to rise up in the ranks of a paramilitary group called the Nightmares–and the only way to rank up was to kill somebody in the rank above you. This character’s only desire is… it’s complicated, but essentially they need to reach the third-highest rank so that they can recover something their brother left for them. They start the story pretty innocent, wanting to do right by the world, but the murders weigh on them, and they start to become more… cutthroat, pun intended. 
Yet so long as they retain that central desire to reach the third-highest rank and recover their brother’s message, they remain Steadfast. So a Cost of Becoming more bloodthirsty, yet Steadfast in their desire to reach the top.
2 Likes
Okay, no. I see I need to rethink my archetypes, if they only apply to the OS.
Thanks.
1 Like
Yes, this is what I was talking about. Thanks! 
The Dividend in this storyform actually is Obtaining - although I’m not sure the IC would feel like he gained anything …
It’s interesting you say that. Here’s the entire Overall Storyform:
OS Throughline: Fixed Attitude
Concern: Innermost Desires
Issue: Closure vs Denial
Problem: Avoidance
Solution: Pursuit
Goal: Innermost Desires
Consequence: The Future
Cost: Changing One’s Nature
Dividend: Obtaining
Symptom: Consider
Response: Reconsider
Benchmark: Impulsive Responses
Catalyst: Denial
Inhibitor: Openness
The MC’s throughline is Activity: finding the boy. The OS is about finding the boy as well, but it’s more than that - the reason the cops involved are all focused on looking for this kid right now instead of all the dozens of other missing kids in this city is because of how this case buts up against their own individual Innermost Desires.
For example, the boy reminds the MC of the son he desperately wants but may never have.
Does that make sense?
Hi @pattyloof. Sorry for the late reply; doctors life. I only recently consolidated a concept in my mind. The RS. Question to ask is. What kind of relation ship exits between them. Then HOW is this relationship between them - from their OS roles respectively - affected by the Cost? How does that affect their motivations and methodologies as the story progresses? I find that a broad strokes illustration is usually sufficient to get things going.
Hope this helps?
1 Like
Can you share a bit more about this? What kinds of desires? Why do these desires predispose them to focus on the one case over the others?
This is a noir procedural in a far future dystopia where crime families have split a city into four quadrants and basically control everything.
I already mentioned the MC tying this boy into his desire for the son he might never have. The MC also has a deep aversion to the crime families which control the city (his Fixed Attitude). His refusal to have anything to do with the Families caused him to lose his detective shield many years ago, and as a twenty year veteran he’s walking a beat in the worst neighborhood of the worst precinct in the city.
The IC (his boss, the precinct commander) is an ill, elderly man, who has worked all his life trying to change the city for the better from inside the corrupt system. He knows his time is short and feels this case is his last chance to make a real difference by getting the crime family which owns his area to allow the police more resources and manpower - or at least to work together to help find this child. He thinks the MC could do a lot of good if he would just Reconsider his aversion to working with the Mob.
The detective on the case is a talented, knowledgeable, but depressed drunk. This case taps into his deep feelings of unworthiness, and he cycles between working on the case and avoiding it (either by being drunk or by working on his other cases instead) because he feels so hopeless. He actually Hinders the case more than anything, and the IC tasks the MC to take over a lot of the work, partially as punishment for one of the MC’s Impulsive Responses to another Hinder character.
Those are the main ones working the case. There are others but they have a lesser role.
Since Costs (and Dividends) can differ in the magnitude of their effect even amongst stories with identical storyforms, is it actually necessary to have all the OS characters affected by them?
1 Like
I think it depends on the emphasis you want to give to the Costs and Dividends - even a success / good story can feel somewhat bittersweet if the cost is too high. At the very least it should impact the Protagonist, as he is the one to pursue the goal first and foremost. You can add in the other Objective Characters to make the goal less personal to the Protagonist, and more “wide” in scope - giving even justifications to the Antagonist or others like the Skeptic.
1 Like
Thank you, this is what I was getting at. I’ve sort of thought of Cost/ Dividend as a way to fine tune the feeling of the Outcome, where only the elements presented by the storyform can do that effectively. I think it’s similar to how the audience will only buy in to the Inhibitor/ Catalyst as an effective means to speed or slow the pace of the OS/ RS.
Anyway, my thinking was that @pattyloof might not have an issue in her story if it’s not necessary that all OS characters pay the Costs.
1 Like
What would you say is the Story Goal?
Since everyone is involved in finding the boy, I’m not sure that “finding the boy” would accurately describe the MC throughline. It might be close to that, but it would be some related perspective which is highly personal and unique to the MC. Maybe “wishes he could be a father” and/or something related to his hatred of the crime families?
3 Likes
Not everyone in the story knows the boy is even missing: for example, the MC’s cousins, who are involved in a major subplot. The MC Throughline is Activity; the OS Throughline is Fixed Attitude.