Crucial Elements for Steadfast/Stop when Outcome is Failure

[mlucas]

This article on NarrativeFirst.com has some great examples of how Crucial Elements work with Steadfast characters. So far I had put off looking at Crucial Elements due to the “they’re not that crucial” advice and the idea that you might come up with something better by ignoring them. But now that I’ve outlined my climax scene in detail (and drafted part of it), I thought it would be fun to see how the Crucial Elements are working.

I compared against the linked article’s example about the therapist, since my MC is Steadfast/Stop like that one. A couple questions came up right off the bat:

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Question 1
How does the IC Crucial Element (I think it would be Control in the therapist example) come into play, if at all? The only help I could find was this article that suggests the IC Crucial Element is either impeding or helping the Main Character stand up to the IC, but I’m not clear on which.

Question 2
The examples seem to imply an Outcome of Success, since they talk about the OS Solution operating properly. e.g. Armando says:

Now, in a Steadfast-Stop story (element that needs moving) the Main Character takes the Focus and moves it to it’s proper place, allowing again the Solution to operate.

But what about when Outcome is Failure, like in my story – is that statement still entirely true, but the Solution just operates in a way that doesn’t bring about Success of the Story Goal? Or does the Main Character fail to move the Focus? Or does move it to a new place, but it’s not the right place, so it doesn’t allow the Solution to operate? Perhaps any of these options are valid?

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Phew! It sounds like I got really hung up on this, but I actually didn’t worry about these questions … I jotted them down, put them aside, and wrote a paragraph for my story/climax similar to Armando’s examples. It turned out beautifully, but got me more curious about the above questions, especially Question 2. I’ll try to clean up my paragraph and post it here, as that should clarify the discussion. In the meantime, feel free to comment as I’d love to know others’ thoughts.

[mlucas]

My Paragraph
As promised, here is my Crucial Elements paragraph for my story…

OS Problem: Oppose
OS Solution: Support
OS Symptom: Hinder (MC Crucial, also MC Symptom)
OS Response: Help (IC Crucial, also MC Response)
The IC is the First Mage, the MC is Caitlin.

The King and his First Mage hope to enact legislative reforms to the Lex Magica (laws governing magic), but their attempt has been undermined by a conspiracy, which secretly plans to overthrow the King in a daring coup. These conspirators have subverted all efforts to gain votes for the reforms (Support; solution not working), and now disapproval of the King’s rule among the nobility is at an all-time high (Oppose), clearing the way for the coup to succeed.
To prevent the coup, the First Mage and his apprentice Caitlin set a trap for the conspirators. They succeed in capturing them, but in springing the trap, the First Mage is gravely wounded and now lays dying (Hinder; he’s blocked from bringing them to justice).
He wants Caitlin to perform the Transference (a ritual which will heal him), so that he can bring the conspirators to justice – spoiling their plans for the coup (Hinder moved to proper place) and thereby restoring the King’s support among the nobility (Support solution able to work).
But the terrible cost of the Transference is too much for Caitlin to bear, so she resists his appeals and decides on a different approach. She does heal him, but to do so she redirects power from the bonds that hold the First Mage’s ancient enemy, a powerful demon who is in league with the conspirators. With this ancient enemy’s aid, the conspirators escape, and the coup’s success is assured. (So she removed the hindrance of his dying but in doing so also removed another hindrance – the ancient enemy’s bonds, and because of this 2nd hindrance being removed, the OS Solution of Support could not function properly, hence Outcome: Failure.)

• So it looks like instead of moving the Hinder element from one place to its proper place, when she tried to move it a separate instance of Hinder (the demon’s bonds) got removed along with it, which messed up the Solution.
• Alternately, you could view it as moving the Hinder element from one place to its proper place, but by mistake it got turned into Help (as in help for their enemies, instead of hindering them), so the Solution can’t operate.
• Or I guess it could simply be… She moved the Hinder element from one place (First Mage’s wound) to another (the demon who spoils their plans), but since the new place was obviously not the right place, the Solution can’t operate.

All of those seem cool, so I’m pretty happy with it. But if according to Dramatica it’s supposed to be the third one, for example, I might put more emphasis on how the demon Hinders them, as right now the “spoils their plans” is a bit of a stretch. Like I might have a scene where they are traveling with the captured prisoners, when the demon shows up and cripples their ability to keep hold of the prisoners.

I’m also not sure how the IC Crucial of Help is coming into play here, though it’s definitely present in a variety of ways (e.g. the fact that the IC needs healing, makes his impact hard to resist), so I think it’s probably working the way it’s suppsosed to, I’m just curious to know what that is.

I’d be happy to hear any ideas, the forums have been kind of quiet lately. I apologize for the length of my posts!

[brendon_oloughlin]

Just wanted to say that though I don’t have an answer for you questions, I am encouraged by the enthusiasm you have in posting. Its been great to read your posts.

[Alejandro]

Hi, @mlucas.

I’d appreciate the opinion of someone with more experience, but I think your illustration for OS Symptom may not be exactly a symptom.

If the problem is the disapproval of the king’s rule among the nobility and the solution is to get their support, I think hinder would have to do more with the nobles being considered or perceived as a hinder by the King and his allies than with the First Mage being wounded. I do think spoiling the plans for a coup would be closer. And as you wrote, helping the enemies would make a nice Response.

If she’s Steadfast, I think the Hinder element would start against the nobles, then moved against the King, trying to convince him that helping the enemies is not really the solution and maybe stopping the King from doing something terrible, and in the end gaining the nobles Support.

[jhull]

Forums have been quiet because the email notifications were dead for the month of May. They should pick up now!

In regards to your original question, I’m not so sure you have the right storyform which makes it difficult to follow along with your story (and thereby be able to help you sort out the whole Crucial Element thing).

Can we figure that out first? Because looking at your first paragraph there it looks like the Symptom is Support (the conspirators have subverted all efforts to gain votes for the reforms) and now disapproval of the King’s rule among the nobility is at an all time high (Oppose).

The Problem actually reads as Help - the drive of the King and his First Mage to enact legislative reforms to essentially help the people of the kingdom…I have a feeling then the Hinder Solution fits in with the rest of what you wrote later.

But doesn’t that sound more accurate to you?

[mlucas]

Hi Jim, Alejandro,

Thanks for your feedback! One problem with my above paragraph is that it doesn’t summarize the whole story or even the OS Throughline; I wrote it in the context of the situation at the end of the story (climax) only. Maybe that was a mistake, as perhaps these “crucial elements” need to be considered in how they operate throughout the story?

But it’s certainly possible my storyform needs tweaking. Though at this point I’m not sure whether I’d change the storyform or the illustrations. Since all the illustrations about Oppose, Support, Hinder and Help I came up with because of the storyform I got! And I’m pretty invested in my storyform now, having gone through and illustrated most of the story points including the Signposts & Journeys etc. (using awesome exercises in Dramatica for Screenwriters).

That said, of course if I need to tweak the storyform I should do it.

Jim, I’m going to think carefully about your “Help as Problem” encodings and reply again later. In the meantime, let me know if there is any specific info from my current storyform or illustrations that you’d like to see. (e.g. Problem quad illustrations and maybe a stab at what I think the inequity is?) I’m happy to share as much as needed, but don’t want to overwhelm everyone reading this thread with too much info.

@brendon_oloughlin thanks for your encouragement! I’m just glad the email is working again as I was wondering if my enthusiasm was getting annoying!

[jhull]

@mlucas

And I’m pretty invested in my storyform now, having gone through and illustrated most of the story points including the Signposts & Journeys etc.

That’s a warning sign–you never want the storyform dictating what you should be writing because more often than not you have it wrong. I spent several years on a storyform that I was heavily invested in only to find out that I had the Outcome completely wrong. Once I let my writing dictate the storyform, the storyform actually modeled my writing…

…just a caution. Working on signposts and journeys and filling out story points is not wasted time if you have the wrong storyform, it’s just a quicker way to get to the right one. You don’t want to put yourself in a place of defending a storyform–that’s when you’re letting Dramatica dictate the story.

It’s easier for us to see your storyform then you can see it yourself in the same way that an Influence Character can see into a Main Character better than they can…

[mlucas]

Hi Jim, thanks for the warning – I’m not sure if my storyform is “dictating” or not. What I did was to create my storyform in Dramatica Pro by answering the questions that I could answer (often using the multiple-select feature since more than one answer could fit the ideas I had in my head). Most of what I knew was MC Throughline stuff, and a few IC and static points like Resolve and Judgement. Eventually, after lots of going back to previous saved versions, I got to one storyform that I was happy with.

Then once I looked at all the story points, it became clear that the points Dramatica had filled in for me fell into two categories:

1. Stuff that I hadn’t considered when storyforming, but then afterwards realized it fit my pre-existing ideas to a tee. This is what really amazed me about Dramatica – it was “output” but it matched exactly what my Muse had already come up with. This helped me learn to trust both the software, and my own story sense!
2. Stuff that I looked at and said “hmm, not quite sure how that fits, but I’m sure I can use it”. Some of these were easy – I’d think of a way they would fit quickly – but others required more thought. What was really cool was how really awesome ideas came out of trying to illustrate the points that took more effort. I actually came to look forward to illustrating the weird or tricky points, because I knew I’d end up filling out my story with cool new ideas.

Are you saying I was going about that process wrong? That I shouldn’t have tried to illustrate the points that I didn’t already have pre-existing ideas for? Or do you just mean I need to be careful not to shoe-horn my story to fit the storyform – like paying attention when a story point doesn’t “feel” right?

[jhull]

Not so much the process, but you may have discovered the wrong storyform no matter how good it feels. The first indication is this:[quote=“mlucas, post:2, topic:608”]
The King and his First Mage hope to enact legislative reforms to the Lex Magica (laws governing magic), but their attempt has been undermined by a conspiracy, which secretly plans to overthrow the King in a daring coup. These conspirators have subverted all efforts to gain votes for the reforms (Support; solution not working), and now disapproval of the King’s rule among the nobility is at an all-time high (Oppose), clearing the way for the coup to succeed.
[/quote]

“These conspirators have subverted all efforts to gain votes”…how are the King and the First Mage unaware of this? It sounds more like a Symptom rather than a Problem (and definitely not a Solution)

“And now disapproval of the King’s rule among nobility is at an all-time high”…is he not aware of this at all either? Seems like this would be another candidate for Symptom though it could be seen as a Response to a Symptom of Support

[mlucas]

Ah! Now I see what you’re saying about the storyform.

Hmm. I think part of the issue here is that I’ve never properly encoded the OS Problem/Solution! I was using the summaries in Dramatica for Screenwriters but those aren’t true encodings, the book’s example even has the characters being aware of their problem at the end of the story (which I thought was okay since they only become aware at the end).

And the 4th Paragraph reveals the end with the Throughline’s Problem and Solution. … “They realize their unhappiness is caused by their attention to status an external appearances (Overall Story Problem of Aware)”

What I wrote in my above paragraph was really just based on that summary exercise, not a proper illustration. I realize now I have to give more thought to my OS encodings/illustrations … I had focused a lot more on the other Throughlines.

That said, I can definitely see how an OS Problem of Help may work better … but you know what? I tried putting it into the software and the only way I could come up with something that would fit my concepts for the MC was to make her Change instead of Steadfast! (this also makes me switch the Judgement, because one thing I know is the IC’s influence is pushing her towards Bad – so it’s either Change/Bad or Steadfast/Good)

So along with needing to tweak some other stuff, you’re telling me I also might need to change the MC’s moment-of-truth decision! How dare you! (just kidding, I think it’s really awesome actually … plus I’m sure there are plenty of good storyforms I naively discounted)

Anyway it’s late, I’ll post back later with more thoughts on OS Problem etc. encodings. Thanks for sticking with me on this!

[mlucas]

Okay, I’ll try to describe my overall story better in hopes of understanding the storyform. I’ll try to stay away from Dramatica terms that might corrupt my thinking until my comments later, though I may still use “inequity”.

Backstory: 170 years ago the First Mage (he’s old) and the King from that time reformed the church, government and laws, creating a great and terrible System which allowed them to control and harness the country’s magic-born. A lot of the System involves manipulating the public (including the nobles) into believing stuff that isn’t true. The Lex Magica laws are one of the “visible” parts of the System, but there’s a lot more under the covers.
The System made the country strong and it grew to a great empire. The price was the oppression of the magic-born, but they had always been oppressed anyway.
However, over the last few generations, the country has been in decline. The magic-born are fewer in number and less powerful than before, and the empire is beginning to crumble.

Of course, none of that is the story’s Inequity – despite the general suckiness for magic-born, everything was in equilibrium for a long time. Even the decline was a slow thing at first, part of the backstory.

Now in the story’s timeframe, we have a bunch of stuff happening just before or as the story begins:

1. After being in denial for a long time, the First Mage finally decides that his System is to blame for the country’s decline, and he needs to fix it. He creates a Plan to do so, the first step of which are the Legal Reforms. (Note I see this as “off screen” or a prologue; it’s before the actual story starts.)

2. A bit more backstory: The demon queen whom the First Mage bound to lead an important part of the System (in the guise of a Superior of nuns) has been secretly resisting him in the only way available to her. Speaking out against “Taint” to cover her actions, she has secretly operated a Eugenics program which is the true source of the country’s decline.
   Now in the story’s Prologue, the MC’s mother decides to renounce her vows as a nun, which puts her in position to be used by the demon queen to become the mother to the Prophesied One, whom the demon queen has foretold will be instrumental in setting her free. (The Prophesied One is the MC’s older sister.)

3. The First Mage’s former apprentice, who used to be loyal but disagrees with his plans for Reform, begins forming a conspiracy – making alliances with various factions that oppose the King’s rule or the First Mage’s plans, including an alliance with the demon queen.

4. Although they do not see the actual opposition (no one is speaking out in public), the King and First Mage can sense the signs of “enemies moving against them”. They decide to try and pass the Reforms now, earlier than planned. Though they do not yet have the support they want for the Reforms, they feel they must act now before their enemies grow too strong.

5. Caitlin, the MC, is a downtrodden magic-born girl. She is the epitome of how the System oppresses the people, especially the magic-born and their families. But she’s also Special, and the First Mage needs her to become his Apprentice and eventually his successor.

Now some comments on the above (allowing Dramatica terms again!).

• First a big WARNING: The story is actually planned to be Book 1 of a series (3-4 books), and it may be hard to parse out what is part of the series storyform, and what is Book 1. I haven’t spent much time trying to storyform the series yet. I can say that the series is about rebelling against oppression, freeing the people, etc. As Act 1 of the series, book 1 is about how things get setup for a rebellion, and how the MC grows to become a powerful figure who will eventually lead the rebellion.
  But looking at Book 1 alone, it’s about the First Mage’s doomed plan to save his country by fixing his System, which all the characters get involved in. And it’s about the undercurrent of discontent – which resulted from the System in the first place, and is shown through several OS characters including the antagonists and felt through the MC – that undermines and eventually dooms his plan.

• #1 above I see as the “IC’s Inciting Event” (if there is such a thing). His Plan to fix the System is the source of his drive to impact the MC, since he needs her help to do so. I had encoded the IC Problem as Oppose: “He now disagrees with the very System he himself built”. But I see that Help could work here (fixing the System to help it work properly, and seeking the MC’s aid to do so). Faith could work too (faith in his Plan, and that his System can be fixed).

• #2 – I’m not sure how this relates to the story inequity but it seemed important!

• #3 – This was my actual encoding of OS Problem: Oppose – “Hidden factions / conspiracies that oppose the King’s rule”

• #4 – This was my best guess at the story’s Inciting Event; I had outlined this ‘decision’ scene as the end of Chapter One. It also seems like it points to OS Symptom: Hinder – they don’t see the opposition, but they fear being impeded, they fear their plans will be blocked if they don’t begin now. So they Respond with Help (the Reforms will help the country and reduce oppression).

• #5 – I thought it might help to include some info on the MC. My original storyform has MC Throughline as Situation: Caitlin is a poor magic-born girl, reviled for her tainted blood and stuck serving a noble family who despises and mistreats her (Domain: Situation). She fears her unknown future – if she is not accepted into oath-mage training before her 13th birthday, she will stand trial for witchcraft. (Concern: The Future)

I apologize for being a bit stuck on my original storyform, it’s probably obvious from some of the words I use like “opposition” etc. It’s hard to change perspective once you’re used to it!

[mlucas]

I spent a lot of time over the last couple days reconsidering my storyform. I tried lots of different ideas – first pen and paper brainstorming about different OS Problem elements that could work, like Help, Support, Faith, Consider, etc. This was a good exercise and I could see several of them working. But once I went back to the software nothing really worked to create a storyform that felt right. Help kind of worked, but only if I made my MC Resolve Change, and I realized that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. I tried rearranging the throughline domains, but still had trouble.

It felt like I knew my MC, IC and their Relationship really well, and those all worked; but if I focused on the overall story it would mess them up.

Anyway, rather than go into more details, suffice to say I was frustrated. I started to draft a post asking for help, but before I could finish it I had to take my 6-year-old to soccer… and after soccer she wanted to play at the park with friends… giving me nothing to do for an hour but watch her, walk around with the dog, and think – without a computer! (I’d even forgotten my iPhone! Luckily I did bring a notepad & pen to jot down ideas.)

Suddenly I started to make progress. I realized that some of my “overall story” ideas were not really in keeping with my original ideas for the story. I thought back to the one scene I had written in 1998 that begins: “On the day of her execution, in the early hours before dawn, Caitlin had a visitor.” I realized my new ideas for the story (influenced by misguided Dramatica encodings) had made the First Mage too powerful, too much in control, when he needs to be desperate enough to risk breaking a girl out of prison because she’s his last hope. And why is he so desperate? Because he is driven to oppose the government, and that opposition has gotten him into serious trouble.

My storyform wasn’t wrong … my illustrations were. They didn’t match my inspiration for the story.

What I need is an encoding where, as Dramatica puts it “the source of inequity lies between the characters and the environment”. In the Overall Story at least, I’d been trying put all the Opposition in the environment! (Hidden factions opposing the King’s rule, etc.). But there was no Opposition driving the overall characters, except maybe the antagonists.

There can still be Hidden Factions of course, but what I need is an overall story where the characters are driven to Oppose … This is obvious, but for me it was one of those hit-yourself-in-the-face moments because I realized I already had it. Really all the characters fit into two groups:

1. Cogs in the wheel of the Terrible System. They don’t agree with the system, but as Cogs, they can’t do much about it except disagree. And when they voice their disagreement, it causes problems! (This category even includes the ‘bad guys’.)
2. The people being oppressed by the System, including the MC. And again, speaking out, protesting or resisting gets them into trouble! (But the characters are driven to do this anyway, even though it causes trouble – like the MC who is a “willful child”.)

The IC First Mage is a special case, which is why I was having so much trouble with him and the OS in general, thinking of it from his perspective. He is the architect of the System, and still has some power over it; he’s more than a Cog. So I need to make sure the overall story is setup so that he is driven to Oppose, but never sees his own opposition as a problem. I’m already feeling lots of awesome ideas brewing…

Anyway, once I started thinking about it I realized I already had plenty of stuff outlined where characters’ drive to Oppose got them into trouble, or caused trouble in general. It was all over the place in scene ideas, outlines, dialogue snippets. e.g.

• Caitlin says “That’s not my name!” all the time (because she clings to her family name even though her surname was officially changed), and she always gets punished for it.
• Prioress Bridget questions her superior’s actions, resists her orders, and is now missing.
• Sister Margaret disagrees with the Sisterhood’s treatment of certain pregnant women; eventually she is found out and gets mind-controlled and used as a weapon.
• etc.

Now I just need to figure out the actual “source” of the inequity, the inciting event and how it relates to Opposition.

I hope that all makes sense. Let me know if you still sense any problems with my storyform or if you disagree with (Oppose? ) anything I said.

[jhull]

It seems OK. It’s a bit hard to follow because you present so much information at first, but it sounds like Oppose could be the Problem. The only thing to do would be to start writing the thing and see if you follow it through to the end. In my case, I kept getting stuck halfway through. Only when I realigned the storyform with my work was I able to finish it.

[mlucas]

Thanks Jim. Sorry for the info overload, I’m still at the point with Dramatica that it’s hard for me to separate what’s important to the structure vs. what’s just storytelling “color”. Also I’m so excited about using Dramatica that I tend to post a lot of info about my process … I should probably start a blog!