“Success” doesn’t mean anything. You can have success in overcoming the past, or in understanding something, or in developing a plan, or… you get the point. 
What about success in achieving their desires for happiness? The Main Character can only be happy with fame, the girlfriend needs to start a family to be happy, the muse specifically helps others fulfill their desires.Then your Overall Throughline would be Mind/Desires…/Dream, maybe? Do you see how that’s a little more clear than just “success?”
Ah! Okay, now I understand. Yes, that’s much clearer, thank you.
Love your suggestion too, Andrew. Success in achieving one’s desires for happiness makes perfect sense to me.
So the throughlines would be…
OS: Fixed Attitude:
MC: Activity
IC: Manipulation
RS: Situation
Wait.
This is still vague, and unless you are careful, it’s not going to be helpful. And the way @actingpower wrote this, it does not work.
Success does not apply to the Main Character, the girlfriend or the muse. It applies to the Story Goal (and most likely in this capacity to the Protagonist but that is not a requirement).
So what is the Story Goal? What does the Protagonist want? What is the inequity that is causing all of the conflict and how can it be resolved? If it’s resolved – Success.
Everyone being happy is a different beast: probably the Dividend, possibly the OS Benchmark.
Also, just because people end the story happy doesn’t make the OS Fixed Attitude. I’d be happy if I got out of prison (Situation) and so would my mother. That makes being happy the result of getting out of prison, but the goal is still in, say, The Past (resolving a false conviction).
You’re right; I was overly vague in my explanation. I meant exactly what you said, though. The writer (specifically as Protagonist in this case, though he’s also the Main Character) does have a Goal specifically about Desires. I mean, it ultimately boils down to which story Jerome wants to tell. I meant to make a reply saying that the story would work just as well if it was about Obtaining something, or about the Future, or about Becoming something, but I forgot (like an idiot). But the way the story seemed to me, it made the most sense for the Overall Story to be Desires, precisely (as Jerome put in his reply) because the Main Character Throughline seemed to be Obtaining, the Impact Character Throughline seemed to be Becoming, and the Relationship Throughline seemed to be Future.
Those four are the block of Motivations, so they are very similar. But what are the characters pursuing: a future completion of a Situation, an Activity, a Way of Thinking, or an Attitude? I, personally, saw it as the last. They would only be happy once their Desires were satisfied. Not in completing an Activity, not in reaching a Situation, and not in reaching a satisfactory mindset. Only by fulfilling their Desires.
Would something like this work?
GOAL To assert one’s importance by having it acknowledged by others.
INEQUITY It’s a cold, cruel world out there. Everyone is out looking for themselves and ready to cut off others at the knees. No one has time to look out for others.
SOLUTION To receive recognition (encouragement, praise, respect, love) from others.
It’s hard to see exactly how you are thinking about this, but from the words you are using, you are saying:
The goal is the be acknowledged.
The solution is to be acknowledged.
That’s not really how it works.
It would be more like “The goal is to be acknowledged” … the problem is that the artist focuses too much on his results (he calls reviewers and butters them up to get the results he wants, but the real critics see through it) and it gets resolved when he focuses on his process.
Ah, yes. I was reading solution as being what the protagonist believes will solve his problem and not what the real solution to the problem is. Sorry about that.
Well, perhaps to keep things in the spirit of this discussion 
the solution would be to master one of the many arts he’s dipping his toes in, instead of jumping around from place to place, seeking fame. In other words, he’s unfocused and needs to learn to focus?
So perhaps a problem of uncontrolled and a solution of control?
(Or is that the same thing?)
@Jerome, I opened a Dramatica file and tried plugging in some selections you have seemed to imply. I’ve also tossed in some brief illustrations of how I’m interpreting the selections. I don’t expect any of this will match yours exactly, but it might give you some food for thought.
CHARACTER DYNAMICS:
MC RESOLVE: Steadfast (he keeps “dipping his toes in” “many arts”)
MC GROWTH: Start
MC APPROACH: Do-er (he’s busy, though scattered)
MC PROBLEM-SOLVING STYLE: Linear (he’s always in mid-process, missing the big picture)
IC RESOLVE: Change
PLOT DYNAMICS:
OS LIMIT: Optionlock (no life-altering deadlines are mentioned)
OS OUTCOME: Failure (no gold ring is gained, by anybody?)
MC JUDGMENT: Bad (lots of effort, all of it futile?)
RELATIONSHIP (Romance)
RS DOMAIN: Situation (stuck in a non-stimulating, disunited relationship)
RS CONCERN: The Future (that gold ring — success for him, marriage for her — that they both see as “out ahead”)
INFLUENCE CHARACTER (Girlfriend)
IC DOMAIN: Manipulation (psychologically nudging him, mind-game-playing)
IC CONCERN: Changing One’s Nature (becoming a wife to a guy who has become an 8-to-5er)
MAIN CHARACTER (Meandering “Artiste”)
MC DOMAIN: Activity (lots of this and that and this and that)
MC CONCERN: Obtaining (the “brass ring” of fame, fortune, popular success)
OVERALL STORY (Grabbing the Gold Ring)
OS DOMAIN: Fixed Attitude (lots of characters affixed to grabbing their own personal gold ring, despite weighty evidence that it’s simply not “there” for all of them)
OS CONCERN: Innermost Desires (personal-identity-maintaining reasons for “needing” that gold ring)
ADDITIONAL STORY POINTS
OS GOAL: Innermost Desires (see above)
OS CONSEQUENCE: The Future (a hopeful one could be lost if the Problem isn’t solved)
OS COST: Changing One’s Nature (it won’t happen, or it won’t be a change toward the good)
OS DIVIDEND: Obtaining (or also, in Dramatica terms, Not Obtaining/Losing)
And yes, Uncontrolled could certainly be the OS PROBLEM and MC PROBLEM, with Control as the mutual SOLUTION.
I see him as STOP (he needs to let of of trying to master many things). He eats the worms, so I see him as CHANGE.
This isn’t to disagree with @keypayton, it’s just to say that I don’t think you’ve shared enough for anyone to determine what direction the story is going in just yet.
Unless I’m mistaken, uncontrolled can’t be MC PROBLEM, only OS, IC & RS. The MC PROBLEM would have to be reconsider (undermines resolve with every new obstacle that crosses one’s path). So he’s constantly saying, “Ah, shoot. That didn’t work. I guess I should try something else.”
Other than that, those are exactly the same appreciations I have plotted out as well.
Here’s the basic 12:
CHARACTER DYNAMICS:
MC RESOLVE: Steadfast
MC GROWTH: Start
MC APPROACH: Do-er
MC PROBLEM-SOLVING STYLE: Linear
PLOT DYNAMICS:
DRIVER: Decision
LIMIT: Optionlock
OUTCOME: Failure
JUDGMENT: Bad
OVERALL STORY
DOMAIN: Fixed Attitude
CONCERN: Innermost Desires
ISSUE: Hope vs. Dream
PROBLEM: Uncontrolled
To be honest, there’s not much else to share because I haven’t figured anything out – and never really planned on originally. Though I’m very much enjoying this and find it very educational – it’s already got me re-reading the manual.
How I would imagine the story playing out is something like this.
The hero (MC/pro) is on a quest to find fame (to be acknowledged) and goes from one discipline to another, waiting to find that thing that’s going to make it work for him. While he’s expending all of that energy, his girlfriend uses temptation to lure him to something more reasonable because she feels her relationship with him is going nowhere (what kind of a future can she have with him?). Maybe she sticks with him because he makes her feel needed (he depends on her for financial support).
After many failed attempts, with the last one being an especially big blow, she gives him an ultimatum, your next-sure-to-fail project, or me. When he insists it’s going to be great and everything’s going to work out, she walks away.
Granted, this is still vague, but I imagine there should be enough to work out a storyform and go from there, no? Don’t the DWG make storyforms from loglines sometimes?
You certainly can make a storyform from that, especially if you are involved in a back-and-forth (which helps make a lot of decisions).
But you have to consider that you have written very little, if anything, that emotionally resonates about your MC. Without that, you have no subjective storyline. And without that, no meaningful storyform.
I get that this is an exercise. You are using it to help understand Dramatica, and I think it’s the right way to go. You can’t learn Dramatica without jumping in and trying mold a story. But it’s revealing to me to see what information you are putting out there – it gives the rest of us a sense of your story-instinct.
What I see is that you get a lot – you have an understanding of plot and irony. But characters are just chess pieces that you move around to make the plot and irony work. There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s where I started. But Dramatica is going to demonstrate that this won’t be sufficient if you want to weave amazing stories.
This is one of the things I love about Dram. You come here to learn the program, but in turn, you become a better writer by finding holes that have nothing to do (directly) with Dram.
@Jerome, there’s no “technical” reason why the MC PROBLEM cannot be Uncontrolled (using the exact same settings you cited). Maybe you have a storybuilder’s reason for focusing on Reconsider, but Uncontrolled is definitely a viable option in the software and the theory.
Oh, I agree. Developing the heart of the story is, without a doubt, my biggest “blind spot” as M.A. Phillips refers to them. And, by the way, thank you for taking the time to shed light on them, I really appreciate this.
So, looking at the MC Throughline, I think we can build the following:
DOMAIN: Activity Dancing, Painting, Writing, Singing, Acting, etc.
CONCERN: Obtaining To receive acknowledgement from the world at large of his own self-worth
ISSUE: (Approach vs. Attitude) Plagued with low self-esteem, and mocked by friends and family, the MC seeks acknowledgement from the world at large to prove to those who don’t believe in him that they are wrong
PROBLEM: Reconsider He’s always re-evaluating which venue to achieving his goal, always looking for the next best thing
SOLUTION: Consider If only he evaluated the worth/value of his endeavors and recognized his goal is within his grasp through those who already love / need him
SYMPTOM: Logic People around him – perhaps a father figure? – points out his long string of failures and states he hasn’t made anything out of his life.
RESPONSE: Feeling He lashes out at those who “accuse” him of not making anything out of his life, “Where are your dreams? Where are your ambitions? What have you ever done with your life?” He states, “I’ll prove you wrong!” Then, after the dust settles, feels like crap because deep down inside, he knows they’re right. He’s worthless.
UNIQUE ABILITY: Approach The MC is relentless in his approach, never stopping to take a breather, always on the go.
CRITICAL FLAW: Delay The MC puts off until later making decisions that can help ground his life (getting a job, getting married, etc.).
BENCHMARK: Understanding As the story progresses, the MC understands more and more the futility of his endeavors and, at the end, that he is his own worst enemy. But despite all his understanding, continues on the same path.
This is a natural first way to think about Symptom and Response but it is rarely an accurate way to do it. Let me be explicit about what I am referring to: The thing he thinks is causing his conflict is the people around him pointing out his long string of failures and so it’s only natural that he lashes out – that seems like a Response. But I think there is a better choice to be made.
The Response should eradicate (momentarily) the conflict, the friction. These Feelings you list would only seem to increase the conflict. Also, as you point out, he still feels like crap – which means he would know this isn’t the right path. (Obviously, something has to indicate to him that this isn’t the right path, so having these feelings is actually fine, but I want to make a crystal clear case to help you learn.)
Let’s take a step back, and say: "Your MC has devoted himself to learning each of the various arts: he learns from teachers that are tops and produces work – but as his father points out, this logical path has failed to make him into an artist. When he goes to do it again, his father points out this is illogical.
Yes, he lashes out. Let’s keep that – but those feelings only stir him up. So, he employs a different Response: he goes to a bar where he can drown his feelings and he buys a hooker so he can essentially purchase feelings and he hangs out with his buddies who make him feel good about himself. This fills his tank and he is ready to go back to his new teacher/muse.
See how separating the Actions makes them deeper?
On to another topic:
These have more to do with the OS (read the manual) than they have to do with the MC Domain, so they are kind of floating here and seem to be aimed at the wrong thing.
Also – and this is totally relevant. This list, for you, is a siren song. It does not matter if you can fill it in. That will certainly help you learn Dramatica, but it will also make you more blind to your blind spots.
Yes.
If you are not good at getting into the skin of your MC, then learning Dramatica will build your strong muscles and atrophy your weak muscles. You need to take additional steps to ensure this does not happen.
Let me digest these notes.
Okay, now that REALLY piques my curiosity. What might these additional steps be?
Right, I see that. Defining the actions & responses more distinctly makes them clearer and gives more volume to the story.
So would these examples work?
SYMPTOM: help My neighbor constantly wants to help me with my writing, makes plans to meet up every night.
RESPONSE: hinder I pretend like I’m not home when he knocks at the door, hide when he peeks through my windows.
SYMPTOM: conscience The chastity belt my mother makes me wear prevents me from having sex.
RESPONSE: temptation I satisfy my urges by indulging in drink and violence.
SYMPTOM: control The government implants microchips into all of its citizens to control them
RESPONSE: uncontrolled Hackers break into the government’s computer system and render it useless
SYMPTOM: avoidance The woman of my dreams keeps avoiding me, never returning my calls.
RESPONSE: pursuit I create an online profile and go on dates every night to forget her.
SYMPTOM: faith My husband is convinced the world will end next week.
RESPONSE: disbelief I call up all my friends who did not believe marrying him was a good idea in the first place. They all suggest I get a divorce.
Really? I can see how Unique Ability is more OS than MC, but the Critical Flaw seems very MC to me…
The Critical Flaw undermines the MC’s effectiveness at using their UA. That’s why it’s related to the OS.
Their UA helps bring about the Successful Solution of the OS – the CF undermines that.
I’ll respond to the rest of your post later.
In general, I would say that your examples work, but they play a bit fast and loose with the actual definitions of the words. But – the main thing is that the examples seem good, and I don’t want to overwhelm you.
Dramatica is overwhelming by its nature, and lots of people drown, and I don’t want to do that to you.
As for this, here’s the thing. Dramatica, with it’s 4x4 design, tends to attract very linear, mathematical thinkers. But lots of it is actually a very mathy look at very subjective emotional things. It works really really well as analytical tool for subjective throughlines, which is great, but the result is that people who don’t naturally get into the skin of their characters learn (incorrectly) that they don’t have to, that they can get by thinking about them objectively. But this doesn’t tend to work for creation, only analysis.
[Unless you want to write really thin stories, probably action movies, probably not great ones.]
So, not only can Dramatica mislead you inadvertently, it can also get you working your story logic muscles (which is good), and get you to ignore your intuitive character muscles (which is bad) and the result is an increasingly worse balance between the two (also bad).
If you (or anyone) are interested in doing this, shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll bounce some stuff off of you.
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Sent a PM, not sure where email addresses are listed in the forums.