As I use Dramatica to create my story’s storyform, I’m having trouble figuring out if an event belongs to the OS or MC Throughline. This is because anything that affects the OS affects the hero and vice versa. Can you offer some rule of thumb or something which will help me make the distinction between events in the two throughlines?
MC Throughline is everything he or she would take with them into another story. Their personal baggage no one else experiences.
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This is more helpful to me than you realise @jhull . Thanks. Just an added question. So when outlining the scenes from the MC perspective, I take it that they must be impregnated with this baggage in as many variations as possible, yes?
Separate each throughline and try to figure out the “different” storylines you want to tell.
// This paragraph was later changed, to avoid confusion
OS (Learning) - The objective storyline - A Group of students working on a plan how to find a treasure in the jungle
RS (Psychology) - The relationship between a teacher and a woman who discuss what is needed to survive the jungle
MC (Mind) - The subjective storyline - A teacher who needs to overcome his fear of snakes
IC (Situation) - The subjective storyline - A 10-yaer-old boy being the teacher’s child
Everybody, including the MC, is part of the treasure hunt, but only the MC has an issue with snakes.
Everything what has to do with the hunt is OS, everything what has to do with “fear of snakes” is MC, and everything what has do to with “learning how to cope with snakes” is IC
If the group finds the treasure the OUTCOME is SUCCESS, if the MC resolves his angst (oveomes his fear of snakes) the JUDGEMENT is GOOD
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@Gernot, I know it was just an example, but I think the example would work better if the IC throughline was about something completely different that the IC is dealing with. Maybe the younger student IC has to deal with:
- being significantly younger than everyone else (a 10-year-old among teenagers and adults)
- being the only girl on the trip
- having a prosthetic limb
- being the teacher’s child
The IC dealing with his or her own issues will influence the MC to overcome his fear of snakes.
Also, for RS I think you should substitute the word relationship for argument:
Is there anyway that story doesn’t culminate with a scenario wherein the only way to reach the treasure is to pass through the Cave of Poisonous Snakes?
Passing through the cave-OS
Having a panic attack-MC
Calming down and remembering how the student with the injured leg (I felt this character needed to be more Situation-y) hesitated for a moment before stepping on the rickety bridge giving the tiger a chance to maul him to death, and then deciding the best way to handle the Cave of Poisonous Snakes is just to do it as fast as possible-IC
(Note: cross-posted with @mlucas, that injured leg is now a prosthetic limb!)
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@B_Newman, Do you have a story in mind that you’re trying to fit into a storyform? If so, I think you just need to be familiar enough with your story to say “this event comes from physics, must be OS. And this Problem comes from the characters fears, must be MC.” Also, if more than one character is having the same problems, probably OS.
If you have a storyform and you’re building a story from that, build the OS all at once and build the MC at a different time. While building the MC throughline, call him by his character name. John Smith, or whatever. Then while building the OS give him a different name. Mr A, or Protagonist, or something. Then when you shuffle your notes together, change the OS name to the MC name and you’ll know where the Mc and OS are.
Thanks Lucas,
- OS (Learning) - The objective storyline - A Group of students working on a plan how to find a treasure in the jungle
- RS (Psychology) - The relationship between a teacher and a woman who discuss what is needed to survive the jungle
- MC (Mind) - The subjective storyline - A teacher who needs to overcome his fear of snakes
- IC (Situation) - The subjective storyline - A 10-yaer-old boy being the teacher’s child
Also, replace it all - because the Relationship is not an argument between two people – it’s a relationship.
There should be some indication of the relationship itself, whether its growing or dissolving, levels of dependencies towards each other, and those sorts of things.
What is more passionate?
The passionate argument storyline between a teacher and his student about an initial understanding about what danger in the jungle means
Or
The passionate argument storyline between a teacher and his student growing to hate each other.
The reason why they’re growing to hate each other has everything to do with the RS Problem and the Issue and Concerns help define the direction and focus of the conflict between them.
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So, the fight to save Tara = OS and Scarlett-Rhett = RS? Would the wagon drive through the fire be a perfect combination of the OS and RS?
Great way to put that. If you drop Jim Kirk into a story about Tribbles, or about Edith Keeler, it’s still Jim Kirk with his obsession with being in command of the Enterprise.
Think about your own life. Ten years ago, a romantic story may have been your life. Now, it may be a struggle with your children or neighborhood, or with an enemy determined to destroy you at work.
But you’ve never really resolved your relationship with your father, or your obsession with finding out…what was it that happened to him as a child? And come to think of it, you’re still collecting stamps.
Just be careful with the “what they would take with them into another story” guidance. That language didn’t work for me when I was first learning Dramatica, and now I see why, because you can have the same character be a Do-er in one story and a Be-er in the sequel.*
Now of course I was looking at the guidance wrong – it’s assuming they’d take the same personal baggage into another story – which isn’t what happens in a sequel. But at the time I didn’t understand that.
However, I love the “personal baggage/issues that no one else experiences” definition of the MC Throughline. Perfect!
* Example: In Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 1 she is a Do-er, struggling with being both the Slayer and a teenage girl (Universe), but comes to terms with that by the end of the season. In Season 2 her personal struggles are internal: fear, anger, and being in love (Mind).
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Ask, “is this directly related to the succeeding or failing at the OS caper or is this directly related to dealing with the MC’s personal troubles?” For example, when Luke Skywalker says “I’ll never get off this rock” or “I’m not such a bad pilot myself,” that’s MC throughline. When he says, “I’m here to rescue you. I’ve got your R2 unit,” that’s OS throughline.
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Some scenes (especially the climax) are “multi-appreciation moments”–a fancy term for “the throughlines intersect.” For example, at the climax, Luke finally trusts himself, and it leads to taking action in the OS. A multi-appreciation moment doesn’t necessarily have to be a big scene, but they often are. A brief seemingly mundane conversation between MC & IC could contain a line or action from each of the 4 throughlines.
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Many (largely bad) movies have zero MC throughline. That is, it’s all OS caper and it feels like you’re watching a video game play out. Sometimes a little backstory is sprinkled in and an attempt at a pay off is placed at the end, but that’s not the same as a MC throughline that is also explored at least once in each of the 4 acts.
Let’s say we’ve got a guy, we’ll call him “Clint.” Clint is a really highly skilled special ops guy, but he has promised his wife and kids that he’s getting out of the business. His eldest daughter seems to have committed suicide. Her body is unrecoverable. Clint knows that she was kidnapped by an evil band of ninjas, but he can’t prove it to anyone. He discovers that other girls, not related, have been kidnapped as well. These girls are forced into the sex trade on the other side of the world. He works on rescuing them. The situation is such that every time he tries to get evidence of this ninja band and that his daughter is still alive, he fails. The audience is made to be uncertain whether his story is true, His wife screams at him that he is living in denial and demands that he focus on his daughters who are still with the family who need him.
How would you break that up into the four throughlines?
This kinda works for me but it’s also kind of confusing because the events of the MC throughline have an impact on the plot of the whole story. So in Beauty and the Beast, Belle is stuck in her small town Universe. But then later she’s also stuck as a prisoner of the Beast – this “being stuck in the castle” is part of her Universe throughline but it’s totally interwoven with the events of the overall story … right? Or is there a better way to think about this?
(Maybe answering myself: the “me” perspective is “Oh crap I’m stuck in this castle”. The “they” perspective is “look at all the crazy problematic thinking of those people in the castle.”)
Well, I would think there could be a lot of different ways to break it up depending on what kind of story you want to tell.
Maybe one way:
OS: Physics/Obtaining: “Finding the kidnapped girls”
MC: Clint: Universe/Future: “Being forced out of the business because of family obligations”
IC: Clint’s wife: Mind/Subconscious: “As devastating as it is to admit, I’m sure my daughter is dead. We have to move on.”
RS: Psychology/Becoming: “What will become of us as a family?”
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Everything that slows the MC down, such as the IC’s efforts to have him “stop living in denial,” affects the OS. These events are all tangled together.
The events are all tied together in the storytelling, but the problems aren’t all coming from the same area. There’s probably more info needed to really get an accurate storyform, but look at it like this.
Clint and his wife haven’t been as close because the dangers of his job have pushed them apart. When Clint promises to stop, it creates tensions in their marriage because he still wants to do the job, but their marriage has grown stronger because he promised to quit. That’s one story.
Then their daughter appears to’ve committed suicide, or maybe to’ve been kidnapped by ninjas. Whatever the case, everyone is dealing with that. That’s a different story.
When Clint goes back to special ops techniques to track down their daughter, his wife gets mad at him for breaking his promise. Maybe we’ve gone back to the relationship story, or maybe this scene is doing double duty as both OS and RS. Maybe there’s some other combination. Either way, each story, however tangled with the others, still has it’s own source.
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My interpretation is that Belle’s MC throughline is really about “being stuck in the provincial town” and not about being stuck in the castle. (i.e. getting out of the castle does not resolve her throughline.) However, I think there are moments at the castle that remind her of – or draw parallels to – how she was treated in the town. Those would be part of the MC throughline.
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You do realize you just described most of Taken, right? 
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