@jamjam1794 great encoding. Added it to the story. @SPotter you’re up!
Ok. Help me out here. I want to make the influence character in the archetypal role of the skeptic. What was his name? Sebastian? Yes, Sebastian Olivia, the Impact Character. Skeptic
Thanks!! (Sorry for being so strict!)
Sorry, but it’ll be a few hours before I can give this any serious thought…
Also, Jim, can you remind me/us what questions we should be addressing right now? (I’ve lost track of the still-unanswered items.)
If you scroll up to the very top you’ll find a list of links. The top one, marked “Story”, will take you to the storyform with the storytelling on it. For easy reference again – Our Story
Sorry. Youthful exuberance…
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Okay, I’m trying to develop the OS Problem of Being Chaotic: It’s the 1930s, and the Great Depression rages across the world, spreading Chaos throughout formerly stable economies and casting everyone into desperate searches for “the next big thing” that will protect them from the Depression’s financial and emotional depredations.
That is, the world is a-tumble and nobody knows what is a safe profession to be in, or how long any job will last.
And while many Americans try to move and adapt to friendlier regions or untested technologies, in Europe the Depression hurries the rise of civil war and fascism that will lead to World War II. Further, many emigres to the supposed “Land of Opportunity” are finding it nearly as difficult and cutthroat here as as it had been back where they came from.
So these are the kinds of pressures and tensions that all our principal characters are dealing with, no matter how kindhearted, well-intentioned, or in denial they may be.
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I too like @keypaton have an instinctive desire to make any plot fit tightly with its time and place. But I wonder how much this works within the genre of a light comedy?
The plot (our plot) as outlined so far reminds me, very slightly, of the 1941 movie “The Devil and Miss Jones”, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033533/
“A tycoon goes undercover to ferret out agitators at a department store, but gets involved in their lives instead.”
As I remember (it was a long time ago when I saw it) the big bad tycoon comes to realise just how downtrodden his poor workers are and a bit like the modern “Undercover Boss” makes their lives so much better.
The point I’m trying to make is that we are aiming at a light comedy and so should perhaps try to resist the temptation to be too realistic. For example it’s already been decided that “success, good” would be achieved by getting our boss character to come to the realisation that women would and could be as good as the men doing the illustrator’s job.
In a real-world situation that would of been very unlikely to be enough to cause a change of hiring policy. I suppose the cloud of objections would start with things like – why do we need to change – it would distract the young men – the company would have to build more washrooms – we would have to ‘let them go’ when they get married. . .
To me a light comedy sadly necessitates hiding from such “realities” of the time.
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Charlie Chaplin didn’t hide from it. We are writing this from a 2014 perspective I assume But nonetheless first rule of improv is “yes and…”
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Amen, SPotter! I don’t in any way think a Depression-era setting somehow automatically keeps this story from being a “romantic comedy.”
While the Great Depression was tough for SO many, we must remember such standout comedic and semi-comedic takes on it as “Modern Times,” “City Lights,” “Gold Rush,” “Annie,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “The Sting,” “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (recently analyzed by the Dramatica Users Group), “Paper Moon,” “Get Low” (with Robert Duvall), Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Zelig,” “Sullivan’s Travels,” “My Man Godfrey,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” and a couple hundred more.
As in many of the above, I see the OS Problem: Chaos in our comedy as something that is pervasively in the background.
Here, IMHO, Being Chaotic is behind the emerging-but-uncertain world of comedic animation, with occasional eruptions of the Depression’s widespread anxiety popping up through the romantic-comedy surfaces of our story — until the Influence Character realizes the error of his “Stirring Up Trouble for Someone” ways and finally Changes to help our Steadfast MC resolve the OS Story Problem of Chaos/Being Chaotic.
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Nice take @keypayton. Can you sum it up in one nice easy sentence?? (Unstable economic times force job-seekers to take jobs they’re not suited for…, etc.).
I wouldn’t worry too much about it being too serious. Drama and comedy can be applied on top of any storyform, per the Author’s tastes.
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How’s this?
“A chaos-causing Depression forces everyone to either go crazy or try to make a living at things they’ve never tried before.”
I have only so far fit my WIP into Dramatica (Pro, not SE), and this process of using Dramatica to build a story from scratch is totally new for me (not to mention Gists), plus this genre/setting is totally foreign for me. I’m feeling a little lost, although I’m learning a lot. I don’t want to pass, and I need to ask for some help. I’m looking at the IC Domain of Being Stranded. @jhull or someone - I need a starting question, similar to when you asked @jassnip “But how does it cause a problem for her?” I get a little confused when thinking about the I, You, We, They…
Sure I’ll do my best…
When looking at the IC Domain of “Being Stranded”, how does Sebastian being stranded have some impact on MaryBeth? We know she has trouble looking out of windows and over railings, so how would Sebastian’s stranded-ness ramp that up? How would it show her a different way of dealing with her problem?
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That’s exactly the kind of question I needed - thanks.
So here’s what I’m thinking: Sebastian is constantly finding himself stranded without fare money, keys, wallet, etc. and sometimes in no condition to get himself home. It’s always Mary Beth he calls to come get him, no matter the time or location.
In doing some research before writing this I came across some interesting things about airships and daredevils on the tops of buildings that might play in to Mary Beth’s fear. Also, for those on Pinterest, this board on 1930’s New York: http://www.pinterest.com/hillshezza/1930s-new-york/
So…do I need more? less? something different?
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Sounds great to me! I added that he considers Mary Beth his only friend, a reason for him to always call her (and it’s a nice Situation-y bit).
@Writegeist your turn.
@jhull , I need a little clarification. I thought Sebastian was supposed to be “imaginary?” Did that get scrapped/ignored?
Writegeist 4d
“…I propose considering Sebastian Olivia as the Guardian… The rest of this is just free-writing;
it may or may not be the appropriate time to bring up some of these points, but I didn’t
want to lose any of it.
POSSIBLE IDEAS: In this case, I can see him as an inadequate Guardian, one who feels as if
he needs to protect Marybeth despite the fact that she doesn’t want or really need to be
protected. He is possibly inept at it as well, perhaps lending a certain amount of charm to
the character. He isn’t malicious; just misguided. He has established prejudices that come in
direct conflict with how Marybeth views herself…”
I have been working on something about Sebastian, myself, based on the above, (I just copied and pasted this from earlier in the encoding sessions.) Did I miss something about imaginary? Or was that another character?
Oh, I see. I went back to the beginning and found this previous post:
jamjam1794 15d
“Sebastian Olivia as the Impact Character. I’m thinking that perhaps he is a character MaryBeth has created, her idea of the perfect man.”
There is the word “perhaps”. Did that leave it open?