So say I’m developing a story, maybe trying on different storyforms for size and I want to compare what I’m doing with existing stories. Assuming I don’t have exactly the same storyform as something that’s already been analyzed, what storypoints are most useful for comparison?
I get it at the Domain (genre) level. But beyond that there are so many variations I’m not sure what’s the most important thing to look at. It occurs to me that if a particular storypoint is different – like success vs. failure – a comparison might not be apt at all.
An example: I have a story with an OS Issue of Wisdom. Searching on @jhull’s atomizer, I get (only) four stories:
- Cobra Kai
- Eddie the Eagle
- The French Connection
- Eastern Promises
Genre-wise, the last two sound like they’ll be much closer to what I’m writing. So I’m thinking, maybe I should watch those and compare.
On the other hand, maybe I should watch the first two, because maybe there’s a thematic resonance that will jump out at me.
Or maybe this is all misguided, and I should be looking at stories that have an MC Problem of Expectation – there are a bunch there. But my character is Steadfast. If I filter for that I only have two stories to compare: The Bucket List and Without Limits – neither of which sounds anything like what I’m trying to write.
BTW this is mostly academic right now – I’m about halfway through my draft so I don’t necessarily need to dig into this particular example, I’m just curious how others approach it in a general sense.