I’m going to have to think about this some more.
I just realized that several of the squares in the Theme Browser have the same label. I never realized before that “Knowledge,” for example, is used to name three different squares in the Theme Browser and I’m not sure how that affects my original idea.
Sebastien, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. You make something a problem by showing that it cannot coexist with something else that matters to the character(s) – that they desire. (Though I don’t believe the desire always needs to be a conscious one.)
It’s funny, I didn’t really like @Gregolas 's idea of randomly-generated “reasons” that something is a problem, because I think this is where the author would want to inject their own tastes and sensibilities. Your example kind of changed my mind though – it was really cool how you tied those together.
Inequity - on the one hand, it feels like this comes from the POV of the author–there’s a way things should be, and they’re not, because there is too much of one thing and not enough of the other, and in a just world we’d have the proper dose of each.
OTOH it seems like it also comes through the perspectives, a perceived inequity. It seems like a lot of conflict between characters can come from this.
Dramatica’s take on it seems moral, in one way, and entirely objective and physical in another. I wonder if it has something to with the Energy, Resistance etc stuff I saw on another thread.
Inequity is worth a whole thread. I’d like to dig into it a lot more.
I don’t know. The method above was a response to Jim’s refrain of “but how is that a problem”. It’s meant to be a way to show how the Dramatica term or Gist is creating conflict within the story. In the example of “bad heart prevents racing”, isn’t there a gap between what is (the bad heart) and what the character desires (racing)?
If I start going in this direction, i’m likely to fall on my face, so I’ll just say this. The method of adding conflict described above probably isn’t perfect. But it does seem to be an easy shortcut for forcing conflict to come from a Gist, which was what it was meant to do. I think you gave a great example of how forgetting one’s long-lost pet can create conflict with looking for a new house. [quote=“mlucas, post:22, topic:1600”]
because I think this is where the author would want to inject their own tastes and sensibilities
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It isn’t that far removed from a gist list. But it would be helpful if you’re just not feeling creative one day, or have a good OS and MC in mind, but just can’t think of anything for the IC. But using it for writing stories would be my secondary use for it. It’s primary use would be in helping me figure out how to use a difficult term or gist. Like if I can’t figure out how to make something like Induction problematic, having a concrete form of conflict to connect it to helps me figure out how to use it. But you could use it however you wanted.
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