Can anyone help me with the definitions for Action and Decision for Story Driver

questions
#1

I feel like I have read, listened, watched, and queried wherever I could about this. But, still am not clear on it. Maybe I’ve missed something. Please help!

The Defintion of both Action and Decision are cicular in that niether seems to simply state what defines an Action or a Decision:

http://dramatica.com/dictionary/action
http://dramatica.com/dictionary/Decision

The Story Driver is clear because it just states one precipitates the other and carries a litmus test:

Can you explain the Story Driver further? - Questions - Dramatica
http://dramatica.com/questions/can-you-explain-the-story-driver-further

I understand the litmus test. But, am not satisfied with it beacuse it is a counterfactual. I would prefer to make this choice without having to perform a test to see if it worked each time. I also intuitively understand the football analogy. But, may need more analogies.

Am I the only one who can’t clearly define Action vs Decsion? Like I can tell you when a scene is one or the other. But, I can’t tell you why. I can usually tell you what the driver is. But, I can’t tell you why it is one or the other.

The purpose of this is for my writing. But, I need a really clear definition if possible of Action Driver that doesn’t refer to Action or just say it is not a Decision. And, the same for Decision Driver.

I also have noticed the Driver is triggered often by the limit. But, doesn’t that mean that the Driver also triggers the next limit?

Finally, in football, both teams huddle and make decisions, is just because the offense has the ball that they are the deciders? Does it have to do with offense and defense in a narrative? Does it have to do with onus? Is there a way to look at the OS POV and see which choice is best suited for a given story? Like picking whether a story is told from the offense or defense for football?

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#2

The definitions for dynamic story points are harder to pin down because the Dramatica software is heavily biased in favor of structural elements over dynamic ones. As a result, I can’t give you a crystal clear definition. I can only tell you what I do to try to answer that question myself: I start with examining the first driver in the context of the story goal (and therefore, the protagonist). What launches the protagonist on her journey towards the story goal? If the event/driver is coincidental; say, a meteor crashing into earth, then the story is likely action-driven. If it seems to stem from within the protagonist herself, the story is likely decision driven.

Ask yourself, is my story propelled by my protagonist reacting to situations and circumstances that are thrust upon them? If so, you’re probably in an action-driven story. If your story feels like the protagonist acts first, prompting the world to react to them, then you’re probably in a decision-driven story.

Remember, all of the dynamic story points exist in relation to the story goal. In your example above, you must choose what the goal of your story is: is it for the defensive team to successfully mount a defense, or for the offensive team to successfully score a touchdown? Either is possible, but the choice must be made. Once you know your story goal, now seek out your protagonist (or at least whoever has the ‘pursuit’ characteristic). Ask yourself, is the story driven forward by things that happen to him, or by what he causes to happen around him? If the offensive team captain is the protagonist, you’re in a decision-driven story. If the defensive team captain is the protagonist, you’re in an action driven story.

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#3

It’s not that they have the ball. It’s about what’s driving the play. For the offense, the decision of which play to use drives where the ball goes. For the defense, where the ball landed and how the last play ended up (first and goal, fourth and twenty five) drives the decision made in the huddle regarding how to act for the next play.

Keep in mind that that analogy is looking at the story as being about one team for one drive. By saying each team has a different driver, it’s looking at each team as having its own story. To look at both teams as part of the same story, I imagine they would both be driven the same way.

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#4

I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that there are actually four types of events in stories: Unforced Actions, Forced Actions, Unforced Decisions, and Forced Decisions. Only the Unforced ones can be Story Drivers.

I think things would be clearer if we didn’t try to use the same words to describe the forced and unforced versions, because they’re actually quite different. Here are some examples of what I mean.

  • Unforced Actions: Random occurrences (a storm or any weather event; an earthquake; a meteor strike, a car crash, etc.). Bumping into somebody on the street. Things that involve some degree of chance (the outcome of a sporting event).
    Gray areas that still count as Unforced Actions: Unpremeditated actions, like someone attacking somebody out of the blue. An action that might have been the result of a decision, but where that decision is completely left out of the story (e.g. Star Destroyer attacking Leia’s consular ship).

    • Note: see the exception under Forced Actions where randomness can be decision-driven if a decision is made to play or flaunt the odds.

  • Unforced Decisions: Someone deciding to do something out of the blue. A person or group deciding something by weighing the possible options or evidence.

  • Forced Actions: An action made as a result of a decision taken (e.g. a prisoner is taken to penitentiary after being found, or decided, guilty). A random occurrence that is shown to have occurred due to someone deciding to play or flaunt the odds (e.g. group of drunk teenagers discuss how to get home and decide to take their chances and drive anyway, then get in a car crash).

  • Forced Decisions: Being forced to make a choice you would not have otherwise made (because of some event). Starting a deliberation, but realizing that because X happened, there is only one real choice. Having an in-progress deliberation interrupted, forcing you to choose one option either randomly (you’re trying to decide which door to take when a monster crashes through the wall so you just pick one) or because that option clearly works best now (monster crashes through wall and now blocks two out of three doors).

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#5

The key to understanding “Action” and “Decision” is that these are labels for more complex concepts. There are multiple parts to a full understanding.

First off, Action and Decision should be understood as a causal relationship:

  • Actions drive Decisions

  • Decisions drive Actions

Equally important is to understand that these are in the context of what drives the story forward. By drive the story forward, I mean that drivers change the course of the story. Without the driver event, the story would not change course – that’s how you can tell if it is a driver event: Without X (the driver event), Y would not happen (the new direction in the story).

For example, without the DRIVER ACTION EVENT, the DECISION RESPONSE would not happen.

The shorthand for determining Actions and Decisions:

  • Actions happen

  • Decisions are made

And the last context to remember is that the Limit drives the Overall Story principally, but since all four throughlines are intertwined it’s often not obvious or softened by the impact on the other throughlines.

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#6

The defense can make a decision in the huddle, but their action are decided by something that happens to them. Either the line stands up to defend against a pass, or the line moves forward across the line of scrimmage to open an avenue for a run. They have to react to this. It doesn’t matter that they have previously made a decision, because if they had (say) decided to protect against a run and the offense was actually going to throw, they’d be screwed. They must react to something out of their control.

The offense on the other hand gets to decide if they are going to run or pass. All of the mitigating factors are taken into account, but ultimately, they get to choose what they want to do.

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#7

One caveat about the earlier examples I gave: they’re just examples, and certainly not exhaustive. In some cases they might even be misleading.

For example, “happening upon something” certainly sounds like an Action driver. Say, coming home to catch your wife in bed with another man.

However, if you first decided to cut your business trip short to spend time with your family, and that’s why you caught your wife cheating … that’s definitely a Decision driver. As Chris said, the Y wouldn’t happen without X is the most important aspect.

(But, say you cut your business trip short because of approaching bad weather … now we’re back to Action driver.)

#8

This and Story Goal are two where I think it really helps to know your Storymind. Say you can’t figure out if the volcano god deciding on human sacrifice or the proclamation of it is the driver because they’re so closely related and happen so close together, you just have to be able to figure out what the Storymind is trying to say. You have to figure out how to tell if your story wants to react to the decision or respond to an action. If you can figure that out, you adjust the driver accordingly.

#9

Okay, I have my own question now.

Say you have a story that starts with a peaceful mountain town. Everything is fine until…

  1. There is a seismic event, a small earthquake (First Driver, Action). It doesn’t do much damage, but gets an engineer to look carefully at the structure of the nearby dam, and he notices some serious problems. He takes this info to the Town Council.
  2. The Town Council meets to examine his info. They have a long series of meetings trying to decide which option to take – do nothing, apply a quick fix, or overhaul the dam. The story makes it clear that no option is obvious; it’s the decision process itself that determines the action they take.

Is this story broken?

You could certainly say the Decision in #2 would not have happened without the Action – the Town Council would never have met on this if not for the seismic event. So the litmus test mentioned by @chuntley seems to work.

Yet I feel like something isn’t right here, because the Decision in #2 is shown as taking charge of the story’s direction, depending on which option they choose. In an Action driven story, we should have something like

'2. The Town Council says “you’re right, this is bad we better fix the dam” OR the Town Council says “are you crazy? we don’t have the budget to fix anything until 2020. go home.”

(Note: this example is related to an old post where @MWollaeger challenged us to look at a movie trailer and illustrate it as Action and Decision separately, but I’m having trouble finding that post :slight_smile: )

#10

I think this is pretty clearly an action driver.

Before the seismic event, the story was something else: now it’s about the dam.

Plus, whatever decision they make, the story isn’t going to shift into out the current signpost (“What do we do about the dam?”) into the next one until there is another action.

  • Looking in the foundation, they find gold! Do they let the dam break now and gamble that the town will be rich!?
  • While deliberating, the dam cracks and it looks like it will break it 12 hours. Only half the town will be able to evacuate, and they won’t be able to take anything from the Museum of One Of A Kind Works by Michaelangelo.
  • Aliens land to confront the humans who are trying to stop them from clearing debris (ie, the dam) from their landing site.
#11

Huh. I had thought that following an Action with a big deliberation like that wasn’t right for an Action-driven story. But it sounds like you’re saying it’s fine?

I may have to revisit my understanding of Drivers!

Oh, I found your old post. It might be a good exercise for @crayzbrian or any of the rest of us:

#12

It’s not right for an Action Movie, but that’s a different thing.

Drivers are about causality.

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#13

Sounds like an Action driving Decision (deliberation). Since you do not have the next driver, it’s hard to say if this is right or wrong, but so far fits with Story Limit: Action. It also sounds a bit like Jaws. :wink:

#14

I did know Drivers are about causality. Let me explain the part I was confused on.

I see the word Decision as referring to two related but separate things. First, the decision process itself, which can be long and drawn out or brief, even instantaneous. Second, the decision’s outcome – the actual choice you make.

Prior to your recent posts, Mike, I believed that in an Action-driven story, it was that second thing – the choice or outcome of the decision – that the Actions needed to cause or force. So rather than just “without Action X, they wouldn’t have had to decide what to do” I thought it was more “without Action X, they never would have made choice Y”.

In fact, it was @jhull 's guidance that led me that belief, though I may have misunderstood his direction or taken it too far.

#15

I see it as the second thing: if X had not happened, Y would never have come up.

Without X Decision, Y Action never would have come up.
Without Y Action, X Decision never would have come up.

More formally, I see things this way: for a given perspective on a problem to complete, it needs to look at that problem from four areas (the Type/Concern level). Drivers come about when one perspective has been exhausted, and serve to move the story into the next perspective.

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#16

The Story Driver Test for your files :wink:

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