When an objective/overall story is grounded in an incompatibility of varying manners of thinking and wide-ranging fixed attitudes among the cast of characters, then is it best to classify the overall story throughline as Fixed Attitude or Manipulation? Thanks.
I am no Dramatica expert by any means - still struggling through it and feel like a rank beginner. However, I think that you can’t look at the OS in isolation - it must be looked at while looking at the other domains as well. I struggled for months with a similar description of my overall characters, and I tried experimenting with the OS in both Fixed Attitude and Manipulation through the software. When I finally put my MC in Fixed Attitude (which leads her on a wrong-headed goal for most of the story) and the OS in Manipulation (because the OS characters are all trying to manipulate each other into their various “right” ways of thinking), then the IC and the RS domains also fell into place and it finally felt right. So try it one way, see how the other domains fall out, and then try it the other way and see how they fall out. I think that’s the only way to know.
Is the story about changing these attitudes or the attitudes themselves? The difference between Fixed Attitude and Manipulation is the same as the difference between Situation and Activity, it just occurs in the minds of the characters instead of in the environment they’re in.
It sounds like, from your brief description, that the problems in the story are caused by the Fixed Attitudes of the characters being incompatible with one another. An example would be a story about people of various cultures trying to get along despite their differing values. They are not trying to change each other in this hypothetical story, but simply trying to coexist.
Of course, if these people were trying to reach a goal or get out of a situation, then that might make it a Activity or Situation story and Fixed Attitude might work as the Relationship Story Throughline or even one of the others.
The Objective Story Throughline is the one that involves all the characters. It’s what we, on the outside, see the story as being about. If you can sum up your story in a sentence, that will probably inform you which OS Throughline it has.
Note that with an OS Throughline of Fixed Attitude, you will have a RS Throughline of Physics, and vice versa. You Main Character will then have a Throughline of either Situation or Manipulation. Is your MC dealing with his situation or is he trying to change someone’s (or his own) way of thinking?
Fixed Attitude stories are about WHAT people think. Manipulation stories are about HOW people think.
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The original terms were Mind and Psychology, respectively. It helps me to think of those nuances, too.
Definitely Fixed attitude/Mind…I bet the MC is manipulation/psychology!
Thanks, all. At this point I think the best fit is to set OS to Fixed Attitude/Mind, the MC thruline to Physics/Action (gonna teach 'em all the error of their ways), the IC thruline to Manipulation/Psychology (gonna wake up the well-intended-but-misguided MC if it’s the last thing he/she does) – leaving the RS to be Universe/Situation. But I’m guessing, and not very clear what an RS as Universe thruline would come to look like. Thoughts?
Also, the OS could well fit with Manipulation as the processes by which the characters each reach the cul de sacs of their individually fixed minds and how these fixed attitudes conflict. But, then, as I understand Dramatica (big if), that would preclude using Action for the MC thruline (Manipulation’s diagonal). Right? Leaving me to choose from among the Fixed Attitude/Mind and Universe/Situation for the MC-IC diagonal thrulines. Right?
The RS is in a Situation. http://dramatica.com/analysis/examine/rs-throughline/universe
Be sure to scroll down past “Additional Stories” for more, some of which with a RS of universe/situation might surprise you.
Yes that is correct.
Overall Story <==> Relationship Story
Main Character <==> Influence Character
I think the MC Throughline should be Manipulation in this case, because in teaching 'em all the error of their ways, he is trying to change how they think, which is Manipulation. The RS Throughline would be Activity, which means the relationship between the MC and IC is seen through an activity. This would leave the IC Throughline with Situation, so the IC’s influence on the MC is seen through a situation. For example, the IC is a woman in a man’s world, and that’s how she has influence on the MC. Maybe he’s trying to show the other men that their sexism is wrong because of the capable woman now in their midst.