Contextual Subgenres

[RailwayAdventurer]

@pattyloof

I just got to read this and I’m puzzling over it.

I have a mystery WIP with an OS Goal of The Present: this couple is on their honeymoon and find a dead body. This doesn’t feel like a Survival situation - but maybe it is?? Or does my story fall into your Dynamic Pair?

Building on what @Prish said, knowing whether the OS would fall under that Contextual Subgenre (or under The Present) would require more context.

At the same time, your story reminds me of an example story in @ArmandoSaldanamora’s book “Dramatica for Screenwriters.” It revolves around a haunted lodge near the new summer cottage belonging to MC Sarah Wilson and her family. Against her parents’ will (and anyone’s better judgement), Sarah goes into the woods to find a stranger boy she met earlier and after arriving at the haunted lodge, she finds a skeleton (Armando goes into more detail in the book, and the idea of providing sufficient context is actually the purpose of the example story). Funnily enough, the Story Goal is also The Present (stated in the back of the book).

Ultimately, context is everything when it comes to defining the conflict in story.

Sources:
“Dramatica for Screenwriters” by Armando Saldaña-Mora
https://narrativefirst.com/blog/2016/05/when-creating-conflict-context-is-everything

[jhay]

@pattyloof

I have a mystery WIP with an OS Goal of The Present: this couple is on their honeymoon and find a dead body. This doesn’t feel like a Survival situation - but maybe it is?? Or does my story fall into your Dynamic Pair?

As the others have said, there would have to be more context to be sure. It may well fit into the Dynamic Pair, since the Survival story tends to deal primarily with wars (military or just social/political) or being transported to new and uncertain worlds with seemingly no escape.

Either way, it would need more context to truly narrow it down.

[Prish]

Ha… when I got those big student loans in 2002-3, I went into a survival situation for 10 years. Now days, the students don’t even get to buy a house without those debts being considered current, due, and being paid. Before, they were just frozen and not allowed to be part of the consideration. I can’t even imagine the survival situations the current students and graduates are experiencing. Add that to the ‘deal primarily’ list, imho.

[jhay]

@Prish

when I got those big student loans in 2002-3, I went into a survival situation for 10 years. Now days, the students don’t even get to buy a house without those debts being considered current, due, and being paid. Before, they were just frozen and not allowed to be part of the consideration. I can’t even imagine the survival situations the current students and graduates are experiencing. Add that to the ‘deal primarily’ list, imho.

Here in the UK, they raised the student tuition fees the year before I went, so I had to pay 3x what my brother did. Having gone through that only a few years ago, I would 100% class that as a social ‘war’/survival scenario.

[pattyloof]

Someone in the hotel is poisoning the staff. Since the honeymooning couple are both former private eyes, they offer to help. I suppose this could be a Survival story, but it’s a fairly light-hearted cozy which is why I hesitated to call it that.

[Prish]

They could be struggling for the survival of their honeymoon.

[Prish]

Interesting, “…it is suggested that in other cases Chaucer both added to his work and revised it as it was being copied and possibly as it was being distributed.” [wikipedia]. I’m guessing subgenres never end.

[RailwayAdventurer]

@pattyloof

Someone in the hotel is poisoning the staff. Since the honeymooning couple are both former private eyes, they offer to help.

Sounds cool!

@pattyloof

I suppose this could be a Survival story, but it’s a fairly light-hearted cozy which is why I hesitated to call it that.

Understood. All the same, lighthearted or quiet conflict is still conflict if illustrated as such. Also, @jhay’s definition of the Survival subgenre is “where characters attempt to survive day-to-day in an unfamiliar or hostile situation,” so the Universe/Situation in the story need not necessarily be life-threatening. For example, @jhay provides “a single mother tasked with taking her sons camping” as an example of the subgenre.

Source:

Contextual Subgenres

Presenting the Universe quad! This one was quite tough, in terms of finding a way to describe them that would separate them from the other domains. I think this will be the one that will go through the most changes as I start to understand it a little bit more, but for the moment, these are my findings. Consequences will be coming soon (quite hard to research with limited Mind stories), but for now, I hope you enjoy these and have a very happy Christmas, one and all! Universe Future As a…

[jhay]

@RailwayAdventurer

All the same, lighthearted or quiet conflict is still conflict if illustrated as such. Also, @jhay’s definition of the Survival subgenre is “where characters attempt to survive day-to-day in an unfamiliar or hostile situation,” so the Universe/Situation in the story need not necessarily be life-threatening. For example, @jhay provides “a single mother tasked with taking her sons camping” as an example of the subgenre.

For sure. In that example, the survival could definitely be life-threatening or not.

Life-threatening: single mother has to try and keep her kids safe from nature in the unforgiving wilderness.
Non-Life-threatening: storm knocks out power, single mother stuck with other parents and strange kids.

It might be helpful to think of Survival as a warzone story, whether life-threatening or not: a character is stuck in an environment that they can’t stand or figure out, with seemingly no escape, and they have to put up with it as best as they can.

All that said, having read back all of the mystery stuff, I don’t think @pattyloof’s story is in Universe at all. The stuff about poisoning, and the honeymooning couple investigating feels more like Physics. It depends on the conflict, I guess, but that’s my gut. I’m not sure it would be in Survival, necessarily, anyway.

[pattyloof]

That’s so weird! A few days ago I revisited the storyform and decided that this was a Physics story after all.

Nice catch!

EDIT: this pushes the Concern of The Present to the MC Throughline, which totally fits.

The MC wants to help with the OS story (Activity: hunt for a killer). But he’s trying to keep their public presence at the hotel under the radar/out of the newspapers (long story), so this could be a Status Quo as far as he’s concerned.

[RailwayAdventurer]

Happy to help! Happy writing!

[pattyloof]

@jhay

CHRONICLE STORIES: stories where characters attempt to uncover or piece together something that happened in the past.

It just occurred to me that the dynamic pair for this might be (for lack of a better term) Burying stories: where the focus is on someone trying to hide or cover up the past. For example, someone who is running from the law, hiding a secret child, ashamed of growing up poor, etc.

The MC Throughline of the first few seasons of Mad Men comes to mind. Don Draper exerts a whole lot of energy to keep his secret past hidden from everyone else.

@jhay

Being

As a Concern/Goal

I noticed that you have stories where people are forced/compelled to be someone they’re not. How about when people voluntarily evolve into or out of playing a role?

Two examples:

1. Coming of Age/Maturing (going into a role with a new positive effect): a teen coming to terms with adulthood, a man taking on the role of a father

2. Evolving/Escape (leaving a role which had a negative effect on them): a woman escaping the role of battered wife, a gay man coming out of the closet

[pattyloof]

Something else that just occurred to me which everyone might find helpful is that since we look at each throughline as a story of its own, these might be applied to each throughline’s Concern/Goal.

For example, the story I’m revising right now has an OS Concern of The Past (Chronicle). But my MC Concern is Obtaining (Benefit). In other words, the MC is piecing together the past in order to gain a benefit, mostly to herself.

I’m playing with this right now with all the throughlines and I’m finding that it gives me clarity with what is going on in the throughline.

Thanks again!

[pattyloof]

@jhay

REVIVAL STORIES: stories where long-dormant characters are forced to handle newly-reawakened passions.

Been thinking a lot about the dynamic pair to this one. How about stories where a character deliberately puts aside their heart’s desire for a greater cause? The true story of Maria Von Trapp comes to mind (apparently she didn’t ever want to be anything but a nun).

[jhay]

@pattyloof

Coming of Age/Maturing (going into a role with a new positive effect): a teen coming to terms with adulthood, a man taking on the role of a father

Evolving/Escape (leaving a role which had a negative effect on them): a woman escaping the role of battered wife, a gay man coming out of the closet

I would consider the first one (coming of age) as an Evolution story for sure – becoming a father/becoming an adult is absolutely there. If you wanted to deal with the pressures of living up to parenthood or being a parent, that would be in Expectation (living up to the expected ideals of parenthood).

The second would depend on the context of the story. I tried my best to stay away from creating subgenres that were specifically positive or negative, since it forces writers into a certain area of storytelling. I could see either of those being Becoming or Being, depending on how the story was written.

@pattyloof

For example, the story I’m revising right now has an OS Concern of The Past (Chronicle). But my MC Concern is Obtaining (Benefit). In other words, the MC is piecing together the past in order to gain a benefit, mostly to herself.

The Past and Obtaining? In the same storyform?

@pattyloof

Been thinking a lot about the dynamic pair to this one. How about stories where a character deliberately puts aside their heart’s desire for a greater cause? The true story of Maria Von Trapp comes to mind (apparently she didn’t ever want to be anything but a nun).

That is definitely possible, but I can’t add it to the list without Dramatica-approved examples! The Mind Domain was quite a challenge in that way.

[pattyloof]

@jhay

The Past and Obtaining? In the same storyform?

Sorry, that was unclear. I have two levels of storytelling going on here. I’m at Signpost 2 in my overarching storyform, and OS: The Past and MC: Obtaining is from that.

@jhay

I can’t add it to the list without Dramatica-approved examples! The Mind Domain was quite a challenge in that way.

Fair enough. The reason I got to thinking of this is that my IC’s Throughline for this particular book falls into this category. I’m tentatively calling it Selfless Sacrifice: a character giving up their desires for a greater good.

One thing I like about this is that it’s a counterpoint to the Revival story: the passion is already there, and the person decides to suppress it.

It just occurred to me that Edward Elric’s decision at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood might fall into this category.

[jhay]

@pattyloof

Sorry, that was unclear. I have two levels of storytelling going on here. I’m at Signpost 2 in my overarching storyform, and OS: The Past and MC: Obtaining is from that.

Ah I understand! Well, I’m very glad that my work has helped in some way.

@pattyloof

Fair enough. The reason I got to thinking of this is that my IC’s Throughline for this particular book falls into this category. I’m tentatively calling it Selfless Sacrifice: a character giving up their desires for a greater good.

One thing I like about this is that it’s a counterpoint to the Revival story: the passion is already there, and the person decides to suppress it.

I think you are probably right. It sounds like it fits the other side of the pair, I’m just cautious about adding anything I can’t back up!

[samuelogeda]

An idea I’m toying with, applying the concept of on one side there’s too much, on the other side there’s too little can help you unlock dynamic pairs.

[jhay]

@samuelogeda

An idea I’m toying with, applying the concept of on one side there’s too much, on the other side there’s too little can help you unlock dynamic pairs.

This was something I tried initially, and I can say: it doesn’t work here.

If you look at, say, Makeover and Evolution – neither one has a ‘too much’/‘too little’ feel. I tried early on to see if they had a positive/negative vibe, but the subgenres are like the concerns – they can be both positive and negative, too little and too much at once. It’s entirely up to the writer’s storytelling, so that’s not a great way to find the missing ones.

[chuntley]

@jhay

they can be both positive and negative, too little and too much at once

I recommend that one always keep aware of context. Within a single context, I do not think being both positive and negative (and/or too much and too little) can be true. If both exist, then you are not using a context within which meaning is useful toward problem resolution. When something is true in one context but its counterpoint is not true, you have found a point where meaning may be discerned. If everything is true, then nothing objective may be discerned and applied toward problem resolution.