For the MIND class
To figure out MC/IC moral compass that results in their differences (pro-life angelic character / not-worthy-of-living grim reaper type character) and creating conflict-riddled scene :
Are innermost desires like the cognitive desires coming from displaced wants?
And Impulsive responses like automatic emotional responses?
Or the other way around?
The two oppose each other in the Mind quad as benchmark (plot) vs IC concern and static story cost
Hi @girijaa, welcome.
Regarding the difference between Innermost Desires (Subconscious) and Impulsive Responses (Preconscious) it sounds like youāve got it right. You could do a search and find lots of long discussions here about the theory behind it, but I find it easier to understand through the gists:
Subconscious:
Preconscious:
I remember it being said at a Dramatica workshop that Michael, when he was waiting outside of the hospital striking up a match and then smoking a cigarette, was āpreconsciousā. Would that be your ābeing calmā in that case?
I think so. Though also ābeing nervousā or āhaving a panic attackā or ābeing drunkā are also probably potential sources of conflict that fall under Preconscious.
Invaluable!
Thank you
The theory was clogging up my brain
So preconscious is almost written into the text and becomes the personality of the character
I will explain what I mean in this dialogue
[ āExplained what?ā Hele lights his pipeāsomething that I never allowed.
āThat I was working for a woman who is experiencing reality-failure.ā
Reaper checks me out for an outburst of the choleric humors]
In this case ā the ānever allowedā as well as the āchecks me outā would indicate a preconscious control issue in the case of the woman
I am sensing something like a distinction between innate character and acquired characterā¦
I know how you feel! Weāve all been there. The theory is overwhelming at first, and it can be difficult to zero in on what you actually should focus on.
Itās tricky ā I do think that storypoints often end up as part of what we think of as the personality of the character, but the real purpose ā their usefulness ā is as sources of conflict ascribed to that particular perspective.
Rather than try to explain, here are some article series by @jhull that Iāve found very helpful if you have a chance to check them out. The playground exercises are useful not just for coming up with new ideas, but for demonstrating how to actually illustrate storypoints as sources of conflict that drive the story forward. Armandoās Dramatica For Screenwriters has a lot of good examples of this too, though heās less explicit in explaining how the illustrations are sources of conflict.
There are a lot of ways to use IC Concern of Preconscious. And Iām sorry I donāt totally understand what you mean by āplotā here, so Iām going to have to wing that.
If you look at a story as a character pushed to their extremesāwhich makes sense because what other series of events would test their way of doing/beingāthen what a concern can mean is not exactly their personality but rather how one corner of their personality is being forced to the surface.
But itās not always so direct. Letās say your MC (the CEO of a company) witnesses a manager annoy his underlings. The manager might not specifically be expressing Preconsciousāmaybe heās just a huge jerk, but people stomach it because they donāt want to lose their jobs. So the underlings grin and bear it: they use Preconscious to repress their desire to lash out.
In this case, weāve witnessed a personality and preconscious but theyāre not the same thing. Itās just the fabric of the story.
In the same set-up, a benchmark of subconscious could be the underlingsā desire for respect. It could be the managerās need to fear-monger.
The discussion has been good for me (and hopefully for the novel). It helps me make small tweaks to increase conflict and discern the meaning I want to leave the audience withā¦
I think I meant progression when I said plot (though I probably had subconsicous understandings of the term as the skeleton that moves the story forward) and (for me) a part of what could keep transitions smooth