Is “conflict averse vs argumentative” in attitude vs approach or in preconception vs openness?

writing
#1

Or possibly both? Or not really either one? Thank you.

#2

I’d do drama the first, and comedy the second, as a first instinct thought, here.

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#3

Your solution lies in implied story points.

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#4

That really is the answer, and something I don’t think I fully realized about Dramatica until recently.

Thanks!

#5

See, if you think about Dramatica like drawing a circle through points, then you only need to draw a few points to get the whole circle!

If you have one point, there are infinite circles.

Two points, and you are already down to two circles.

Three points, and you win an Oscar!

[-apply sarcasm to whole post until this point-]

I think this is something I have always known for some reason, but I can sense that I haven’t trusted it enough. I think I noticed it in my first storyform, because I came up with so many and parts of them were always close. But to get the whole thing, you needed them all to work. It really is the strength of the implied storypoints that makes my mind melt.

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#6

Interesting and this may be the best way to describe Dramatica use to less than expert users, imho. Remember those hours and hours and hours locked in a feverish effort of fear to not miss even one element? Now, when we encourage each other to just write for awhile, we can refer to this sentence to suggest we won’t lose the storyform. 10 thumbs up, here!

#7

  1. I’m struggling to choose an issue that reflects the argument “don’t make waves / go along to get along / compromise.” The two issue candidates I thought of were Attitude and Preconception. Could that argument be suitable for one/both/neither of those 2 issues?

  2. A related but separate question amounts to a gist/definition clarification, how does an Attitude as a bias differ from a Preconception as a bias?

#8

When exploring a bias through Preconception, the conflict is coming from the unwillingness to reevaluate.
When exploring a bias through Attitude, the conflict is coming from how that bias is used to proceed with an approach.

Let’s take the example of a woman trying to get ahead in a male-dominated company where everyone (esp. the leadership) has macho / sexist attitudes.

If Preconception was the issue, you could focus on how the woman is actually very qualified but no one is willing to give her a chance because of their prejudice, they see her as incapable and won’t re-evaluate even with new evidence.
If Attitude was the issue, you might focus on how some real pig character is able to use his bias against women to get ahead – making dirty jokes which earn the respect of the boss, etc. Meanwhile the woman takes the attitude that she just needs to ignore the pigs and focus on doing a good job, but it doesn’t get her anywhere.

Regarding your first question, you might want to pencil in several choices for Issue (along with Attitude and Preconception it could probably fit Approach, Openness, and several others like Rationalization or Commitment if the focus was on why they compromise). Then use other aspects of your story idea to find the storyform and pinpoint the Issue. (I think this is what Mike and Jim meant by using implied story points.)

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