I’ve been working on a screenplay project for a very long time. Dramatica has absolutely helped pin me down in terms of what to leave in, what to leave out, focusing on a main character, etc.
However, there’s been what I had considered a predicament that richly comments on the MC and IC relationship. However, it’s so full that it needs explanation and set-up. Then last night, listening to Jim Hull’s NarrativeFirst podcast … the most recent one on repeat … suddenly clued me in on what my mind might’ve been instinctively doing.
First, my OS is a conspiracy plot. My MC and IC are living vastly different social classes. That’s the SS. Finally, they learn how to make it work. I also had this analog from my mystic study which illustrates how two branches (like the MC and IC) of a tree must be in harmony. My IC’s social status has broken this tree within her soul.
However, that’s very different from the social status conflict. The IC is dealing with a problem that’s not inequity. Yet, this Tree analog fits thematically, commenting on their relationship.
Maybe it’s a second storyform my mind conceived. This one would be about the inequity of the aspects in her soul. Through the impact of the MC, she realizes this is a real predicament — the source of her problem — and changes her paradigm.
It’ll blend a bit because the IC is a Situation character. So is the soul being warped. It must become unstuck. My initial storyform attempt had, in fact, wound up in the upper left quadrant. Inequity had been the OS problem, both of the OS and MC.
Thanks to Jim Hull’s podcast about Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back having two storyforms each, and his comment about how the movies feel thematically rich (my words), I caught this about mine.
In this new version, I’d have:
Storyform 1 with a worldly, powerful IC and an MC in a fixed attitude that he wants to earn her recognition. This is set within a conspiracy plot OS. The MC knows about her soul being unbalanced and tries to point out that it’s been leading to her personal problems.
Storyform 2 dealing with the primary Storyform IC’s soul having been unbalanced in recent years. That’s a Situation. A Contagonist in the primary Storyform might be the Antagonist in this one.
I want to be careful in adding it during storyweaving. It seems to be a technique to have the second storyform involve the lesser characters, so that the viewer doesn’t confuse who the MC is. That would be fine with me. All I want is the audience to catch this second storyform and recognize it’s commenting on the main storyform. Are there precautions I should take?