I am struggling with my Story Goal (Playing a Role) and the Story Consequence (Doing). I can totally see how my MC is playing a role in a wrong-headed effort to change herself (which ends in failure), and I can sort of see how groups of my characters might be playing roles in the story in order to be perceived certain ways and “have permission” to do certain things, but I just cannot figure out how the consequence of doing fits into the picture and should/can be illustrated. I’ve pored over the examples in DPro and the filter on the website doesn’t have story goal and consequence and I’ve even pored over the Gists, and I just don’t get it. Would some of you who do get it maybe throw out some examples and explanation? I’m probably overthinking it, and any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hard for me to throw out examples when I don’t know your story…
But…I’ll try.
So if the goal is playing a role and the consequence doing…
hmmm. The musical hair comes to mind.
most everyone is involved with playing a role or avoiding playing a role
but at the end Berger is playing the role of soldier so Bukowski can have one last night with Sheila
Because he doesn’t get back in time Berger is forced into doing taking Bukowski’s place as a soldier in the vietnam war and there by dying.
There were the consequences of doing time in prison for being unwilling to play the role of soldier.
does that help at all?
When I put it into the storyguide, the OS domain was Manipulation, but it used to be called Psychology. Manipulation made it more reachable to the common user, but Psychology has more depth. Maybe thinking Psychology as an overview might help.
Also, you might have read these story examples on the Pro doing just the story goal and consequence, but they do give an interesting take on Doing, don’t they?
Quote:
Heavenly Creatures: As a consequence of murdering Mrs. Rieper and still failing in their goal to stay together, Pauline and Juliet were sent to do time at separate prisons, to be “Detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.”
Rebel Without a Cause: The consequence of failing to achieve the goal would be continuing on with the emotionally exhausting process of trying to be part of a functional family. The severity of this consequence is underscored by Jim when he says to Ray: “I don’t know what to do anymore except maybe die” (Stern 16).
Lolita: If Humbert is unable to maintain his facade of a normal stepfather, and the true nature of his and Lolita’s relationship is discovered, he will go to jail and the under-age Lolita will become a ward of the court. After Lolita leaves, she does tell Quilty about the liaison, but he is merely amused, and is hardly in a position himself to go to the law. Her confession, in fact, causes him to invite her to participate in communal sex. Lolita’s escape from Humbert triggers a three year search on his part, during which time he becomes more and more mentally disturbed and he fixates upon killing whomever it is that Lolita is with. Quilty pays the ultimate consequence of death at Humbert’s hand, as does (in a different way), Lolita.
Here are some simple examples with a Story Goal = Playing a Role and a Story Consequence = Doing:
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As a consequence of failing to fit in with the hoity toity crowd by pretending to be rich trust-fund babies, the group of young men had to go back to working in the coal mines.
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As a consequence of failing to bluff the invaders, the kingdom went to war.
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Because the president failed to maintain a commanding presence, his party had to campaign vigorously for political donations.
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Because the late night show failed to adequately convey that their racist commentary was a parody, the station’s legal team had to begin damage control by issuing P.R. statements and fending off litigation.
I hope these help give you an idea of the relationship between the goal and consequence as they relate to “Playing a Role” (Being) and “Doing.”
Thanks all. I think part of my problem was that I was lumping the OS characters into role-playing groups instead of looking at their individual situations within the role playing groups, and I just couldn’t make the dramatica.com examples that Prish mentioned fit into anything I was thinking (and believe me-I PORED over them, over and over). The other problem, that Chris made clear, was that I was looking at it “how do you fail to play a role” (you either play it or you don’t) vs. “how do you fail at what you are trying to accomplish BY playing the role.” One of my classic literal interpretations gone awry. Thanks again for your help. I think I’m ready to tackle it again.