Do you find it difficult to turn the PSR scenes for internal throughlines into more than one scene? It seems like, since everything is mental, that all four PSR variations can be illustrated in a single conversation between two characters and to do otherwise comes off as unnecessarily verbose. But, I’m wondering if that is just me. What is your experience?
What do you mean when you say everything is mental?
Problems which have their root in a fixed state of Mind, such as deep-rooted guilt, can materialize as external things (like stealing a car to sabotage one’s chance at college, to take your own example 
). I could certainly see stealing a car as being an MC throughline scene (or sequence of scenes) that addresses a single Variation.
The same can be true with the Psychology (Manners of Thinking) domain.
But you can also have plenty of material even when everything is mental – whole chapters of conversation, for example, people trying to convince each other of things or deceive or whatever.
I wonder if it has more to do with your particular story, that some of your throughlines are “smaller” (less screen time). That’s totally okay – nothing in Dramatica says the throughlines have to be balanced in terms of screen time or emphasis.
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What I’m struggling with is I have an MC Signpost 1:Memories
The PSR offers four scenes; State of Being, Situation, Circumstances, and Sense of Self.
I’d really, really like to break these into four scenes to help increase my word count.
But, what I end up with is all four of these items (i.e. state of being, etc.) all happening in one scene where the MC is talking to a counselor.
My guess was that it is due to the MC Throughline being Fixed Attitude and that making the action more mental.
I was wondering if other people had the same experience = whether internal throughlines tended to create more internal action.
But, you’ve given me stuff to think about. I think one of the scenes will be en media res with cop cars following Luke in his stolen car.
I’m not sure what to do with the other three scenes.
If this is the story about Luke, can you put him at the Counselor for State of Being discussing his brother, then move it to his home and show Situation/Circumstances through discussions with his step dad-the Situation he’s in after stealing the car, the circumstances of…whatever…(maybe that could be where he steals the car) then maybe he has another scene alone I’m his room exploring his Sense of Self? That’s three different scenes right there.
I think I see where you’re coming from now. It was a great question to ask.
I’m not quite sure how to help (I’ve got the opposite problem right now, my first draft is looking like it’s going to end up around 220K words!). But just a few quick tips that may or may not hit the mark…
First, if you’re actually writing the counsellor scene and finding that it touches on all four of those variations (State of Being etc.) I don’t think that’s a bad thing, or that you can’t have more MC throughline stuff later. (Sometimes I think the PSR can repeat itself over the course of a signpost, like one scene as a “preview” with all four variations, then other scenes going through all the variations more slowly.)
Second, keep in mind that you may touch on MC Throughline stuff in scenes that aren’t JUST about the MC’s personal issues – scenes that do double or triple duty, weaving stuff from multiple throughlines. e.g. maybe Sense of Self is something that Luke thinks about when he leaves home after Boone rescues him (assuming that’s still in the first act/signpost). Or something he says at that point, whatever.
Third, it’s great to use the PSR for ideas, but you can also feel free to just come up with your own ideas and figure out how they fit the PSR later.
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