Scene Process: Applying KTAD, PRCO, and Justifications

[GetSchwifty]

Note to self. Refer to this note when we mentor.

[JohnDusenberry]

@mlucas

Justifications

• Becca (CONSIDER): I need to consider my options for escape in order to save myself UNLESS I should consider how dangerous my captor is in order to fear her appropriately
• Becca (OPPOSE): I want to disapprove of someone’s poor taste in order to think of myself as superior to her UNLESS I need to debate Buffy the Vampire Slayer with her in order to (be able to) distract her
• Becca (SUPPORT): I want to withhold support for my enemy’s ideas in order to keep thinking of myself as the good guy UNLESS I need to agree that I’m Faith and she’s Buffy in order to stay alive
• Becca (RECONSIDER): In order to have a chance of escape, I need to not reconsider my plan UNLESS I need to rethink how much trouble I’m in, in order to keep Mandy from killing me

This is super great. I’m curious about how exactly you implement this step in actual writing. Do you keep these justifications off to the side of your work to reference as you encode? Would you mind giving a example of the “final step” of your process?

1. PRCO
2. TKAD
3. Justification
4. (Final text)

[mlucas]

Thanks John!
So, first a bunch of a caveats:

• I usually do TKAD before PRCO (I feel like if the scene doesn’t at least have loose Situation, Activity, Attitude, Manners of Thinking, it has bigger problems)
• It’s rare that I would use PRCO before I start to write the scene, although I think I have done it when I was nervous and procrastinating to start writing. For me, it’s more of a tool to use partway though the scene when things aren’t going well. That said, I’m sure for some writers it can be a fantastic tool to use ahead of time*.
• Right now I’m doing revision so the examples I have are all scenes that were written first. Then I apply PRCO to make them better.

* This may depend where you fall on the plotter vs. panster spectrum. Here is a really good video that @Lakis shared with me: The Four Types of Novel Writers.

@JohnDusenberry

Do you keep these justifications off to the side of your work to reference as you encode?

Yes, this is exactly how I do it. I use Scrivener and keep PRCO / Justification stuff in the Notes section for easy reference as I write. Sometimes my PRCO notes will even include little snippets of dialogue or whatever, so it’s nice to keep them close at hand.

Often as I write the scene, I’ll realize some of the PRCO/Justification notes aren’t quite right, and may update or just overrule them in the actual writing.

Does that help?

[didomachiatto]

@mlucas

Write an Opposing Justifcations sentence for each of the P,R,C,O elements, that captures the conflict for that element within the scene. Sometimes, even though the element was present, only a one-sided justification is apparent from the scene – no competing one. What’s interesting here is that it usually seems quite natural to come up with the alternate justification that fits the scene, and this becomes a revision note for something additional to convey in the scene (even if subtextually)

Do you find you do the justifications in the revision draft, @mlucas? I heard on a recent Writers Room that you write the story first, then find the storyform.

@mlucas

Does it feel like it’s pretty much what I want it to be? If yes, no need for further analysis.

When you say this, had you been referring to any storyform? Or do you find it “already has” the appropriate elements for that storyform?

@mlucas

Sometimes my PRCO notes will even include little snippets of dialogue or whatever, so it’s nice to keep them close at hand.

In reference to the Scrivener screenshot you show. I like how you use the notes section for this. Do you do a justification for the MC only, or do you try to have a justification for the person she is in conflict with as well? (That sounds like a lot of work, but it also seems like it would be helpful).

[mlucas]

@didomachiatto

I heard on a recent Writers Room that you write the story first, then find the storyform.

Yes I tend to start the story first, and figure out the storyform once I’m maybe 1/4 of the way into it. (But I do generally have the throughline domains in my head from the beginning; it’s almost hard not to. And as @jhull and @decastell have said recently, that’s where you get the most bang for your buck.)

@didomachiatto

Do you find you do the justifications in the revision draft, @mlucas?

To me Justifications are just another tool for improving scenes, an extension of PRCO. (They can be used at other levels, any story point, but I haven’t tried that or found it necessary yet.) So I would use this tool during first draft or revision, any time I’m trying to improve a scene that’s not working quite right.

@didomachiatto

When you say this, had you been referring to any storyform? Or do you find it “already has” the appropriate elements for that storyform?

Not sure I understand the question. By “pretty much what I want it to be” I mean I like the scene as-is, at an intuitive level. So not looking at storyform to make that judgement (though if I like the scene, for sure that means it fits the storyform well enough, or it would feel “off”).

@didomachiatto

Do you do a justification for the MC only, or do you try to have a justification for the person she is in conflict with as well?

The idea is to create two opposing (can’t both be true) justifications for each PRCO element, so 8 in total. Each of those 8 can be drawn from any character or group’s perspective, though often the scene’s POV character will have the lion’s share.

[GGreen]

I know this is an older post but I would love to know what this is (can I find this in dramatica software (windows annoyingly) somewhere? I’m interested in the pattern more than anything). Thanks!:

Also, Hi Jim!
resurrecting this thread in light of the recent workshop!
I thought I would pitch in with my experience as an author new to using dramatica. I found looking at the elements below helped me to think of the level above as what @jhull calls an ‘ing’ rather than as storytelling. So looking at what rationalisation is composed of helped me to show someone rationalisation-ING and that causing conflict rather than just a scene where someone rationalizes what they are doing.
I don’t know if that is of interest but hope so!
Thanks!

[mlucas]

@GGreen

I would love to know what this is (can I find this in dramatica software (windows annoyingly) somewhere?

I generated it from @bobRaskoph 's fabulous Table of Scenes Generator. It takes some exports from Dramatica and does the rest. It’s great.

Table of Scenes Generator

There’s a separate thread if you need to ask questions about it: Table of Scenes & every possible story point on a single page

[GGreen]

Thank you! I wasnt aware of this!

[Moses]

Hello!
Hope you’re well. I think that’s a stupid question, but I would like to know if in the final text (or revision draft), we have to present both justifications?

[mlucas]

First of all, you never have to do anything.

To answer your question, it depends what you mean by “present”. The justifications are, first and foremost, subtext. The best way to think of them is that they are your (author’s) understanding of the conflict. Aspects of them can come out overtly in the story but they don’t have to. Often they will just be hinted at. Still, they are “present” in the sense that any subtext is present.

Does that make sense?

[Moses]

Wow! Thank you @mlucas That make sense. I have broadened my understanding with your answer

@mlucas

Still, they are “present” in the sense that any subtext is present.

Yes, I think the word “present” was a bit strong. It’s more about suggesting a conflit.