If the story judgement is bad, does that mean that the main character solution has necessarily NOT come into effect, or might a main character solve their original problem, but not like what the solution implies?
I’d like to read what other people say, but I think it’s like the Story Outcome. The Main Character solution doesn’t come into effect, so the Main Character must still struggle with his problem. His symptoms may have been treated, though.
It can be either. You can have the Main Character adopt the Solution but it didn’t prove to relieve him of his angst. And again you can have the Main Character not adopt the Solution and therefore never relieve his angst. It all depends on what you are trying to say about his/her Inequity.
Hamlet, Lawrence of Arabia and Unforgiven are examples of Change/Bad.
It’s not necessarily a solving of their original problem because you gotta remember the reason your story exists for the Main Character is to provide him Signposts and Journey’s to get him to relieve the problems that are rooted either within himself or between him and his environment. So I don’t think he can ever “solve” a separate problem other than the one he started out with which is tied intrinsically to the rest of the story.
Could this mean that the OS Solution might not necessarily the real solution? But what the MC or society or whoever thinks is the solution? Sort of like a phantom Solution? And after adopting it, with no relief from the original inequity, the story judgement would be Change/Bad?
A grand argument story is about an inequity. The inequity exists BETWEEN the throughlines, not in any one place – it is an imbalance and the story is about the efforts to restore balance. Sometimes balance is restored for all. Sometimes balance is only partially restored. Sometimes balance is not found at all.
The Story Outcome (Success or Failure) describes the objective evaluation of results of the effort to restore the balance.
- Success = Objective Balance Restored
- Failure = Objective Balance NOT Restored
The Story Judgment (Good or Bad) is the subjective evaluation of results of the effort to restore the balance.
- Success = Subjective Balance Restored
- Failure = Subjective Balance NOT Restored
As an audience we tend to blend the Outcome and Judgment and see them as:
- Happy Ending (Success/Good)
- Tragic Ending (Failure/Bad)
- Bittersweet Ending (Success/Bad or Failure/Good)
This leads audiences to assume that Success, Failure, Good, and Bad are inextricably connected. However, there is no direct causal relationship between Outcome and Judgment, which is why we (as authors) can explore any combination of the two in a story.
This leads to the specific answers to your questions:
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No, story judgment bad does not mean the MC solution has not come into effect because the determination of the MC solution is controlled by the MC Resolve of Change – which is independent of the Story Judgment.
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No, if by “a main character solve their original problem” means resolve their inequity because their subjective inequity is controlled by Story Judgment, not the MC problem or MC solution.
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