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Howdy, I have a storyform that has Goal of Understanding, a story outcome of Failure. The M/I Story's concern is Dev. a Plan AND the Consequence is Dev. a Plan. I can totally conceive of these being different plans but, in it's strictest sense, are they or (should they) be the same plan? In this story the Relationship throughline with it's concern of Dev a Plan does end up in a success, and I am aiming for the audience to feel better (Judgment: Good) about this relationship than the OS Goal. So, the Consequence is actually perceived as a "good" thing. Right? Checking my math... :) eA |
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No, a Consequence is never something good. It's the stick to the goal's carrot. The story goal is something sought after. Even if the goal isn't intrinsically "good," it will be better than the current scenario, and definitely better than the consequences of trying to achieve the goal but failing. The fact that the Relationship throughline Concern is Developing a Plan, which also happens to be the nature of the Story Consequence, has nothing to do with how good or bad it is. The context of the particular story point is everything. That, and the fact that the encoding can be wildly different, means you can "spin" the Dramatica term any way you wish so long as it fits within the definition of Developing a Plan (Conceptualizing). EXAMPLE: I do not know your story, so I'll make one up to show you the difference. Let's say that the Overall Story throughline involves a group of survivalists who find themselves in a topical jungle populated by locals with which they have no common ground. The Story Goal is for this group to understand where they are (Story Goal of Understanding), which requires them to learn how to communicate with the locals (Story Requirement of Gathering Information). If they cannot do this, they will have to figure out a way to be part of this totally foreign community and lifestyle, possibly for the rest of their lives (Story Consequence of Developing a Plan). While this is going on, a relationship develops between one of the survivalists, Janice, and one of the locals, whom she refers to as 'Bob' since he reminds her of an ex-boyfriend by that name. There seems to be a chemistry between the two, but Bob's strange physicality and uncanny resemblance to her ex-boyfriend challenges Janice's preconceptions about mingling with the natives. Despite the chasm in cultural differences, Janice and 'Bob' eventually figure out a way to make their budding romance survive (MC/IC Relationship Concern of Developing a Plan), even though the rest of the group struggles to fit in after the failure to understand anything about their new home (Story Outcome of Failure). eA Cross -- I see you upvoted Chris's answer, if you think it answers your question and you have no followup, would you mind clicking the gray check mark next to it? Let's us know that you found what you were looking for. Thanks!
(07 Oct '11, 00:38)
Jim Hull ♦♦
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