We left the last post with a sense of drama, the theme Type allocated to the Subjective throughline mapped onto the character chessboard in a place where the two main characters didn't have an interest! Unfortunately the characters who are there really need to be there, so we have to go back to the drawing board a little.
Rewind in Time
Let's go back to the point in time where I think I made the fatal decision.
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At this point we had chosen where we think Fiend throughlines were in the Theme Type, but when we plotted it on the graph, we saw that they weren't in the same relative positions within their quads. Dramatica says that to give a sense of deep resonance between your story threads, it's advisable to have them in the same position.
Since two of them were already in the same position, I jumped to the conclusion that it would be easier to move the two which disagreed. Unfortunately, it turned out that the 'Future' type did not even contain Jake and Fiend so would be impossible for the Subjective throughline to sit there. Further, trying to fiddle with the character set behind the scenes didn't work, because the characters who lived in the Future set really needed to be there.
So we need to choose a different position, and start again. But this time, lets peek ahead and see if there are any problems. The Main has to be on one where Jake exists. The Impact has to be one where Fiend exists. The Subjective has to be one where both Jake and Fiend exist, preferably opposing each other. The Overall one can go wherever it likes.
So let's just go through each of the three options one by one.
Top left
Main Throughline: Conceptualizing. Mapping to Character? No Jake BAD
Impact Throughline: Memory. Mapping to Character? Fiend exists. OK
Subjective Throughline: Past. Mapping to Characters? Jake and Fiend exist and oppose. OK
Bottom right
Main Throughline: Conceiving. Mapping to Character? No Jake BAD
Impact Throughline: Conscious. Mapping to Character? No Fiend. BAD
Subjective Throughline: Present. Mapping to Characters? No Jake and Fiend exist or oppose. BAD
Top Right
Main Throughline: Being. Mapping to Character? Jake exists OK
Impact Throughline: Preconscious. Mapping to Character? No Fiend. BAD
Subjective Throughline: Progress. Mapping to Characters? Jake and Fiend exist and oppose. OK
So we can see from this quick scan that no combination if position will actually give us what we want. Unfortunately this means we will also have to still go back and change the character sets, no matter which of the four we choose. We can see that Bottom Right is the worst of all, satisfying none of the conditions to be a good match.
Decide, decide
If we go with Top Left, the problem is that there's no Jake in the Conceptualizing area, so we'd have to move him in. If we go with Top Right, the problem is there's no Fiend in Conscious area. Let's look at quadrants where the Main Throughline and the Impact Through line could live (the Subjective one is already handled, because in both top left and top right scenarios, it is fine)
Main Throughline Area
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Impact Throughline Area
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If we go with the Top Left scenario, we need to move Jake into the top left Quadrant of the left grid, since he must exist in the Main Throughline area, and it would make sense to make him oppose Fiend, so in the Certainty position. Unfortunately, certainty is not really one of Jake's features. Peter sits there because he is certain of Jake's destiny, and represents faith and certainty. Not great.
If we go with a Top Right scenario, we need to move Fiend into the top right Quadrant of the right grid, since Fiend must exist in the Impact Throughline area. Elaine, William, Thomas and Peter sit there at the moment, but it seems less of a jolt to move one of them. Which of the four characteristics from Effect, Trust, Test and Cause sits best with Fiend?
Fiend only cares about the results, not the damage which is caused getting there. He doesn't care about anything but the Effect of what he does. So if we swap Effect-Elaine for... Hunch-Fiend, then we get part of the way to where we want- Fiend moved into the correct position.
| Proven Thomas | Theory Katie | Effect Fiend | Trust William |
Hunch Elaine | Unproven Bobby | Test Thomas | Cause Peter |
| Accurate Fiend | Expectation Elaine | Result Bobby | Ending Jake |
| Determination Katie | Non-accurate Jake | Unending William | Process Peter |
Fiend now opposes Peter, who cares about people being hurt. This makes sense. We've also moved Elaine into Hunch, which is directly opposite her rival Katie, which seems to make sense also, even though I haven't thought out what that means for Elaine's character yet.
OK, so having fixed up the underlying character chessboard, we can return to the Theme types grid, but this time we can put them all in the top right position:
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Variations on a theme
So now having established new positions for the Throughlines, we can delve down as before and see what Variations are appropriate for each one.
Overall Throughline - Physics - Doing The overall story deals with the rise of a charismatic yet chaotic character from the criminal underworld who rises to temporary power then is taken down. Everyone in the story is involved with Doing something, but why? What are they doing it for? Out of the four available, it seems everyone is trying to improve their Skill at something.
Main Throughline - Psychology - Being
Jake's story revolves around him trying to get past a mental block caused by an experience from his youth. He knows his mindset is holding him back, and he really wants to change. So it seems that the Main Throughline Variation is one of Desire.
Impact Throughline - Mind - Preconscious
The preconscious area maps onto Value, Confidence, Worry, Worth. I think out of those four, Fiend relies on Confidence that he is correct about everything he is doing. This counters the Crucial Concern of Jake having a Non-accurate measure of himself.
Subjective Throughline - Universe - Progress
The relationship story with Jake and Fiend revolves around competing visions for the future. I think both of them present a clear and present danger to the survival of the other. Their relationship is characterized by Threat.
And now, back to where we were
Now that we've sorted out the Variations again, we can at last get back to the step we were at when we discovered the horrible mistake, mapping the Types into the original character chessboard again.
Overall Throughline - Physics - Doing - Skill
Everyone in this world is trying to get better at something, and they're all busy doing just that. The Doing area maps onto the area of the character chessboard concerned with perception and awareness. I think the driving theme at the overall level is one of Perception v Actuality of people's skills.
Main Throughline - Psychology - Being - Desire
Jakes wishes he could react properly to situations, but because of his past he cannot. The Being area maps onto ides of Proaction and Reaction, and I feel this conflict within Jake flavours the entire Main Throughline, so I think Proaction v Reaction
Impact Throughline - Mind - Preconscious - Confidence
Fiend is very secure in what he wants to do and what he thinks will happen. As we have already mentioned he is only interested in the Effects of what he does, and cares nothing for the causes. His Throughline is concerned with Effects v Causes
Subjective Throughline - Universe - Progress - Threat
The relationship story with Jake and Fiend revolves around competing visions for the future, and two methods for getting there. The main conflict in this area of the chessboard between these two characters is between Pursuit vs Avoid.
Phew
Well, that was a serious backtrack, but I think we're there. I'll start the next post with a summary of everything we've changed and where we're at with everything, so we have a clean sheet to work from. Now you see why I was hesitant to go into depth on those character sketches!
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