Help with Impulsive Responses
Posted: Jan 06, 2011 2:11 pm
In my story the Main Character has spent his entire life rejecting and repressing parts of himself that he finds distasteful, so his throughline is about facing and then accepting himself for who he really is. I'm happy with the story form that Dramatica has given me, however I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the Main Character Concern of Impulsive Responses
My understanding of Fixed Attitude is that the problem is psychological rather than physiological and that's where I've hit a brick wall. I’m trying so hard to make his problem mental rather than physical that I have to wonder if I haven’t missed the point.
Here are my thoughts so far:
Even if his problem is physical, which it kind of is, the real problem isn’t the thing that he's repressing, but
his attitude towards it that causes him to repress it in the first place. This ties in to the MC Problem of Trust - he's accepted the guidance of others who have instilled within him the belief that this part of himself is disgusting and should be repressed.
If he had Tourette’s Syndrome for example, would that be a Domain of Situation or Fixed Attitude? If the problem is controlling his Tourette’s then that might fall under the Domain of Situation and Concern of How Things Are Changing (his progress towards controlling it). If however, the problem is his own attitude towards it (say he’s obsessed with it, or he doesn’t care how it affects others) then wouldn’t that be Domain of Fixed Attitude and Concern of Impulsive Responses?
As I write this, I'm getting the feeling that I'm on the right track. A Main Character doesn't see his MC Problem because he's preoccupied with its Symptoms. Which is exactly the case in my story. My main character is so busy trying to suppress the parts of himself that he sees as disgusting, that he doesn't realise that the real problem lies with his unquestioning acceptance of his mentors' point of view. Therefore because it's only a symptom It doesn't really matter whether the problem as he sees it is a physical or mental one as long as it's consistent with the rest of the story.
I think that's correct, but I've been stuck on this part of the story for so long that I'm more than a bit wary of trusting an intuition that seems to have appeared out of nowhere within the last five minutes.
A third party opinion would be greatly appreciated.
My understanding of Fixed Attitude is that the problem is psychological rather than physiological and that's where I've hit a brick wall. I’m trying so hard to make his problem mental rather than physical that I have to wonder if I haven’t missed the point.
Here are my thoughts so far:
Even if his problem is physical, which it kind of is, the real problem isn’t the thing that he's repressing, but
his attitude towards it that causes him to repress it in the first place. This ties in to the MC Problem of Trust - he's accepted the guidance of others who have instilled within him the belief that this part of himself is disgusting and should be repressed.
If he had Tourette’s Syndrome for example, would that be a Domain of Situation or Fixed Attitude? If the problem is controlling his Tourette’s then that might fall under the Domain of Situation and Concern of How Things Are Changing (his progress towards controlling it). If however, the problem is his own attitude towards it (say he’s obsessed with it, or he doesn’t care how it affects others) then wouldn’t that be Domain of Fixed Attitude and Concern of Impulsive Responses?
As I write this, I'm getting the feeling that I'm on the right track. A Main Character doesn't see his MC Problem because he's preoccupied with its Symptoms. Which is exactly the case in my story. My main character is so busy trying to suppress the parts of himself that he sees as disgusting, that he doesn't realise that the real problem lies with his unquestioning acceptance of his mentors' point of view. Therefore because it's only a symptom It doesn't really matter whether the problem as he sees it is a physical or mental one as long as it's consistent with the rest of the story.
I think that's correct, but I've been stuck on this part of the story for so long that I'm more than a bit wary of trusting an intuition that seems to have appeared out of nowhere within the last five minutes.
A third party opinion would be greatly appreciated.