Objective Story Solution • [Element] • The quality necessary to resolve the Objective Story’s Problem • If the Objective Story Problem is seen as a disease, the Solution would be the cure. The Solution cannot be directly applied, however, because many obstacles stand in the way. Overcoming the obstacles is the Goal of the story, so that the nature of the Goal reflects the nature of the obstacles. The Requirements of the Goal describe the necessary accomplishments which will overcome the obstacles and thereby allow the Goal to be achieved. There is, however, one hitch. The final Requirement cannot be met unless the Main Character is properly positioned to enable it. Sometime this requires the Main Character to stay where it is (Steadfast) and other times to adopt a new position (Change). The internal conflict within the Main Character will either lead it to a new point of view or entrench it in a new one. Depending on that dynamic, the Main Character will either adopt a new position in the story or stay at the old one, resulting in the eventual Success or Failure of the effort to achieve the Goal. Authors will use the Solution to stress that the story’s Problem can indeed be Resolved if everything falls into place, thereby making it worth the audience’s time to see if it ultimately does. When the potential Solution is not illustrated up front, the characters’ efforts in response to the Problem seem to be futile exercises rather than a message illustrating the most worthwhile approaches.

From the Dramatica Dictionary