The Past as the Concern — All the objective characters are concerned with the past.
For example, an unsolved murder for which new evidence comes to light, a great-grandmother whose diary has just been discovered, a “skeleton in the closet” of a famous family, the story behind a buried treasure, etc. Exploring what has already happened will illustrate The Past as an Objective Story Concern.
Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software
When one has all the facts, knows all the impact – both positive and negative; when one is fully aware of detrimental consequences and still decides on the poor course of action, there is something wrong with the way one arrives at conclusions. This is the subject of stories focusing on The Conscious.
The key here is not to redefine who a character is, but to lead it to relearn how to weigh an issue so that its conclusions are less destructive to itself and/or others.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: The Conscious: present considerations.
SYNONYMS: considerations, sensibilities, cognizant, ability to consider, sensible, informed contemplation, contemplation.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Memory, recollections.
The Subconscious describes the essential feelings that form the foundation of character. These feelings are so basic that a character is often not aware of what they truly are. When The Subconscious is involved, a character is moved right to the fiber of its personality.
In contrast with the Preconscious, the Subconscious deals with the sum total of a character’s experiences that determine what attracts and repels it, whereas the Preconscious describes the innate responses which are not dependent on experience.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: The Subconscious: basic drives and desires.
SYNONYMS: libido, id, basic motivations, basic drives, anima.
DYNAMIC PAIR: The Preconscious, innate responses.
Built into the mind is an instinctual base of reactions and attitudes that cannot be altered but merely compensated for.
When a story’s problem revolves around the unsuitability of someone’s essential nature to a given situation or environment, the central issue is The Preconscious.
The solution lies in the character conditioning itself to either hold its tendencies in check or develop methods of enhancing areas in which it is naturally weak in reason, ability, emotion, or intellect.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: The Preconscious: innate responses.
SYNONYMS: unthinking responses, immediate responses, impulse, impulsive response, instinctive response, innate response, reflex.
DYNAMIC PAIR: The Subconscious, basic drives and desires.
The Past is an objective look at what has happened. In contrast, Memory is a subjective look at what has happened. Therefore, Memory of the same events varies among individuals creating many different and possibly conflicting recollections.
Often one’s current feelings come from memories, both pleasant and unpleasant. Many a taut story revolves around a character’s effort to resolve open issues from its memories by recalling or forgetting them.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Memory: recollections.
SYNONYMS: remembering, recollections, reminiscence, recalling, retention.
DYNAMIC PAIR: The Conscious, present considerations.
Conceiving is the process of arriving at an idea. For example, If there were no artificial light in the world, one might conceive the need for some form of electric torch. That would be conceiving. But the design of an actual incandescent bulb versus a fluorescent one would require conceptualizing a specific implementation of the idea one has conceived.
Conceiving need not come before conceptualizing. For example, a common dramatic technique is to give a character a very clear mental image of an object or arrangement that holds the solution to the story’s problem. But the character does not know the solution lies in the conceptualization. It is only when it finally conceives of the need for a particular kind of solution does it realize it had the answer all along.
Simply put, Conceiving defines the question, Conceptualizing clarifies the answer.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Conceiving: coming up with an idea.
SYNONYMS: originating, inventing, devising, engendering, hatching ideas.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Conceptualizing, visualizing how an existing idea might be implemented.
Becoming means achieving an identity with something. This is different from “Being” which merely requires posing as something.
To Become, one must do more than just pretend to be by mimicking all the traits of what one wants to become. Rather, one must also lose all those parts of oneself that are inconsistent with what one wants to become.
“Giving up” a part of oneself is always the hardest part of becoming and the reason so many characters spend a lot of time “Being” without ever Becoming.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Becoming: transforming one’s nature.
SYNONYMS: embodying, manifesting, personifying, incarnating, transforming.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Being, temporarily adopting a lifestyle.
“Being” is an elusive concept, subject to inconsistent common usage. For purposes of story, Being is meant to describe the condition of existing in a certain manner.
Whomever or whatever is “Being” a particular way is not truly of that nature; to do so would require Becoming. In fact, being may be put on as a deception or because it is necessary to adopt a role in order to achieve one’s purpose. However, as long as there is nothing more or less to the functioning of a person or thing, it can be said to “be” what it appears to be.
Stories often focus on someone who wants to “be” something, without actually “Becoming”. The important difference is that “Being” requires that all the elements of what one wants to be are present in oneself. “Becoming” requires that there are no elements in oneself that are not in what one wants to become.
Excerpted from The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Being: temporarily adopting a lifestyle.
SYNONYMS: pretending, appearing, acting like, seeming as, fulfilling a role.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Becoming, transforming one’s nature.
Conceptualizing means coming up with a practical implementation of an idea. It is not enough to simply have the idea. To conceptualize, one must develop an actual mental model of how such an idea might be made manifest. In other words, one might have an idea to build a spacious house. But to conceptualize the house, one must imagine everything that makes up the house — the design, the layout, the colors & textures, everything that is essential to understanding what that specific house is. Conceptualizing requires being able to visualize something as a whole.
Excerpted from The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Conceptualizing: visualizing how an existing idea might be implemented.
SYNONYMS: visualizing, imagining, envisioning, visualizing implementation, planning.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Conceiving, coming up with an idea.
Learning describes the process of acquiring knowledge. It is not the knowledge itself. When a portion of a story focuses on learning, it is the gathering of an education that is of concern, not the education that ultimately has been gathered.
Learning need not be an academic endeavor. One might learn to express one’s feelings, or learn about love. Learning does not even require new information, as sometimes one learns simply by looking through old information from a different perspective or with a new approach.
It is not important if one is learning to arrive at a particular understanding or just to gather data. As long as the focus in on the process of gaining information, Learning is the operative idea.
Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure
DEFINITION: Learning: gathering information or experience.
SYNONYMS: cultivating experience, acquiring information, collecting data, gathering knowledge.
DYNAMIC PAIR: Understanding, appreciating the meaning of something.