Physics as the Objective Story Domain — All of the objective characters are concerned with an activity or endeavor. For example, searching for lost treasure; engaging in a sport; exercising as a way of life; self-flagellation; taking part in a cattle drive; learning about DNA; obtaining secret plans; understanding messages from space, etc.
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Universe as the Domain — All of the Objective Characters are concerned with maintaining or demolishing a situation. For example, a country under the thumb of an authoritarian dictator; the condition of a dysfunctional family; a utopian society; a submarine trapped under the ice; progress in one-sided relationships; a murder that occurred 30 years ago; the future of gay rights; the forces that bring on an ice age.
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The Psychology Class of stories is where the evolution or change in an attitude is explored, unlike the Mind Class which describes the nature of a fixed state of mind. This is a more deliberation-oriented Class where the focus is not on the attitude itself, but whether it is changing for better or for worse.
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The Physics Class of stories is one of action. Whereas the Universe Class describes a fixed situation, Physics is a Class of dynamics. Situations evolve, develop, and change. Activities are engaged in and endeavors undertaken.
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The Mind Class describes a fixed attitude. This can be a bias, prejudice or even a “positive” opinion about anything at all. The key is that the attitude is fixed, meaning it is accepted as a given and not reevaluated. Often the Mind Class is represented by a group of people who share a common bias for or against something.
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The Universe Class is where any fixed state of affairs is explored, such as an institution, system, or situation that remains stable and unchanging. The point may be to show that the system is good, bad, or neutral, but the focus must be on the system, not on how the system is changing.
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The Objective Story Domain is the throughline which describes how all of the story’s characters have been brought together. By choosing this Domain, the author sets the background against which the story will be told. Therefore, its influence is gently felt throughout the story.
A UNIVERSE story deals with an unacceptable situation – one in which the external environment is seen as problematic. This could be a job situation with poor working conditions, being trapped in a sunken ship, waking up as someone else, living next to an orphanage that keeps you awake at night with its screaming waifs or any other intolerable state of affairs.
Often, the best way to see a Universe Objective Story is in terms of the Types below the Class of Universe: The Past, Progress, The Future, and The Present. These Types will be of primary importance to all the Objective Characters in a Universe Objective Story.
A PHYSICS story employs an activity that needs to arrive at a solution. This might be the effort to steal the crown Jewels, win the love of your heart’s desire, make the Olympic team, or raise the money to buy the orphanage and evict all the screaming waifs.
Note that if the existence of the orphanage is the focus of the story, it is a Universe (Universe) Domain. However, if the effort to buy it is the focus, it is a Physics (Physics) Domain.
Often, the best way to see a Physics Objective Story is in terms of the Types below the Class of Physics: Doing, Learning, Understanding, and Obtaining. These Types will be of primary importance to all the Objective Characters in a Physics Objective Story.
In a like manner, the Mind Domain reflects a state of mind and the Psychology Domain describes a mental activity (or manner of thinking).
Mind Domain stories might be about prejudice, a lack of self-worth (if it is a fixed view), or a refusal to see the value of someone’s desires. Remember that, as an Objective Story Domain, these fixed states of Mind will be the source of the problems that everyone in the Objective Story deals with. This would be an Objective view of problems of fixed states of mind, and not looking at how it feels to have these fixations.
Often, the best way to see a Mind Objective Story is in terms of the Types below the Class of Mind: Memory, The Preconscious, The Subconscious, and The Conscious. These Types will be of primary importance to all the Objective Characters in a Mind Objective Story.
PSYCHOLOGY Domain supports stories where people take too many risks, are egocentric, or make light of serious situations. Objective Stories of this Domain will look at the effect of a person’s or persons’ thinking in these ways to manipulate others. Placing the Objective Story in this Domain means in essence that the story will objectify Psychology, taking an Objective view of these ways of thinking and their effects. The problems that everyone in the Objective Story deals with will come from ways of thinking and their manipulations.
Often, the best way to see a Psychology Objective Story is in terms of the Types below the Class of Psychology: Conceptualizing, Being, Becoming, and Conceiving. These Types will be of primary importance to all the Objective Characters in a Psychology Objective Story.
As a final note, it is important to keep in mind that stories are often not about a problem that exists but a desire to be fulfilled.
Stories of this nature can create a much more positive feel as exemplified in a Universe story in which an heiress must spend a million dollars in 24 hours to inherit 30 million more, a Physics story where a mountaineer hopes to be the first to scale a mountain on Mars, a Mind story of unconditional love, or a Psychology story about overcoming a dependence on sedatives.
The choice of Domain narrows the playing field of a story. Without actually putting up walls, choosing a Domain shifts the focus of audience attention by establishing the center around which broad scale dynamics will revolve. The Dramatica engine is calibrated to this center.
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An author cannot successfully make an argument promoting a solution until he or she has identified the Problem.
In stories, Problems can be identified as falling into four broad categories: Situations, Activities, States of Mind, and Manners of Thinking. These categories are named by four Classes, Universe (a situation), Physics (an activity), Mind (a state of mind), and Psychology (a manner of thinking).
• Universe represents an External State,
• Physics an External Process.
• Mind is an Internal State and
• Psychology an Internal Process.
Since they are related, all four of these Classes will figure in every story as the Problem works its influence into all areas of consideration. However, only one Class will ultimately prove to be both the source of the Problem’s roots and therefore the place it must ultimately be solved.
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Objective Story Domain: The scenario or dramatic background against which a story takes place.
Every story is set against the issues which arise from a single central problem. The problem itself will fall into one of four broad categories. If you want the problem to grow out of a situation, then choose Universe; if you want the problem to emanate from an activity, then choose Physics. If you want the problem to evolve from fixed attitudes and states of mind, then choose Mind; and if you want the problem to result from the characters’ manipulations and ways of thinking, then choose Psychology.
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STORIES that have Judgment of Bad:
The Age of Innocence: Newland never realizes his full potential as an enlightened man hoping to share his true self with a lifelong partner, his wife. He is trapped in a stifling existence for the best years of his life. He only becomes free when he’s an old man who believes that it’s too late for personal happiness.
Amadeus: Salieri’s defeat is total, and he is both forgotten as a composer, and thought by the public to be insane. He never resolves his conflict of faith. It is his destruction.
Body Heat: Ned feels terrible that his decision has led to Mattie’s apparent death–she “obviously” couldn’t have known about the booby trap or she wouldn’t have walked into it (or so he thought). This judgment of “Bad” is mitigated in the author’s proof by having Ned figure out that he has been duped and that he strongly suspects the real truth: Mattie is alive and living exceedingly well off of the inheritance money.
Chinatown: Jake remains clueless as to why events turned out so badly for him–“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
The Glass Menagerie: Laura retreats into her fantasy world — a glass menagerie that is like “bits of a shattered rainbow.” And though is seen being comforted by Amanda at the end, it is the memory of his sister that haunts Tom for the rest of his life.
The Godfather: For Michael to have been left the only one capable of preserving his family’s power is bad for him personally. He continues to be in love with Kaye, maintaining the lie he is not a murderer. Kaye represents his original desire to remain outside of his family’s dirty business. When he changes by becoming willingly committed and involved as the new Don, his need to prevent Kaye from discovering this indicates he is still plagued by his personal problems.
Hamlet: Hamlet finally perceives that “if it be not now, yet it will come,” and that “The readiness is all” (5.2.219-220). This discovery, this revelation of necessity and meaning in Hamlet’s great reversal of fortune, enables him to confront the tragic circumstance of his life with understanding and heroism, and to demonstrate the triumph of the human spirit even in the moment of his catastrophe. Such an assertion of the individual will does not lessen the tragic waste with which “Hamlet” ends. Hamlet is dead, the great promise of his life forever lost. (Bevington xxxi)
Heavenly Creatures: An adolescent rebelling against the confining nature of adult authority figures, Pauline is detained in prison for her crime. She is forever separated from her beloved Juliet, who “was released in November 1959 and immediately left New Zealand to join her mother overseas.”
(Walsh & Jackson, p. 216)
Lawrence of Arabia: Lawrence finds that while he is fully capable of fulfilling the role of God-like leader, it comes at great cost to his own personality: his sado-masochistic tendencies have been brought to the fore, and he finds he both enjoys inflicting suffering on others and experiences pleasure in his own degradation and torture.
Othello: Othello’s fall from grace is stunning. At first he’s a happy newlywed; successful as a warrior and well respected in the community. When Brabantio accuses him of witchcraft in front of the Venetian senate, the members disbelieve the charges because of his stellar reputation. He faces them with calm and confidence. But Othello is corrupted and quickly becomes an irrational, despondent madman, an abusive husband, a murderer, and after realizing his colossal mistake, he kills himself.
Platoon: Chris’ experiences in the war do not lead him to find something to be proud of, instead, he has become a cold-blooded murderer, and kills his nemesis, Sgt. Barnes in merciless revenge. The physical and, especially, emotional wounds he has sustained in Vietnam will forever serve to remind him of the shameful dehumanization he endured in the war.
Quills: The Abbe de Coulmier unwittingly and unhappily ends up an inmate of the asylum.
Reservoir Dogs: Mr. White defends Mr. Orange’s honor and his life in a three-way shoot-out with his colleagues. He suffers intense anguish when he learns Mr. Orange betrayed him; in killing Mr. Orange, he seals his own fate.
Romeo and Juliet: Romeo ultimately fails in his efforts to live happily ever after with his “heart’s dear love” (2.3.61)–“For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (5.3.320-21).
The Silence of the Lambs: At the story’s end, Clarice has not put her personal demons to rest. She has no answer to Lecter’s final phone call:
LECTER (V.O.): Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming… ?
Unforgiven: While Munny succeeds in getting the money he needs to help raise his two children, it’s at great personal cost: the dark side of his nature that he’s suppressed for years has resurfaced. He’s become a mean killer again, drinks hard liquor, and will surely be haunted by the faces of his new victims.
The Wild Bunch: Pike never gets the chance to put right the personal wrongs he’s experienced in the past: he doesn’t get revenge on the man who killed his woman, and for abandoning Thornton there’s no forgiveness–only death for another’s (Angel’s) cause offers any kind of redemption at all.
Witness: By staying on the farm, Rachel doesn’t get the man she obviously desires, John Book, and she’s about to be saddled with Daniel–the Lapp family may be buying a horse with only one good ball again.
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Dramatica Story Development Software