Screenplay and Narrative Theory by George Varotsis

Author:George Varotsis [Varotsis, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.2 Forking path possibilities along the state space in a story-world.

The thick lines and circles in Figure 4.2 represent the story possibilities at each structural node where an option is presented to, and a choice is subsequently made by, the character. The successive accumulation of these story-choices, which I referred to as the historical path nodes, creates the historical path. The dashed lines and circles represent options that were not preferred but could have been if the plot, or the solution to a logical problem, were different. The dashed circles also denote story-options that were not possible or permissible based on the story-world configuration. The actualized thick lines and circles denote the state space. The historical path adheres to principles of causality and the narrative continuum is maintained deterministically because of this. Between each structural node exist beats of action that carry the narrative proceedings from one stage to the next. In other words, action beats are the fundamental minimal associations that carry narrative information. Even though the progression from a structural node to the next one is linear and deterministic, the effects of story-decisions are nonlinear. Decisions that do not abide to the story-world laws and principles of the narrative microcosm can have adverse effects on how the story climaxes and resolves macroscopically.

While characters could be led to the same structural node in a variety of ways, the accumulation of the structural nodes constitutes the totality of the state space. At each bifurcation point the audience creates a mental benchmark based either on narrative information that was received from a previous structural node or on narrative information that is already known and available. Taking wrong turns can create a precedent that will bring the hero to a deterministic dead end which could only be fixed with a thorough revision of the story-laws and the story-world configuration. In order to solve problems pertaining to narrative logic, new assumptions and propositions must be implemented that will allow new possibilities to arise. However, altering the initial story-world configuration inconsistencies and gaps can emerge along the state space that will cause the narrative system to forcibly exit its state of balance. In such a scenario, the story-world configuration will require further revisions and narratological troubleshooting in order to return to a state of equilibrium. This can be a vicious circle of story development that could result in stagnation or a collapse of the narrative’s coherence and consistency.

The process of semantic transformation of the causal narrative continuum in the deep structure verifies the presence of existents, characters who bear an action or make a decision, and events, orchestrated or random, that create a need for action based on causality and psychological motive. Narrative causality and the effects it create derive from the plans and goals of the characters (Branigan 1992, 29). The multilayered structural interconnectivity of desires, needs, goals, motives and actions reveals the complex nature of narrative systems. Narrative causality emerges from the motivated actions of the fictional agents in their quest to achieve a goal or satisfy their dramatic need (Spirkin 1983).

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