The Importance of the Story Limit

January 18, 2008

I’ve written more than one post about the importance of a Story Limit. Why is that? More often than not, when a story doesn’t work it’s because there is no limit or the limit is not clearly defined or worse – the limit is broken. Quick recap: Meaningful stories are arguments; successful arguments are made within a set amount of borders. They have clearly defined endings that help one decide the value of such arguments.

However, while it is important to clue the audience in to when the story might end, it turns out that there are some stories that can go either way.

Take for instance the wonderfully acted and confidently written, The Queen. For those unfamiliar with it, the film centers around the tragic events of Princess Diana’s death and the response, or lack thereof, from the Royal Family. Recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) believes the Royal Family should break tradition and respond in a way that shows the rest of their country that they actually care; Queen Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) and those who surround her believe a more “reasonable” response is required.

In the end, the Queen decides to give her subjects what they want and makes an unprecedented appearance at the makeshift mourning taking place in front of Buckingham Palace. But what exactly brings about this climax?

While watching the movie I had the distinct feeling that there was a Timelock placed upon the Objective Story. Progress in the story is marked by days of the week; a title card appears every now and then, announcing the days of the week as they pass. It was my feeling that these cards were put there to emphasize what little time the Royal Family had to react. Princess Diana’s funeral was to occur the following Saturday and the closer they got to that deadline the greater the tension placed on the Royal Family and specifically Queen Elizabeth to engage in some kind of public reaction.

What a Story Limit Feels Like

An interesting thing happens with a story that has a Timelock on it – as time runs out, the characters in the story will feel like they are running out of options. At first this may sound like I’m just muddling the two concepts together but if you put yourself in place of a character in a story, or if you’ve had an important deadline recently, you can see how as the minutes tick away you’ll feel like you’re running out of things you can do in that set amount of time. This is the kind of pressure a Timelock puts on characters.

Conversely, a story with an Optionlock on it will have the characters feeling like they are running out of time. If you’re at the mall and you’ve got to find a present in one of those stores, the more stores you go through empty-handed the more you’ll feel like you’re running out of time.

Understanding this, I believed the Story Limit for The Queen was a Timelock. The Royal Family was aware that they were running out of options as Princess Diana’s funeral grew closer and closer. Surely, they must provide some sort of response before that deadline.

That being said, there was another way of looking at the Story Limit.

A Different Interpretation

You can also see the Story Limit in The Queen as an Optionlock. How? Well, the crisis at hand is much more than simply dealing with Diana’s family. The story starts with the election of Tony Blair – that’s when problems really begin for the Royal Family. The central problem in the story is now How are they going to survive in this new progressive environment? The limited options they have towards dealing with that (meeting with the new Prime Minister, responding to Diana’s death, etc.) are, in fact, the narrowing options of the Optionlock.

The days of the week that I thought were indicative of a Timelock were really simply indications of how the pressure was mounting against them. Instead of seeing the “Wednesday” title card and thinking, “Oh, wow, they only have 3 days left to react,” the Royal Family in fact was thinking “Wow, it’s been 3 days since we’ve done something to show our support. We’re taking too long (feeling Time slip away) to respond.”

It is a subtle difference but a difference nevertheless.

A Limit That Could Fall Either Way

It was so subtle that during our initial analysis I wondered if perhaps this would be one of those stories where it didn’t matter whether it was a Timelock or an Optionlock - that the meaning of the story would essentially stay the same.

Listen to our discussion of the Story Limit in The Queen.the Story Limit in The Queen.

When you use the Dramatica software to create a story you are first presented with over 32,000 possible stories. As you answer the basic 12 questions those possible stories are narrowed down until you finally reach the one unique storyform that you are looking for. The storyform is the DNA of your story; it contains all the information necessary to create a satisfying and fulfilling story.

When answering these questions, it is a good idea to leave blank any that you are uncertain of. Often, by virtue of your selections, those blanks will be filled in by the software. This is the voodoo or magic behind Dramatica that makes it so powerful ((Trust me. It works.)).

This is what we did with our analysis of The Queen. We left the Story Limit question blank and answered all the others. Guess what we discovered?

The Story Limit was still open to interpretation! See where it says only 2 storyforms remaining? One will have a Timelock, the other and Optionlock. Some stories will require a certain limit to be put in place; this one apparently didn’t.

Just to be sure we also checked the Plot Progression screen for this particular storyform. The Plot Progression scene is where you can view the different items that will be explored in each Act and in which order they should appear. If there would be any effect on the story due to the Limit, it would be there.

Looks like the Act Order has already been filled in for us which means…the Story Limit will have little to no effect on the basic meaning of the story. If you were writing your own story it would be important to know what it is and to reveal it to your audience; but for the purposes of analysis the Story Limit has no effect on the essential meaning of the story behind The Queen

Some Parts are More Important Than Others

The storyform is a very unique way of looking at and interpreting a story. But every story is not created equal. Some absolutely require a tragic ending while others insist that the Main Character remain Steadfast in her resolve. Some maintain that the plot must be driven by actions while others state that the Main Character must solve his problems linearly. The important thing to take away is that every storyform is unique in its own fashion and therefore every story will emphasize certain parts over others.

In The Queen, the Story Limit was not emphasized as it was not essential towards the meaning of the story. Sure on the micro level there might be some miniscule difference, but in the grander sense of things (which is really all that matters in a screenplay or a movie) the limit turned out to be not all that important. It’s why I sensed or felt that the story was limited by Time while others saw it limited by Options. Even though I fully accept the argument for an Optionlock now, at the time I really felt that both interpretations were valid.

Whether limited by Time or limited by Options, the structural and dynamic meaning behind a story like The Queen would essentially stay the same. While I still maintain that every story should have a Limit and that Limit should stay consistent throughout, it is clear to see that not all stories rely so heavily on this concept in order to provide a meaningful experience to the audience.