Encoding Static Plot Story Points is simple. One need only figure out what it is. How and when it is going to show up in the story is a different issue and is part of Storyweaving.

The way to approach the encoding of Static Plot Story Points is more or less the same for all of them. As an example, let us consider something conventional: A Goal of Obtaining. Obtaining what? That is what encoding determines. The Goal might be to Obtain the stolen diamonds, a diploma, or someone's love. In each case, Obtaining has been effectively encoded. Which one you might choose is dependent only on your personal muse.

Interestingly, there are many ways to stretch a story point to fit preconceived story ideas. Suppose that we want to tell a story about a woman who wants to be President. It might be she wants to be elected to the office. That would encode a Goal of Obtaining. Or, she might want to have people believe she was the President on a foreign trip. That would be a Goal of Playing A Role. She might already hold the office but feel that she is not authoritative enough and wants to Become presidential. That would encode a Goal of Changing One's Nature.

Clearly, there are ways to bend a story to fit almost any story point. And, in fact, that is the purpose of encoding--to create symbols that represent a story point's particular bend. So, going around the remaining Types, we might also have:

 

•A Goal about discovering a president's Past

•How much legislative Progress a president is able to make

•The Future of the presidency

•Whether the president is able to address Present concerns

•To Understand the president's vision

•Doing what is necessary regardless of chances for reelection

•Learning the President's hidden agenda,

•Developing A Plan for strengthening the presidency

•Conceiving An Idea a new kind of political leverage

•Trying to evoke the Memory of a past president's greatness

•Responding with Impulsive Responses should the president be attacked

•Trying to curb a president's subconscious drives until after the election

•Making the president Conscious of a problem only he can solve

Each of these encodings deals with the presidency, but in a different way. This allows an author to stick with the subject matter that interested him first, yet still accurately encode the Story Goal. And why even bother? Because the wrong perspective creates the wrong meaning. Anything not properly encoded will work against the dramatics of your story, rather than with them, and weakens your story's overall message and audience experience.