Before we move to the Type, Variation, and Element levels, let's take a brief look at each of the sixteen Class/throughline combinations that might be created.

Situation as Overall Story Domain

When Situation is the Overall Story Throughline, the story's troubles grow from a problematic Situation. All the Overall Story Characters in the story have the common source of their troubles emanating from an external situation. Just because the situation is external and objective does not mean it must be without feeling. It simply means the audience does not experience the situation personally.

Activity as Overall Story Domain

An Overall Story Throughline of Activity means an activity gone wrong causes the story's troubles. This might be an activity engaged in by people or existing in nature. Either way, the "perpetuation" of this activity is what causes all the difficulties faced by the Overall Story Characters. There is often the tendency to think of an activity in the large scale, making it macroscopic--larger than life. But dry rot works as well as a marauding horde in creating problems big enough to drive a story. The only constraint is the activity must be an external one that is causing the difficulties for all.

Situation vs. Activities

It is easy to think of kinds of activities that border on being situations. For example, we might want to tell a story about a disease. If the story's problem stems from having the disease, it is a situation. If fighting the disease causes the story's problem, it is an activity. Because all four Classes will show up in a complete story, it is likely that both having and fighting the disease will show up as things unfold. The thematic question here is: which one do we see objectively, or phrased another way, which one do we see as the cause of the problems for all the characters throughout the story--having it or fighting it?

Fixed Attitude as Overall Story Domain

Fixed Attitude is an internal state, describing problems that come from fixed attitudes. When we choose Fixed Attitude as the Overall Story Throughline, the problems that affect all the characters will stem from internal attitudes, biases, and fixations. For example, an Overall Story Throughline of Fixed Attitude might be about how prejudice affects a town or how a humiliating memory affects a kingdom. In contrast, Situation and Activity Overall Stories deal with external states and processes. A selection of Fixed Attitude as the Overall Story Throughline specifically means the source of the difficulties between all the Overall Story Characters is best seen as a problematic state of mind or conflict between problematic states of mind.

Manipulation as Overall Story Domain

Manipulation is an internal process, describing problems that come from the ways in which people think. When we choose Manipulation as the Overall Story Throughline, the problems that affect all the characters will stem from manipulations and conflicting processes of thought. As opposed to the fixed attitudes described in the Fixed Attitude Class, Manipulation is about problems that arise from manners of thinking. For example, an Overall Story Throughline of Manipulation might be about the problems caused by a regiment overly trained to follow orders. Another example is a dysfunctional family that tries to manipulate one another into nervous breakdowns.