Element

the direction of efforts in the Overall Story

Characters do the best they can to deal with the Overall Story Problem, but because the Overall Story Characters of a story are all looking at the problem from their subjective point of view, they can't get enough distance to actually see the problem right away. Instead they focus on the effects of the problem, which is called the Overall Story Symptom, and choose to follow what they feel will be a remedy, which is called the Overall Story Response.