Well, according to today's Cameo (http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/node/2006613), every story is, deep down, a version of the age-old saying "be careful what you wish for".

Not mine.

I mean, I'm sure, right at the end, my MC has *something* she wanted, but she doesn't want it until near the end of the script anyway, and there's no sight of her regretting wanting it (or getting it), either.

The second, er... "point" is a little more accurate in regards to my stories, since they're usually character-driven (and let's face it, it's exceedingly difficult (and possibly boring) to have a character-driven story revolving mostly around the characters' good points rather than their bad). In this case, I think this point is just about true - the story pretty much revolves around a mistake my MC made, rather than a flaw of hers - but that mistake is mostly caused by a flaw.

As for the third point - well, every character in my script is different (very different) so I certainly hope I haven't got Tootsie-in-the-chicken-suit Syndrome. ;)

I'm curious to see how many others aren't (or are) writing a script that is, at its heart, a "be careful what you wish for" tale...

I'd never really thought about it till I read that, but yeah, my story definitely does incorporate that theme throughout almost every character's storyline in some form or fashion.

NaNo 2005: Can't Go Back (won!)
NaNo 2006: In Between (won!)
Script Frenzy 2008: Razor's Edge (here's hoping)

Mine wasn't but I'm rewriting it so it is...
But be careful for what you wish for isn't exactly the same in every story. Some stories are a journey of discovering what they wish for.

I'm upset that the secret is now out of the bag!

My story is this theme magnified 4 x over--with characters named Wish Ann (definitely be careful what you wish for), Hope (a guy--be careful what you hope for), Ding (a corruption of "think"-be careful what you think), and Pray-N (be careful what you pray for).

Well-also behind all that--be careful what you name your kids!

I haven't quite decided whether it's drama or comedy, because it keeps going back and forth between the two.

Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com

In my stories, "be careful what you ask for" ("you just might get it" -- the full saying appears at least once in at least one of my stories) applies mainly to the villains, those power-hungry or destructively idealistic monsters of hubris. My heroes would rather pursue their desire, defying all the power of heaven and earth arrayed to deny it to them. In Spanner, it's Shira's freedom and her right to be her wild and strange self in defiance of an Anglo-Saxon world empire hellbent on mowing "tall poppies" to the roots. In the prequel Dictel trilogy of NaNoWriMo novels, which the Surrealist idea of "mad love" has started to infect (via yuri manga), intense love affairs (at first adulterous and/or lesbian, later incestuous and lesbian) somehow get in the way of Dictel Corporation's nefarious plans to overthrow the US government, the link usually being the Becket family reputation getting slimed; in the second installment, Black Science, heroine Dr. Willa Richter-Thomas also has to keep her science from being hijacked by the US government for mind-control purposes, especially by her ex-husband and archenemy who used to be a psychiatrist for MKULTRA.

So "be careful what you ask for" -- the cautionary tale -- doesn't really apply to my fiction, except through the bad example of my villains, in the form of "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Maybe most stories might contain cautionary elements, but I don't really believe all tales are cautionary almost by definition. I think the definition of story as a quest fits better.

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Script Frenzy 2008: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

I'm definitely doing the "Be careful what you wish for" line. As an inciting incident only. But then, my story is so massive it's currently incorporating most possible elements that you can stick in it. And the same thing that caused that situation is the character's flaw.

Even better, it's playing off comedy of errors and compounding them. This character is screwed up because of some other character in the past screwing up everything else. She does help fix it, though.

The main plot does not involve something wished for, though. The main plot's about what happens when you let your memories get the best of you.

Totally applies. I didn't plan it as a theme. But it really, really strongly applies to the protagonist and a few others.

Greta (the protagonist): Wishes to be Wenceslas's wife and the Queen of Bohemia. Gets her wish only after manipulating her brother and a young, naïve girl, ruining the lives of three people (one of whom, again, is her brother), and accidentally promising away her firstborn son.
Liselotte: Wishes for a perfect, dashing, romantic husband. She gets a message from such a fellow- so she thinks- talking about how he adores her, and she agrees to marry him. He didn't send the message. It's not a very happy marriage.
Wenceslas: Wishes to marry Greta. He does, but she promised away their firstborn son in the process (yes, she was tricked, but still).

Harry and Florian, not so much. They don't ever really get what they want, so they don't have it bite them in the butt.
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I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southernly, I know a hawk from a handsaw!

wow - i can't believe it. this theme so totally applies my entire story... wow. i could have chosen it from the beginning as well. and there are a few things that have happened that i didn't plan that are also variations of that theme.
I'm stunned now. they got me.

nanowrimo 07: hitting the ground: won

2 characters killed (both of them suicide)
0 sex scenes (1 almost-sex-scene)
1 character fallen in love with
1 character that has absolutely no existence justification but filling up the word count

Oh definitely. The whole premise for mine is a wish gone awry, and the futility of trying to unwish it.

For a really good treatise on the "be careful what you wish for" theme, look at the musical "Into The Woods." That's it in a nutshell right there!

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Nano 2007: If Wishes Were Horses (winnah!)
Script Frenzy 2008: C4, formerly IWWH, the GN. OMGWTFBBQ.