{
 "method": "Read all 262 predicament sentences and grouped them by hand, by what the main person is up against and wants. Each scene is in at most one group. A group must span >= 3 of the 10 stories with no story above 50% of its members (O. Henry used >= 4 stories and <= 40% over 97 stories; this corpus has 10). Scenes left out are one-offs or narration. 'tightness' is my own label: 2 = one predicament, most members fit; 1 = broad, a shared shape that varies.",
 "groups": [
  {
   "id": "tainted_money",
   "name": "Money on terms you despise",
   "predicament": "Someone is offered money or success on condition they go along with something they think is wrong, and tells themselves it will cost nothing that matters.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    12,
    14,
    22,
    23,
    27,
    28,
    53,
    79,
    87,
    230,
    232,
    233
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "strings_attached",
   "name": "A way out, with strings attached",
   "predicament": "Someone who needs help is offered it, but only on terms that will cost them something they value.",
   "tightness": 1,
   "members": [
    26,
    89,
    215,
    256,
    257
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "old_attachment",
   "name": "An old attachment comes back",
   "predicament": "Someone's present commitment is disturbed by a former partner or intimate who still has a claim, or a hold, on them or on the person they love.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    30,
    33,
    34,
    39,
    52,
    55,
    168,
    169,
    170,
    199,
    204,
    207
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "what_they_hid",
   "name": "Finding out what they hid",
   "predicament": "Someone discovers that a person close to them has been hiding something, and must decide what it changes.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    44,
    46,
    120,
    122,
    159,
    193,
    205,
    206,
    259,
    260
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "keep_their_secret",
   "name": "Keeping someone else's secret",
   "predicament": "Someone is drawn into another person's secret and must decide whether to lie, stay silent, or give it up when pressed.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    105,
    107,
    197,
    251,
    252
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "exposed",
   "name": "About to be exposed in public",
   "predicament": "Someone's work or private arrangement is about to be judged in front of the very people they most feared would see it.",
   "tightness": 1,
   "members": [
    10,
    17,
    18,
    58,
    70,
    73,
    74,
    84,
    85,
    145,
    147,
    244
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "civil_to_them",
   "name": "Civil to someone you would rather avoid",
   "predicament": "Someone must deal politely, even helpfully, with a person they resent or fear, because their position leaves them no choice.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    40,
    41,
    43,
    49,
    64,
    96,
    98,
    217
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "plead_their_case",
   "name": "Pleading someone else's case",
   "predicament": "Someone is asked to carry another person's claim or warning to a third party, knowing it may cost them with one side or the other.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    47,
    141,
    142,
    218,
    219,
    220
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "own_words_back",
   "name": "Your own words turned against you",
   "predicament": "Someone is held to a principle, promise or code they once used for their own ends, now that it works against them.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    160,
    161,
    164,
    222,
    253,
    254
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "give_it_up",
   "name": "Giving something up for someone else",
   "predicament": "Someone can protect or free another person only by giving up something of their own, and the other may never know.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    125,
    198,
    210,
    211,
    221,
    229,
    236,
    258
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "keep_the_peace",
   "name": "Giving ground to keep the peace",
   "predicament": "Someone gives way, again and again, to a spouse or household, because refusing would cost more than it is worth.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    21,
    51,
    57,
    69,
    130,
    131,
    136,
    235
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "unseen_at_home",
   "name": "Unseen at home",
   "predicament": "Someone lives beside a spouse who does not really see them, whether through neglect, blind approval, or plain coarseness.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    2,
    71,
    72,
    97,
    123,
    126,
    127
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "new_and_warned",
   "name": "New, and warned",
   "predicament": "Someone new to a place or a household is warned, or senses, that something is wrong, and must decide whom to believe.",
   "tightness": 1,
   "members": [
    31,
    32,
    90,
    91,
    95,
    101,
    241,
    242
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "the_rival",
   "name": "The rival",
   "predicament": "Someone who has lost, or fears losing, the person they want to a rival is tempted to strike at the rival.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    37,
    63,
    153,
    165,
    186,
    188,
    189,
    190
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "owning_up",
   "name": "Owning up",
   "predicament": "Someone who once wronged another faces them, or a stand-in for them, and must decide how much to admit.",
   "tightness": 2,
   "members": [
    171,
    172,
    173,
    176,
    202,
    209,
    227,
    228
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "waiting_on_them",
   "name": "Waiting on someone else's decision",
   "predicament": "Someone's hopes hang on a decision entirely in another's hands, and nothing they do seems to hurry it.",
   "tightness": 1,
   "members": [
    116,
    139,
    140,
    143,
    212,
    226
   ]
  }
 ]
}