Back to the Drama

Let's regroup...

The character sketches were fun, but I'll leave the others until later, and perhaps scatter them throughout the next few posts to give a bit of variety.  I feel as if I've lost track of Dramatica to a certain extent with all the specifics, so let's try to get back to it. 

There is a danger that as we progress through the rest of Dramatica, we have to move some things around, so I don't want to get too involved in character sketches right now, because we may have to re-do them anyway.

We've seen how the character quads add depth of character to all your story characters, aiding the writing of their character sketches, but they are also useful when it comes to storytelling, but we'll get to that in time.  First, let's revisit the Main Character, and have a look at what kind ours is.


The Main Man

The main character in a story is the viewpoint form which we tell the story. The main and impact characters do a sort of dramatic dance during the story.  The Main Character has a well-established method of dealing with things when the story begins, and a history of success using it - so is emotionally attached to it.  During the story, a situation comes up where the trusted method no longer works. 

The main character struggles with the idea, and is unwilling to let go of the trusted method even though it is not working.  Then the Impact character shows the main character that there is an alternative way - a better way of solving the problems and achieving success.  The main character is still reluctant to change.

As the story progresses, the case for the alternative gets stronger until the main character is forced to choose between these competing visions.  This is the climax of the story.  Does the main character stick with his tried-and-tested old ways, or jump to the new way to solve the problem?


Changes

The struggle basically resolves itself as : will the main character stay the same, or change to the new?  If the main character decides to stay true to his original ideas, then the impact character must change his attitude.  If the main character changes to the new method, the impact character has stayed true to their ideas, which have conquered in the end.

Dramatica gives a few examples of these from movies, but here are two of them which resonate for me, one for each type:

Main changed - Impact steadfast
In Star Wars, Obi Wan Kenobi stays steadfast in his belief in the Force and the destiny of Luke and the Jedi - it is Luke who changes, from a restless farm-boy who just wants excitement to a Jedi pilot for the rebellion, fighting for good over evil.

Main steadfast - Impact changed
In The Fugitive, Dr Richard Kimble never wavers from his claim that he is innocent and it was the one-armed man who killed his wife - it is the detective Agent Gerard who comes to realise the truth and who changes his opinion - and respect.


Leap or Creep

In Western cultures, it is usual for the story to lead up to the point where the main character has to take a leap of faith - either to stick or jump.  This can be exciting in the movies, but there is a less-well-travelled alternative - where the changes in the main character are gradual throughout the course of the story. 

These stories usually work by having some incident near the start, showing the outcomes, then repeating the incident near the end, and showing how the main character has changed throughout the story. There is no massive leap of faith moment, the character has changed gradually and the climax is the moment when the audience really see it in action.


The Crucial Element

Dramatica proposed something it calls the Crucial Element, which is one of the 64 character elements we defined before in the large chessboard.  This element is the one which most aptly sums up the internal perspective of the Story Mind.  For a story where the story Mind is proven in the main Character Throughline, this must be one of the eight character elements in the Main Character - this is to ensure that the entire story hinges on a change in one of the elements in the main character.

In the same way, if the impact character changes, then the change must happen in one of the character elements contained within the impact character.

Because there are eight different character elements to choose from, there are actually eight different sorts of main character hero we can create, an action hero who Pursues, or a thinking hero who Considers.

It is also good to have the impact character be the opposite pair on this Crucial Element (I haven't checked what this is in Fiend yet, we'll try this out in the next post) - this means that the main antagonist of the story will oppose the hero on the very Crucial Element that the whole story hinges on.  This creates the biggest dramatic tension.


That's all for now

That's quite a lot of Dramatica theory for now, in the next post I'll take the ideas presented here and apply them to Fiend.  I have a suspicion that this may impact some of the quads I've already decided, but that's the whole point of the system!