slightly tweaked perspective on a character’s arc

March 19, 2006

Turns out there is always a fresh new way of looking at a Dramatica concept.

The typical way Main Character Growth (or arc) is described goes something like this: the audience will be waiting for the Main Character to Stop doing something detrimental, or Start doing something beneficial.

But you can also think of it this way: maybe your Main Character can’t stop themselves from doing something. Or, from the other side, maybe they can’t get themselves to start doing something. The former could be something like a father who can’t stop from opening his big mouth during his son’s baseball game. The latter could be a taxpayer who just can’t muster up the energy to fill out the appropriate forms.

When I look this post over, I’m not even sure if there is a difference, but Chris had something close to that last week, and it was significant enough for me to write down.

Maybe it’ll trigger a new idea or two…