Your Main Character’s Most Personal Issue

March 28, 2007

Sometimes it’s nice to take the basic concepts behind Dramatica and bend them ever so slightly - just to get a different perspective on what is really going on in your story. You’re not changing how those concepts work, just the way you approach them. In doing so, you’ll find different questions to ask yourself about your story.

The Main Character’s Throughline is the one spot where you can get a broad overview of what is really bothering the main character. While the further down the chart you delve the more precise you can be about your writing, you also risk confusion as the differences between things gets smaller and smaller. Better to stay at the top until you really feel confident with the kind of issue your Main Character is dealing with.

Think of your Main Character’s most personal issue - that issue that they would take with them into any story, regardless of what happens around them. Got it? OK, now ask yourself these questions:

If her situation improved, would she be happier?
If her mindset improved, would she be happier?
If the way she engaged in activities improved, would she be happier?
If the way she thought about things improved, would she be happier?

All of these may pertain to your Main Character, but only one of them will feel really right.

Perhaps she’s an underpaid factory worker who thinks only the rich can get richer. If she was paid a decent rage would she be better off? Not really, because it wasn’t her situation that was holding her back, it was her defeatist attitude that class dictates providence.

Or maybe she’s a struggling pianist stricken with such an awful fingering technique that she spends most of her days trying to bury her love for classical music. Wouldn’t she be happier if she just realized things are what they are and instead embraced her passion for Bach? No, she’d continue to be miserable with every missed key. On the other hand, with a little extra time spent practicing her scales, she might find herself loving the classics even more.

Asking yourself these questions will help you nail down the source of your Main Character’s issue. With that information in hand, you can then spend time writing scenes that develop on that issue and either have your Main Character work through resolving it or leaving it to fester. Either way, you’ll have the confidence knowing where your Main Character is coming from to write effectively and consistently.