Correct Throughlines???

Come here to ask questions or give advice about the theory that forms the basis of Dramatica.
VTFischwire
Published Writer
Posts: 30
Joined: Mar 26, 2008 11:24 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia

Correct Throughlines???

Postby VTFischwire » Jul 26, 2010 6:20 am

Hello,

I took a 6 month break from my novel in order to approach it fresh. I seemed to be stuck in a rut and no matter what I tried it never was what I really wanted to say. Today I opened Dramatica and begin working through the 1st level of the story guide. I think I have finally found what I want but I wanted to check a few things out, or maybe get some feedback.

My MC is defined by action. To be more precise she is a sidekick and her mindset is focused on doing whatever is asked of her and never thinking about what she is really doing. She always rushes in to help without questioning if she is helping for the better or the worse. What I want to show in my heartline is that Blind Faith is not the correct stance to take.
So with the above in mind I think that her throughline should be Activity and furthermore it should be doing. Afterall she is a Do-er and definitely not a rationalizing Be-er.

As for the IC he is the protagonist who is persuing the stories goal by manipulating everyone to get what he thinks is correct. He espicially manipulates the main character and the fact that she never ponders her actions by giving her insane things to do, that most people would be hesitant at best to do. He knows that she needs to be constantly helping (doing) and therefore she is the perfect target for him to get support from in order to complete the story's goal.

As for the Subject Stories it takes place in the realm of Fixed Attitudes. At the beginning of the story the Main and the Impact character seem to be motivated by the same attitudes for wanting to achieve the stories goal. By the end we learn that while they both wanted the same thing it was really for quite different reasons. In fact the Main Character ultimately abandons the goal all together, forcing the Manipulative Impact Character to try a different plan in order to ultimately succeed.

The Overall Story is a situation. Everyone is focused on How Things Are Changing and whether or not it is for good or bad that they are indeed changing. The Protagonist, wants them to stop changing and even revert to the way they were before the story started. And while he fails in reverting things he does find a way to control the direction and shape of the change and thus does succeed, though maybe not how he originally planned, at achieving the stories goal.

All of this led me to thinking that the story will be a Success with the Main Character of I don't know I guess since the Main Character does eventual abandon the Impact Character and stops blindly following, she is a change character and since I want to show that she is better off I guess her judgement would be good, but I am not sure.

I also think that the MC problem should be trust vs test, and while trust is good test is A LOT better.

Does this sound correct? Any help before I move on and get tangled up in semantics again would be very helpful.

One last thing, this is a shorter story that is part of a larger one. It comes first in my novel and I really want it to focus my audience on questioning the world around them before they delve deeper into the rest of the book. Is this something common to do?

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