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Dramatica Tip of the Month
December, 2001

Character Archetypes and Crucial Elements

Question: (from the Dramatica Mail Listserv group) I'm working on a storyform for a new (short) story using archetypal characters, and I've noticed the MC Crucial Element fell in the wrong spot. That is, not within any of the Protagonist squares. It fell in a Reason square. Furthermore, the IC Crucial Element fell in the Emotion square, rather than any of the squares belonging to the Antagonist. My Reason character is yet unassigned. Should I just give my MC/Protagonist that role, too, so he gets the MC Crucial Element?

Answer: Character archetypes are like training wheels--they're handy when you are just beginning but very quickly become more trouble than their worth.

The crucial elements are determined by the storyforming choices, not the character archetype choices.

I recommend breaking out of the character archetypes and into complex characters as soon as you can. The crucial element assignments are as good a reason for doing so as any.

To change the element assignments, go to the Build Character window in the Dramatica software. Add the "Logic" element to the MC and "Feeling" to the IC. If there is any other element reassigning that makes sense to you, do it.

The most important thing to remember is that each OS element is an approach to resolving the OS problem. Assigning them to characters gives you (the author) a means to explore the elements--show them in action--so that the problem and solution elements eventually become clear to the audience.