A story shouldn’t be “a bunch of things happen to or around our Protagonist, and then at the end, they change for some reason.” That potential for growth should be buried deep within every Main Character from the very beginning. Luckily for us, Dramatica provides some great insights into the most deepest recesses of your Main Character’s soul.

One of my favorite screenwriting books is Screenwriting from the Soul by Richard Krevolin. In this book, Mr. Krevolin adapts the style of Rilke’s classic work, Letters to a Young Poet…, in which the concepts or ideas are presented in personal letters written to the reader. It’s wonderfully intimate as the approach Krevolin takes creates a personal relationship (dare I say Subjective Story) between author and reader.

One passage I have marked goes on to say:

As Heraclitus said thousands of years ago, “Character is fate,” so inherent in who we are is all that has befallen us and all that is going to befall us, both good and bad. When we first meet your main character, her climactic epiphany should already be a peach pit buried deep within her soul, and it is only through a series of events that she, if forced to struggle with her peach pit, is allowed to grow into the fully mature peach tree that has lain dormant within her since we first me her.

This idea of the potential for growth buried deep within a character is covered quite well in the Dramatica theory of story. It’s called Problem Solving and Justification. Justification defines how the “peach pit” became buried in the first place while Problem Solving describes how it is allowed to grow. In fact, as I was typing the above quote out I recognized several different Dramatica concepts buried deep within it:

As Heraclitus said thousands of years ago, “Character is fate,” so inherent in who we are is all that has befallen us and all that is going to befall us, both good and bad. When we first meet your main character, her climactic epiphany (MC Resolve) should already be a peach pit buried deep within her soul (MC Problem), and it is only through a series of events (MC Signposts) that she, if forced to struggle with her peach pit (by way of the Impact Character), is allowed to grow (MC Growth) into the fully mature peach tree (MC Solution) that has lain dormant within her since we first me her.

Of course, the above implies that we are looking at a Main Character who Changes (as opposed to Remaining Steadfast), but I thought it was interesting how the same concepts were being discussed. The cool thing here is that now you have tangible items for which you can come up with answers. Instead of coming up with a “series of events,” you now have four Signposts (or three Journeys) that perfectly describe your Main Character’s development. Likewise, the peach pit of an inequity buried “deep within” their soul and the fully mature tree that they have the potential to grow into, are connected with the Main Character Problem and Solution.

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Somewhat related to this article

• Analysis of Deadwood: The Relationship Between Swearengen and Bullock→

• Do Antagonists have Character Arcs?→

• judgment and resolve→

• how the impact character relates to the main character→

• digging down to find your main character’s wound→