Ladies and gentlemen, fellow writers. I'm having a big problem with the Main Character and Influence Character, in the model of Dramatica theory.
It is the Protagonist that will move the plot, the story forward.
The Influence character will face the main character as a dialectic about the actions and destiny of the Protagonist, But at the same time Influence character will also try to show the Protagonist another way to solve the problem, as part of his attempts to impact the main character.My problems are:
- Is it OK for the influence character to have this kind of impact on the protagonist as it is on the main?
- Could the main character be the contagonist?
- Could the main character be the narrator in this case?
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Hey Mohamed, in my view the answer is Yes to all 3. Obviously the influencer character has an important role and can help the protagonist on their journey so cannot be secondary really, unless you plan to limit their appearance and when they do it’s intense and impactful (which can be just a look, a word, an action for example). A kind of ‘mentor’ to the searcher. The one who has the right answers even without meaning to (for example). Depends on how you’d like to play it… Having the protagonist a contagonist is interesting, the one who gets in his own way. In this case the influencer is someone he can’t break down and therefore the only one who can help him on his journey. If the contagonist is also the narrator that’s even more powerful…
Although not in direct relation, the film ‘Into the Wild’ explores the main character’s obsession with getting to Alaska as a personal survival test. His biggest influencer is the female of the hippie couple he befriends, she is the one who could have most impact on the characters final decision - she enriches him and they heal each other, and although she senses his journey’s doomed she isn’t able to sway the protagonist into changing his mind…
He reaches his goal but through inexperience remains trapped and eventually dies (spring ice melt creates a fast flowing river he can longer cross to get back). His last contact with his past is seeing the hat his female friend gave to him before he left and which he hung on a branch on the river bank as a sign, when he crossed it dry. He looks at it over the raging waters and realises his predicament.
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