So I have this story…
The MC is a young woman who has followed her boyfriend to the compound of an end-of-the-world type cult.
In my initial (pre-Dramatica) vision of her character, her “arc” involved learning self-reliance and not depending on others (especially men) to save her.
However, in the storyform I have worked out now, she comes out as a steadfast character. This actually works in that she never succumbs to the indoctrination of the cult (she keeps her fundamental hope for humanity) and the IC changes, learning to put principle above blind loyalty.
But she still has this problem of dependency in relationships – after all, what brought her to the cult was her feeling of dependency on her boyfriend. So by the end, she learns not be dependent. In fact, the story engine tells me that her critical flaw is Preconditions, which I thought was fantastic – she unconsciously believes that without the precondition of having a man, she can’t save herself or others. But then if that’s the case–if she “gets over” this–isn’t she a changed character?
My most current thought is that she is actually steadfast, that her weakness of dependency is actually at odds with her true characteristics of courage and hope, she just has to “grow” into (and believe in) that steadfast resolve.
Does that make sense? Or am I thinking about this in the wrong way somehow?
Thanks as always to everyone for this awesome site.