I believe you are overthinking this. I would focus more on the actual story points – the Problem, Symptom, Response, Issue, Concern, and Domain for each throughline. Don’t worry so much about OS traits until they become obvious to you (oh! this character is always so skeptical especially about anything to do with the story goal, he must be the Skeptic). Do give some consideration to Protagonist and Antagonist, of course…
I believe part of this is that the theory has evolved since many of the analyses on the Dramatica site were written. So a lot of those analysis are coming from older ideas that are probably still correct, but not as fleshed out as the theory is today.
My understanding is that your IC can influence your MC however you want them to. The two main ways I tend to see are 1. The IC says to the MC, ‘you, the MC, are solving your problem like a Psychology problem, but I, The IC, am telling you to solve it like a Physics problem’,and 2. The IC says ‘you, the MC, Are solving your problem like it’s a Psychology problem but I, The IC, am solving my problems like they are Physics problems.’ And then the MC sees how the IC is solving their own problems and considers solving his problems like that.
I’m not sure if that was clear, but it boils down to either the IC tells the MC to change, or the IC says nothing and let’s the MC observe the IC and come to his own conclusion about whether he should change.
Example 1. The IC says to the Mc, ‘I see you letting those guys bully you. Instead of taking it, you should go up to the biggest one, punch him in the jaw, and kick him in the nuts until you know he’s not going to get up. Then the others will leave you alone.’
Example 2. The IC say, ‘I see you letting those guys bully you. That sucks. But let me tell you about my day. I was making a business deal and the other guy was like, ‘this is what I want’ and started making demands. So I went up to the richest guy and was like, look, you need me more than I need you. So you can take my deal the way I say or I’m out. Not only that, but you’re not going to counter offer and you’re going to thank me for making such a great deal. Then he was like, yeah, and then they all signed on.’
Upon hearing that, the MC says, ‘man, I should be more like that. Tomorrow I’m going to walk up to the biggest bully, punch him in the jaw, and kick him in the nuts until I know he’s not going to get up. Then they’ll all leave me alone.’
Thanks @Gregolas I found those examples amusing and really helpful to visualise. I’m guessing the IC can also use both approaches in influencing the MC?
Thanks @mlucas for the input. You’re probably right about me overthinking this. As a holistic thinker I have a problem feeling at ease with something when I feel that I clearly don’t understand an aspect of it. It makes me nervous about all the other things I might be missing
I guess for now, my first story, it’s best for me to only refer to the OS traits in the OS domain. The Antagonist is something that has been on my mind a lot, as in my story there isn’t really an Antagonist. Rather life itself or the illness the MC/Protagonist struggles with would be the antagonistic force. I’ve read and it seems logical to me, that the Antagonist doesn’t have to be a person but I’m missing examples of where an idea or a concept functions as an antagonist. Can you think of any?