The Impact Character in a story never stands alone, but is always evaluated in terms of his impact on the Main Character. When encoding the Impact Character Throughline Plot Progression, this is equally true. Unlike the Main Character Type Order, which reflects the Main Character's Growth from one concern to another, the Impact Character Type Order reflects the progression of the Impact Character's impact on the Main Character. In other words, each of the four Impact Character Types describes a chink in the Main Character's armor, a weakness exploited by the Impact Character. This forces the Main Character to consider issues that will eventually bring him to Change or remain Steadfast.

For example, in our sample story, the Impact Character Throughline is in the Fixed Attitude Class. As a result, the Impact Character Throughline Types are Memory, Impulsive Responses, Contemplation, and Innermost Desires. This means the Impact Character will (in some order) force the Main Character to remember (Memory), to respond differently when there is no time for consideration (Impulsive Responses), to become aware of something (Contemplation), and to desire something (Innermost Desires).

Encode the Impact Character's Types by the impact the Impact Character has in that area of concern on the Main Character. In this way, your Impact Character will force your Main Character to grow to a point of potential Change. That is the function and purpose of the Impact Character in a story.

Impact Character Throughline Type Order Encoding

Example:

In this fictitious story example, the Impact Character Throughline has a Fixed Attitude (Mind). The Type order selected for the Impact Character is as follows: Impulsive Responses [Preconscious], Contemplation [Conscious], Memory, and lastly Innermost Desires [Subconscious].

Signpost #1

Type 1. Impulsive Responses

The Impact Character is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He sees justice and honor as being flexible, dependent on the situation. His attitude causes unthinking responses (Impulsive Responses) in the Main Character, who reacts to every instance of the Impact Character's sliding scale of values as if he was shocked with an electric prod. The Impact Character's actions force the Main Character to lose his temper, make threats he later regrets, and smash things in a fit of self-righteous rage.

Journey #1

Type 1. Impulsive Responses ---------- > Type 2. Contemplation

As the Main Character becomes more obsessed with infiltrating the Consortium and edges toward putting himself under cover, the Impact Character's flexible ways enrage him more and more. Eventually, the Impact Character has had enough of this, and intentionally begins to show his easy attitude in front of the Main Character, so he can make him aware of situations in which rigid views just won't work.

Signpost #2

Type 2. Contemplation

The Impact Character carries the argument to the Main Character that no one is immune to temptation. Going under cover in the Consortium will surely cause the Main Character to break if he does not learn to bend. Prophetically, the Impact Character makes the Main Character aware (Contemplation) of some situations in which a fixed code of ethics creates a paradox where one must reexamine one's ideals.

Journey #2

Type 2. Contemplation ---------- > Type 3. Memory

Coming to see that even though the Main Character is now aware of the issues involved, he still does not relent in his plans. The Impact Character begins to bring up the old days" when they were both beat cops together, fresh out of growing up in the same neighborhood. The Impact Character uses the Main Character's memories to drive home the point that the Main Character was also flexible in those days, and they laughed at the stiffs who usually ended up getting killed or going crazy.

Signpost #3

Type 3. Memory

The Main Character has gone so deeply under cover that no one at the agency has heard from him in days. The Impact Character contacts and meets with the Main Character, finding him caught in a web of self-doubt, unable to choose between sticking with his code and helping the children's hospital. The Impact Character forces the Main Character to remember their days growing up together in the same neighborhood. Recalling how the Main Character's thinking was not always so black and white, he urges the Main Character to learn a lesson from those memories and bend with the wind, rather than snap under the pressures that are on him.

Journey #3

Type 3. Memory ---------- > Type 4. Innermost Desires

Unable to be in further contact with the Main Character who remains under cover, the Impact Character gets a few old friends from the early days to cross paths with the Main Character in the attempt to loosen him up. Each has been told by the Impact Character to remind the Main Character about the old days" and how much fun they used to have, how many dreams they shared before they got locked-in" to the system.

(Note to authors: The Impact Character need not be physically present for his impact to be felt!)

Signpost #4

Type 4. Innermost Desires

With the Main Character back in the agency, the Impact Character passes judgment on him. He tells the Main Character to look to his heart--look to all the noble things the Main Character had hoped to do in the political realm. The Impact Character asks the Main Character how he feels now, knowing that he has violated the ideals he had intended to run on. What does your heart tell you now?" he asks of the Main Character, and then walks out leaving the dejected Main Character alone.