One point at which the Overall Story and the Main Character hinge is called the Crucial Element. In fact, the Crucial Element is one of the sixty-four Overall Story Character Elements we have already explored. When we look at the Objective Character Elements as the soldiers on the field (from our earlier example), there is one special Element from which the audience experiences an internal perspective on the story. This is the Main Character position in the Overall Story, and the Element at that point is the Crucial Element. As a result, whichever Overall Story Character represents the Crucial Element should be placed in the same player as the Main Character. In that way, what happens during the Main Character's growth will have an impact on his Overall Story function. Similarly, pressures on his Overall Story function caused by the story's situations will influence his decision to change or remain steadfast.

We can see that a Protagonist will only be a Main Character if the Crucial Element is one of the Elements that make up a Protagonist. In other words, a Protagonist has eight different Elements, two from each dimension of character. If one of them is the Crucial Element, then the player containing the Protagonist must also contain the Main Character. This means we can create eight different kinds of heroes. An action hero might have a Crucial Element of Pursue, while a thinking hero might have a Crucial Element of Consider. Clearly, the opportunities to create Main Characters who are NOT Protagonists are also extensive. Main Characters are often complex Objective Characters.

The Impact Character has a special place in the Overall Story (Objective) Character Elements as well. We have already discussed Dynamic Pairs. As it turns out, the point at which an Impact Character will have the greatest dramatic leverage to try to change the Main Character is the other Element in the Dynamic Pair with the Crucial Element. In simpler terms, the Main and Impact Characters are opposites on this important issue. Often one will contain the story's problem, the other the story's solution.

If the Main Character (and Crucial Element) stands on Pursue, the Impact Character will occupy Avoid. If the Main Character is Logic, the Impact Character is Feeling. In this manner, we explore the essential differences between the two opposite points of view in an objective sense, looking from the outside in, and in a subjective sense, from the inside looking out. All four throughlines come into play (Overall Story, Main Character, Impact Character, and Subjective Story). By the end of the story, the audience will feel the central issue of concern to the Story Mind has been examined fully from all relevant angles.

To summarize, a complete story requires that both the Overall Story and Subjective views are provided to an audience, and that they are hinged together around the same central issue. We do this by assigning the Main and Impact Characters to the Overall Story Characters who contain either the story's problem or solution Elements. The Element held by the Main Character becomes the Crucial Element, as both the Objective and Subjective Stories revolve around it.

The Crucial Element: Where Subjective meets Objective

The Crucial Element is an item that is at the heart of a story from both the Overall Story and Subjective points of view. How this happens depends on the Main Character. The Crucial Element is the one of the connections between the Main Character and the Overall story and makes the Main Character special enough to be "Main." This issue at the heart of the Main Character is thematically the same issue that is at the heart of the Overall Story.

For Example:

To Kill A Mockingbird Crucial Element is INEQUITY

Inequity is the problem that is causing all the conflict around the town of Maycomb. The trial of Tom Robinson brings all the townspeople into squabbles about inequity in the treatment of different races, inequity among the social classes of people, their levels of income, and their educations.

Scout, as the Main Character, is driven by her personal problem of inequity. This is symbolized most clearly in her fear of Boo Radley. Kept at the margins of the Overall Story dealings with the problem of inequity, Scout however comes to see her prejudice against Boo Radley as being every bit as wrong.

NOTE:  Don't Sweat Over The Crucial Element

Despite the name, proper assignment of the Crucial Element isn't critical. Your story is stronger if you assign the Crucial element to the player that is also the Main Character, but it is only one of many connections between the throughlines.