How to Find Your Character's MISBELIEF (or Fatal Flaw)

what's up my friend Abby here and welcome back to writers life wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dreams come true today we're diving into a topic that I know a lot of you are curious about because I get a ton of questions and comments about this very thing Abby you always tell us that our characters need to have a misbelief or alive but how exactly do we figure out what their misbelief is and how do we show the reader what they're misbelief is this is a great question and since so many writers have been asking me this question lately I decided that it deserves a video of its own because I have an exact step-by-step process of formula if you like that I follow every time I craft a characters of misbelief and it's not vague and conceptual it's actually very specific and very simple you're gonna love it let's get started why does your story matter good question what if I told you that there's a science behind every great story I don't just teach you how to write I teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true okay let's get right into the process you might want to grab a notebook for this one however I did compile this whole make a misbeliefs method into a convenient little printable PDF which you'll find the link for in the description box below this video so you can grab it print it follow along alright step 1 find your story's main theme now you might have more than one theme for your story but I'm talking about the main overarching theme okay the big idea that you're the most excited about I prefer to call it the story's truth so write that down and as few words as possible and remember this is going to be the realization in the aha moment that your protagonist is going to have at the end of your story if you haven't figured out your story's truth yet grab a fresh piece of paper and start brain dumping your answers to these questions what change would you like to see in the world what is the true that you want to scream from the rooftops don't be coherent just be yourself just let your heart overflow onto the page with the ideas and the truths that are most important to you and take your time theme is the heart of your story it's vital not just to the story itself but to your motivation to keep writing it I speak from experience when I say that if a story doesn't matter to you then you're not gonna stick with it for very long for more themed ideas check out my Enneagram video it focuses on personality typing your characters but the Enneagram is all about how our beliefs drive our behavior so it's actually a great companion to this video ok step to flip this truth upside down and make it a lie I know this is gonna feel nasty and kind of counterproductive but take that truth that you just wrote down the thing you're super excited about the idea that you want to share with the world the truth you want to scream from the rooftops and flip it upside down to make it a lie what is the exact opposite of this truth what's the contrasting lie this is your protagonist misbelief boom there it is so easy right but let's take it further step 3 ask yourself what could have happened in my character's past to make them believe such a thing now we're getting to the good stuff sifting down through your characters dark past to find the root of this lie where did it all begin it doesn't even have to be some big tragic pivotal moment it could just be a small drip drip drip that drills a hole through a rock over time but the younger the better because cognitive science shows us that before the age of 7 a child's brain is still in downloading mode in almost this hypnotic brainwave state where they accept whatever they're told as truth and they create some pretty strong beliefs without the help of rational thoughts side note careful what you tell small children step 4 write that backstory scene for your character whatever you decided would be the root of this misbelief the thing that happened in there past that made them believe such a lie that's the pivotal moment that's the store that's the scene I want you to write yes even if it's from a seven-year-olds point of view right the scene actually writing the scene will give you insight into the depths of this character's inner conflict in a way that nothing else will and believe it or not it will help you tremendously while you're writing the current day version of this character and who knows maybe you'll end up inserting this backstory scene in the form of flashbacks or something like that in the actual book step 5 describe or write other scenes in the character's past that cemented this misbelief as truth to them I personally love writing backstory for my characters so if I have the opportunity to write more scenes from their dark and tragic past you bet I'm writing those scenes bro but I understand if you're not up for writing three or four more pivotal moments from this character's backstory but go halfway and outline those scenes describe what happened brainstorm other moments preferably three or four in this character's past where something challenged their hard-won misbelief and they had the opportunity to either step out and discover the truth but instead they chose their life these moments of choosing the lie are so vital because they're the moments that made this character's misbelief grow stronger and stronger and stronger until it became the compass that they live by today which leads us to step 6 ask yourself how is my character dissatisfied with their life today because they believe this lie so firmly the real reason we can't get no satisfaction is because we believe a lie about ourselves and about the world whether it's a lie of I won't be happy until I'm rich and famous or I won't be happy until I find true love it's all the same dissatisfaction because of a belief that simply isn't true our mindset is the only thing standing between us and Happiness and that's really all your character wants at the end of the day is to be happy that's what we all want but we all have different definitions of happiness which leads us to step 7 ask yourself what does my character think will make them happy based on their misbelief like I just said our definitions of happiness are all unique and all based on our personal belief systems it's no different for your characters long before your inciting incident steps in and pushes your character outside their comfort zone they have a preconceived idea of what they think will make them truly happy and content whether it's something they've subconsciously held on to for years or it's something that they had to deliberately sit down and puzzle out they have no doubt that this thing is going to make them happy however it won't really make them happy why because it's based on a Mis believe it's based on the lie the opposite of the truth that you want to scream from the rooftops we all tracking good step 8 ask yourself what steps could my character take now to actively pursue this goal this is where the inciting incident comes in so check out my video on how to write a gripping compelling inciting incident for a more detailed guide on that but believe it or not the most important part is all seven steps we just went over because we just laid the groundwork for your character's inner conflict and I'm gonna show you in just a minute how this makes your story stronger than 99% of the books on the market right now but first ask yourself what steps could my character take now to actively pursue their goal this is going to lead into your plot okay this is going to become your character's mission so take into consideration the external conflict that you have planned out the stuff that's going to happen to the character and how it maybe looks a little bit different now in light of this juicy internal conflict step 9 clarify the motive the goal and the plot here's my favorite part because this is where the magic happens go back through your answers to all these questions and pull out these three things the lie they started to believe at a very young age the thing that they think will bring them true happiness and the steps they're going to take to make this dream a reality and write down these three things as the motive the goal and the plot step 10 let this drive the story forward this is what I meant when I talked about plot driven stories versus character-driven stories there is no question plot doesn't drive a story if you just have your plot driving the story that's all it is plot but if you start with your characters misbelief that gives them a motive which gives them a goal which drives the plot see how much stronger this formula is this is the kind of gold that you discover when you take the time to just keep asking yourself why why why why most writers don't do this they just come up with a plot and maybe a goal for the character but they don't have a motive behind the goal and a misbelief behind the motive and that's why the story falls flat and that's why you forget about it in a week I don't know about you but I don't want my stories to be forgettable I want them to be memorable I want them to spark ideas and discussions and all of that starts with the characters misbelief side note about side characters you can repeat this whole process with your side characters to find your side characters missed beliefs and therefore craft a compelling subplot but don't fret too much about getting really deep into their backstory and making their their stories super complex because they're not going to be getting as much screen time as the main character they are side characters so they have an interesting ability to incorporate multiple themes into your story but you're gonna want to save your most important big idea or a theme or story truth for your main character for more in-depth guidance on writing side characters check out this video right here okay boom that's it that's my super easy 10 step process for uncovering your characters misbelief be sure to grab the printable it is linked in the description box below this video you can download it for free print it off and start developing your characters misbelief right now and if you already know your characters misbelief comment below right now and tell me what it is smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos and publishing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take storytelling to the next level the patreon community is not only the best way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube but it's also the only way to connect one-on-one with me and get better guidance on your story so go to patreon.com/scishow this time I'm very happy about that like I just said what did I just say this one's getting super philosophical I love it [Music]

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 231,318

Keywords: authortube, how to write a novel, how to write characters, character arcs, how to find a character's misbelief, how to find a character's lie, what is a character lie, internal conflict

Id: Ij39HSbLCXo

Length: 12min 23sec (743 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020