For anybody who may read my comment: sometimes you have to start writing, even finish a first draft, before you can figure out what you want to say, this truth that is driving the story. Abbie's advice is great and I watch all her videos, but in the end it comes down to who you are and how your brain works. There isn't a method that works exactly the same for every writer. In my case I often write to find out what I think and how I feel.
That is sooooo true! I started writing a story in 2020 and I remember when this video came out. I was sooo lost lol I honestly didn't knew my character very well. Now, almost 2 years later, i'm watching this video again and IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! I know my character enough to answer this questions. Everyone has it own time and way to figure out your own writing 🥺🥲
When MY brain doesn't work, I slam my head into the keyboard a dozen or so times. When I wake up a couple of hours later, I feel refreshed and am able to write again! 😜
You know, I watched Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" today, and when you started talking about dissatisfaction because what they believed they wanted isn't actually what will make them happy. Tiana believed that working super hard to get her restaurant was what she wanted, but she realized that it was the people she loved that made her truly happy. After all, what are dreams if we don't have people to share them with? And Naveen, he thought being rich and partying all the time would bring him happiness, but he discovered that being with Tiana and seeing her happy is truly what he wanted, so much so that he was willing to be a frog forever just to spend that forever with her.
My character's disbelief: you need excitement and adventure to live a happy and fulfilling life. The story is set in a fantasy world were the MC wants to become an Adventurer/Traveler. However, as many warn about the many dangers and hardships he begins to learn that his choices and actions have consequences. He will need to grow up and leave the life of thrills behind to settle and focus on himself and what truly makes him happy.
This video is mega helpful, but I'm wondering what you think about characters that don't have much personal growth like James Bond? Characters who already have their shit together and are looking to help other people more than finding personal happiness cuz they kinda already have it. These characters usually don't have a misbelief from what I can deduce. What do you think allows these exceptions to be successful and/or do you think flat character arcs like these are of real value?
@@kathanfors6416 Everyone has a weakness. I think if you can pin down your character’s weakness that can be a point of internal conflict and growth. Your MC could have something in their past they haven’t resolved - a past mistake they can never fix. The misbelief in that scenario would be that they are not a worthy individual until they are able to atone for their past when the truth is that they are worthy and their past does not define who they are. Or you could just go the way of external misbelief - Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible (1996). Ethan believes his boss and mentor is a good guy but then turns out to be the villain. I know that goes against Abbie’s rule, but in the the case of a James Bond like character, maybe you can get away with a less than three dimensional MC and still grab the reader based simply on the good guy vs. bad guy/vindication angle. However, I will say if you can find a way to give your MC depth your story will be 1,000 times better.
@@kathanfors6416: Yes, as Amy said, everyone has a weakness. For Bond, it's women and ego. He scoffs at Q's inventions, but ends up needing every one of them. The women get his guard down, though he regains it later, often when his superpower of charm wins them over to the "right" side. Much as I enjoy a few of the Bond books and movies, they're not life-changing - for me, anyway. There's a place for a simple thriller, but compare that with one that imparts an important theme, such as, say, one of Kubrik's thrillers. Or a fine thriller about a down-and-out detective who believes a lie about a past love: "The Yakuza" starring Robert Mitchum and directed by Sidney Pollack. Or "The Maltese Falcon" in which Sam Spade's misbelief gets his partner killed.
@@Amy_Mi6 TBH, I'm not writing an MC like described, personally I'm all about that character growth. I'm just binging wisdom before embarking on writing my baby which I'll inevitably screw up and rewrite since she's my first lol
Step 1: Find your story's (truth) theme (1:36). Step 2: Flip this true upside down and make it a lie (2:59). Step 3: What could've happened in my character's past to make them believe such a thing (3:29). Step 4: Write that backstory scene for your character (4:19). Step 5: Describe (or write) other scenes in the character's past that cemented this misbelief as truth to them (5:04). Step 6: Ask yourself how is my character dissatisfied with their life today because they believe this lie so firmly? (6:07). Step 7: Ask yourself: What my character thinks will make them happy, based on their misbelief? (6:54). Step 8: Ask yourself: what steps could my character take now to actively pursue this goal (7:47). Step 9: Clarify the motive, the goal, and the plot (8:47). Step 10: Let this drive the story forward (9:15).
My character’s misbelief is that showing signs of emotion is weakness and that letting people in will only slow her down. So she learns throughout that it’s okay to have emotions and it doesn’t make you any weaker for crying about nothing, or falling in love or for laughing at something stupid. And I guess my story isn’t about a character discovering themselves but about *exploring* the deepest parts of yourself that are even hidden from you
My character is somewhat similar, only the reason she doesn't want to get attached to people is fear of loss. So she is very guarded, and there are only a few select people who are in her 'vulnerable' zone, and one of them is someone who was in her life before the trauma that triggered these behaviors.
My character is similar, but it isn't that emotions are weakness, but that emotions are a joke and shouldn't be treated as serious (I will point out that he only applies this to himself, he has depression) throughout the story (especially at the end) he learns that this is wrong and that his emotions and depression should be taken more seriously. This is actually because the villain of the book has a similar fatal flaw, and he sees just how much damage it can do to someone
Mine is trauma. My character believes that if someone hurts you, you hurt them back. In the worst way possible. There's no need to care how unhinged you have to become to take your "revenge". Though she doesn't exactly change her thoughts (maybe she does, I'm on the first draft and starting from scratch because I feel like the story is flat), there are points when this affect others and how she takes her "revenge"
My characters misbelief is, if he tries something once and fails it means it will never work. Which of course is not true, especially for me who never gives up on anything xx
Huh that character sounds awfully a lot like me(i mean can you blame me? Everything i wanna do fails while i see people succeed in just one try, i wanna be like them but my luck is just nonexistent so yeah...)
My Characters misbelief is that you have to be special to matter. My main issue is that im unexperience in how to explore that topic. I want to explore how you dont have to be talented or gifted to be a valuable person, to have a value in the world. Its enough if you are kind and caring towards others and you can make much bigger changes in the world just by beeing a kind person, than beeing a genius. UI: The funniest part that as im writing this down, my goal is becoming much clearer to me. I value your videos Abbie and thank you for your many helpful videos
My overarching theme is that true freedom is an illusion. It can be found in any circumstance/situation. It all depends on your point of view and what makes you truly happy. The two main characters are from different backgrounds and have found themselves in a similar situation. Shawn is from a higher status family and is set to be a member of council for the up and coming heiress. His false truth is that finding the humor in everything will make him happy. He takes pride in doing what is expected of him, but his freedom is doing it in his own way. Agatha is from a lower status family and at a young age, shows that she posses powers. As customary with the few individuals each generation who possess power, they are set to be a member of council. Her parents and herself are now set for life and she has a coveted position of power, but the tasks and expectations make her feel trapped. Her false truth is that she will never be free until she can get away from all of it. Together they explore different views on what freedom means. In the end, they teach other that sometimes you need to fight for the freedom that you want and other times you have to enjoy the freedom that you already have
unbelievable ! After I answered all the questions and then added the motive, the goal and the plot , my mind was blown away. It makes it way more easier to understand ! And my main character's misbelief is "You need certainty to be happy/ You can't be happy and live with uncertainty" . Great video as always !!!
Hey! Your character actually helped me clarify mine!! I've struggled so much in sorting out his misbelief (he's basically the exact opposite of me so that doesn't help...), but your comment about uncertainty really sparked some clarity😂
The character I'm currently working on (I'm writing a series and juggling four protagonists...so erm, *currently* is the key word there) believes that if he ever chooses himself over his family (particularly his brother...who's sort of a villain?) then he has failed them. The next layer to that misbelief is that he is able to constantly give and give and give without hurting himself; he basically is unaware of the fact that he sees himself as sub-human. Anyways, your video helped me so much in clarifying, not only this particular character, but all of them!
Abbie you’re a GENIUS I’ve been brainstorming stories my whole life and I’m finally trying to write a book and you’ve helped me so much you deserve so much recognition thank you!
But abbie I need your help or can anyone tell me what if my character's desire: is to get a specific person and his fears: are being deprived. Misbelief: that he can't get her because he will broke her heart and also his self. Because they belongs to different family were they aren't welcome (forbidden love trope) also staying away from her will not cause more troubles So what would be his goal for rest of the story based on his misbelief maybe "stay away from her" but then how could my story will go ahead if he only wants to shun her. If I make sense abbie pls tell me or maybe I should change this
@@esi1765 Your story makes perfect sense. The guy wants the girl, but he is afraid that if he is with her or if he pursues her she will be hurt by his presence, maybe by him. But he can't stayaway from her because he is deeply in love with her. [Additionally & optionally, perhaps he sees her with another man (maybe more men) and that makes him jealous. But also, this other man (or men) are not very nice to her; they're rude/disrespectful and don't treat her how she should be treated and that makes him angry.] Basically, the important thing is that he has to overcome that fear of losing her or hurting her so that he can be with her and love her properly.
@@greyhood2564 Wow, I saw this reply super late. But I'm glad you helped me 🙏🏻 you are a genius thank you. I almost stopped and had given up on that tale but now I'll begin again. And mainly thank you first to give a sense of plot to what to add to the story.
@@greyhood2564 Wow, I saw this reply super late. But I'm glad you helped me 🙏🏻 you are a genius thank you. I almost stopped and had given up on that tale but now I'll begin again. And mainly thank you first to give a sense of plot to what to add to the story.
Thank you so much, Abbie, your guidances crosses languages barriers (I write in Portuguese). First I was stuck with a character that didn't had any misbelief, she didn't passed through any changes in my first draft, her mother died when she was born, her desire was to collect memories and stories about her mother and get to know the one she could never meet, but she didn't passed for any transformation. It was hard finding a misbelief for her, since her desire seemed so pure, but one thing about this character backstory is that she never had a home. After her mother died, her father decided to wander with her (because of his own internal conflict), then I came to realize that her misbelief is that she can "build a home out of memories and stories", she believes she'll be happy when she discovers everything about her mother, but the truth is, "you can't build a home out of what is past", so she learns to use the memories from her mother to create meaning in her life, but also learns to make her own memories and build her own home out of the decisions she makes when she's older.
This is what I'm struggling with. I'm just starting, but it feels like the protagonists (one in particular) have so many misbeliefs that I'm finding it hard to solidify a single goal or truth. I hadn't planned on writing more than one story... I'm worried that if I have too many it will become mushy lie lasagna @seldom whispering That was the best lol
@jennylivingston2131 Well, realistically, we don't conquer all our flaws at once. If your character still has misbeliefs by the end, that's okay. Just focus on one misbelief for now. If you end up finding a way for them to conquer more than one, that's great! But it's okay if your character hasn't conquered all the flaws you wanted by the end. It just makes them feel more relatable.
Also, different misbelief are held with different levels of tightness. A character who vowed 6 months ago that they were never going to waste time with a romance again after their most recent breakup will hold that "looser" and change that belief quicker than a misbelief planted in early childhood and encouraged their entire life.
LOVE!! So glad to have it clarified that the reason the character is dissatisfied with their life AND has a goal that drives the plot is BECAUSE of the lie they've believed. So good. And so true! Now I'm looking at myself and my own dissatisfaction and I'm like... dang. Abbie called me out.
The whole "big truth" and then "flip it upside down" was revelatory for me. Thanks! Going from "Chasing your dream is better if you have someone by your side" to "Chasing your dream only works if you do it alone" creates a great starting point for a story. Similarly, "Sometimes, you have to to be willing to give up your dreams for the one you love" turning into "Sometimes, you have to chase your dreams, even if you lose the ones you love" is really neat. These videos are very helpful!
I'd love a case study video to go along with this one! I'd say two of my MC's false beliefs are "I can’t depend on others and have to fend for myself" and "I can’t protect the people I care about."
My character’s misbelief (and truth) that he’s believed for a very long time is the idea that he needs to help everyone, and if he doesn’t/can’t, he is a bad person. His parents and religion focused a lot on serving others, and he believed that if he couldn’t do every benign action, he was a failure
My characters misbelief is "if you need help from other people than you're weak / if you're not strong enough to do it on your own then your weak." Or something like that... I'm still working it out a little bit, but this is what I got so far. I'm gonna go put these tips/steps into practice right now! Anytime I watch one of Abbie's vids I get so motivated to write! Like, Right. Now! When I'm looking for certain tips on certain things usually it's just like "Okay, cool. I'll try that next time I sit down to write." But after finding Abbie's channel it's like, "OHMYGOSH! YES! I need to do this RIGHT NOW! WOOHOO! TIME TO WRITE!" 😁 😊 🙂 😯 😯 😅 hehe thanks for being great Abbie! Please don't think I'm weird! Lolololol
Same it’s also similar but instead his misbelief is “I have to do thing alone to protect people” and whenever they will get a partner they just leave them behind
I'm a bit late for a comment, but better late than never, right? Abbie, thank you so, so much. I'm writing a pretty big fantasy story atm and one of my beta-readers for the 2nd draft said that my character is the most boring and annoying one she ever read. That hurt me in so many ways because I thought I wrote him very badly. But I've come to realise that it wasn't my writing that was bad, but the fact that I had no real misbelief for him. He just stumbled through the story and I realised that the plot drove him, not his misbelief and his goals. Thank you so, so much for this video, it helped me a lot on finding the real reasons for my character to act. You're a true queen! 😇
I created the misbelief that my protagonist needs to protect everyone he cares about at all costs including his life. This would mean that he will try and save the day even without any training or preparation which led him to getting seriously hurt as a result
So I've recently been watching Vinland, which is still ongoing at the moment. I was more than a little mind-blown as you kept breaking this video down. I'm like, honestly awed at how clearly these ideas translate into the protagonist's misbelief and overarching theme of the current story I've been eating up like a hungry animal. You've opened my eyes Abbie
Sometimes videos like this makes my brain hurt. There is so much information that it's hard to follow sometimes. I mean I know what you're saying but it's like my brain is refusing to connect the dots. Like a computer that freezes when a advanced program is working in the background. My knowledge of the three act structure was simple before and finding out about these extra steps now is confusing. Like the theme part. I don't know if my story is the kind that has a theme. Stories with themes makes me think of old literature which I don't read or watch the adaptions of. This isn't a rant or me complaining about your videos. Your videos are amazing and very informative. I just feel like whenever I try to for a solution for something (whether on stories or videos), everything I find isn't really for the stuff I'm working on. It can get really discouraging and it sometimes makes me question if I should continue doing what I enjoy or curl up in my bed and stay there. Sorry if this sounds like I'm complaining. I don't mean too.
You're overthinking it. You just need to find an explanation that fits your understanding. I kind of had the same problem until I found this channel.. and remember baby steps.
I feel the same way. Before finding her videos, I thought I had a KILLER idea for a murder mystery series. But after watching her videos now idk....I can explain my characters perfectly, but not in the ways that answer her questions. Maybe her advice is genre specific? Idk I'm kinda down in the dumps now. Like if I cant do what she's talking about, does that make me a bad writer? 🤷🏽♀️
@@paigenalex4eva no, it doesn't make you a bad writer. You might be a pantser (write by the seat of your pants) or a plantser (Makes a few simple plot points, but mostly write by the seat of your pants). All writing styles are valid, you just have to figure out what's best for you. I definitely jump between pantser and plantser. Full on plotting kills my creativity. I might use some of this, but I know I won't use all of it. However, I can craft my story as I write and discover my characters' depths with these steps in mind.
My MC's motivation in the sci-fi/fantasy story I'm working on is to find someone to heal his dad. I don't understand how he could need a misbelief in this particular story. I don't personally see how this advice works for every story. There are misbeliefs in the background that kinda go with subplots, or at least one, but you don't need a misbelief to find someone to heal your father do you? I don't entirely get her line of thinking in this particular video. I don't think it makes us bad writers. 🤷♀️
Female lead's misbelief: my bluntness and steadfast righteousness only hurt/offend my classmates and make them angry at me. Nobody will accept me the way I am. In order to get along with everyone, I need to tell white lies and play a role for them. Vs always speak the truth, stand up for what you think is right. Male lead: I am unworthy of love, inferior to humans. (He's a creature). I don't believe in myself- what's there to believe in? In order to be worthy, I need to become a human. Vs it's okay if you feel like you can't blindly "believe" in yourself. Work on creating value in your life, becoming the kind of person you admire, just push through your comfort zone and do the things you felt too powerless to achieve. Once you do that, you will no longer need to baselessly "believe", you will have "proven" your worth to yourself. Or something like that? But would these two even have chemistry? Does the idea make sense?
I've been learning that keeping things brief and simple can actually be easier to work with than adding details at the very beginning of the process. Your male character's belief/misbelief are a bit long. If you're having trouble, perhaps try making each one a short sentence long, and no more!
Loved this video! My character’s misbelief is that there is one person in the world she is meant to be with and if she doesn’t make it work with him, no one will ever truly love her.
Character's misbelief: "Drugs are vital for me, as they are helping me cope with my emotional pain and loss of self-esteem (expressed by mental illness/depression) caused by my parents divorce and my father's abandonment (due to his own drug use at the time) when I was eight years old" Main theme of the story: battle of my main character against his inner demons, aka drug addiction, which is resulting from depression and fear of abandonment, which is resulting from the adverse childhood events mentioned above. One might figure out in which direction the story goes...
I have been struggling with my character's internal conflict for YEARS- all of my character's lack direction and agency- but suddenly this video has helped me organize what I already had into usable internal conflict and has boosted the meaningfulness of this story. THANKYOU! Diving into the backstory for solidifying that misbelief was so much more important than I realized.
AAAAAAAH ABBIE THANK YOU for bringing structure and clarity in this crazy mind of mine. I was struggling to find a deeply rooted misbelief for my antagonist and here we go: MISBELIEF: In my community, I am insignificant, invisible and unworthy of love (Hi there painful backstory). TURNS INTO: My community is harmful to me and the world but I am different. TURNS INTO: I can save the world, let's find them all. Mwahaha.
Ugh. This is why I can't write when I'd depressed, even though writing is the thing that lifts me out of depression. There's not a truth I want to shout from the rooftops, only things I wish were true and used to shout when I thought they were true. Maybe my feeling of resignation is a symptom of a lie I believed, but that lie is far more convincing than any hope that's been dangled tauntingly in front of me lately.
Maybe write something like a fairy tale - no it does not need fairies. Or make a character strive for a world that you want or something^^ Also, I feel like not all books need to have a plot line like this. For example I loved the book Kim Jiyoung; it just tells about her life, all these situations she was in, all those real hardships women like her had to go through. I don´t exactly remember the story and it´s end, but it wasn´t so... idk... big thing like? It was more a character written to tell how sh*t the world is to many of us, what it does to us. Maybe you can write about how it could be. Idk I feel like if it´s your book, it´s your rules, especially if you´re not publishing it. maybe even make your character believe the world is like ours but it turns out to be rather like the one you have in mind.
My character's misbelief is "I’m a failure if I mess up in front of people." It's rooted from her parents who always succeed and never thought about sharing their mistakes, so they never really mess up in front of her. This lead her to believe that she had to be perfect and please everyone from a young age. Her goal is to always keep everything perfect and impress her parents that she can handle everything. She's a huge planner, so if something goes even slightly off, it throws her off too. My other main character's misbelief is "If I focus on work, I'll become a workaholic. I’m never going to be loved if I work" (work meaning job/career) This is rooted by her parents who are workaholics and never show any love or affection to her. Her goal is to be loved/cared abt in friendships and make her parents happy. (In my story this character is also in a curse, so that's another goal.) My characters are teens btw. I hope this makes sense and is good for my story. I gave my characters character voice, internal conflict, misbeliefs, goals, fears, personality, everything and did some serious plot working. I'm writing a fantasy adventure trilogy, planning to publish it summer (July) 2024! Thank you so much Abbie and I'm excited to read your book too! (The Otherworld
This video came at a great time for me in my writing process! I'm writing a fantasy novel where the MC has magic but doesn't know it, she just knows that something is off about her. The MC believes that she is different and doesn't deserve to belong in her society. It stems from her mother faces prejudice as a mage and then her mom left when she was just 10. Now she wants to belong but is incredibly mistrusting of others and struggles to make relationships. It's worsened by the fact that some people actually do disregard her as different or other. My issue is that she doesn't really have a goal before her magic appears and the plot starts because she doesn't genuinely believe her life can really get better. She is too scared to explore who she is really is and would rather hide and stay under the radar, continuing to live as she is but not sticking out at the risk of attracting unwanted attention. I've gone a bit more in-depth in my podcast comment so I look forward to your thoughts on it. Thanks Abbie!
maybe someone else should take notice of her at the beginning and give her a helping hand. But she must first bring herself to trust him. So she could be pushed out of her comfort zone and she can pursue her main goal. Hope i could help you
maybe some bad entities or individuals can push her out of her comfort zone by inflicting or trying to inflict physical damage. And then that can kickstart her escape/ adventure to find out why they are attacking her and who she is? just throwing ideas out her ahha
Lol mine is the opposite, she does not have power so her family sees her as weak and abandons her so she believes that if people see your weakness they use it against you or don’t want to talk to you, her goal is to get stronger to impress her family and be let back in Don’t copy 😏
Every time watching your videos just pushes me to grab the notebook, uncap the pen and just Write!! Well, I have written my first short story of 20+ pages. Thank you so much. Loads of love from India🥰
I love how simple and clear your steps are. As a writer, I usually do this but never as organized as this. While Misbelief> Motive> Goal> Plot works, I also like to work out the Obstacles after the Goal because this will also inform the plot. I'd like to point out to anyone feeling overwhelmed while watching this video that it's okay to not have all this information at first. For some, they may have to first chug out the discovery draft before they know their character well enough to do this. With my current work in progress, I coincidentally stumbled on a discovery process that worked for me. Because I was too busy to dive straight into writing or even outlining, I gave myself permission to do nothing but let the idea percolate in my brain. As I lived my busy life and consumed media in all forms, my story and my characters were not far from my mind. I found myself having several aha moments at random times. Like ''Yes, my hero would definitely do this" "This would make sense with my heroine" or "This could be interesting". I did nothing with these little sparks of ideas except typing them in my notes app in barely understandable shorthand but before long, ideas started building on themselves as I continued to live my life and consume media. Several weeks- maybe a few months- down the line, I had all sorts of thoughts about my story and my characters. Going through this video helped me distill my thoughts clearly as I move to a more concrete story-mapping phase. My suggestion is to give yourself time to know your characters and your story. Then come back to this. It would be way more helpful than overwhelming at that point. Hope this helps someone.
My main protagonist has magic-induced amnesia (unbeknownst to her) due to a childhood incident, and it caused a rift between her & her parents for several years. When she loses them in an accident (NOT a car accident) that she believes to be her fault and is forced to move back to her hometown where the incident happened, she immediately throws herself into finding out what happened to her back then. She believes that regaining her memory is the only thing that’ll make her happy by giving her a sense of closure (without having to talk about the accident).
My character believes that she needs to earn love in order to feel it. So, she ultimately markets herself as wife material and invests her efforts in men that just take everything and anything until she breaks. I have to say that I have researched, studied, and participated in workshops and none of them satiated the structure that I needed to shape my story as this video. Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites!
Please write that whole novel and hand it to all the "pick me" girls on TikTok. Sure they annoy me but I don´t think they are completely bad people, actually I feel like at least some of them are extremely unhappy with themselves and think they need male validation, attention and love in order to have a happy future. But oh s any women are so unhappy with the lives they are reaching for because daily life isn´t some aesthetic housewife video and some some old fashioned romantic little *whatever kind of media you wish for*. Btw no I do not want to say with this that your character is a pick me, but I think it would be a huge eye-opener to "pick me" girls.
The project I’m working on has 3-4 characters Character 1 values their family over everything else and wants to reshape the world to make them happy, because they need to be and stay in control of everything, without realizing that their family is happy just being with them Character 2 believes that the only way to live and be successful is to make your own way in the world alone and they don’t believe that anyone else should or can help them, even though they have people who would gladly help. Character 3 thinks that power/success is the only way to matter in the world and believes that everyone is trying to take their success from them after they were given a position of influence, even though their paranoia is causing their fear to become reality
Wavering Eyes Sounds somewhat similar to a fan story I’m working on. 😄 Well, just the characters’ beliefs, of course. My story has two main characters (a couple). One character cares a lot about community, and the other is independent to a fault. I haven’t decided my villain’s misbelief yet.
@@youseineko may I ask how did you make them work ? I mean I know my character's individuals beliefs but I don't know how to write a love story and at the same time work on their own individual development 😁
My chararcter misbelief is that you can't trust anybody in order to achieve your goals. When he was little he needed help from people when his father was beating his mother but no one cared about him. He aslo watched his friend getting kidnapped but couldn't find help. Thanks to you Abbie I can understand the need of backstorys to corroborate the character way of seing the world
I have three characters- A dryad, a tree, and a little human girl Dryad's misbelief- She is too dangerous to be loved, and that is her identity. She must remember that otherwise, she will hurt the "people" she loves. Tree's misbelief- The world is broken and cannot be saved, the only way they can be happy is to stay hidden and stay away from the rest of the world. Girl's misbelief- She is not a good person unless she can protect her family.
You literally helped me figure out the plot of a story I've been thinking about for over 1 year. I followed what you said step by step and now i have the complete plot of my story This was amazing, thank you so much
This video helped me find my protagonist's misbelief - Control is an illusion. Any semblance of control you have over your life can and will be taken away at a moment's notice, and there's nothing you can do.
I love your videos thank you for posting! My character (mis)believes that her purpose in life is to help others, and that she will never be fulfilled until everyone else is completely secure.
I have been writing the same story for a DECADE. I just started going down the rabbit hole of Writerslife Wednesdays, and while all of them are valuable, THIS VIDEO IS EVERYTHING.
Thank you so, SO much for this video. I was struggling with a rather complex idea - to take a character that seems to "have passed her character arcs", so to speak. And I had lots of problems with the thought "does she change through the story at all?" And as I watched your video, I finally got it. I found her misbelief - that all that happened to her, her whole past was for naught, because she isn't perfect and can't hold up to the ideal of her former mother figure. And maaaaaan was that a revelation for me. It also was a little bit fun to see that the character that is actually considered by others to be a guru of sorts still has to learn a lot about the world and herself. Thank you very, very much.
Sounds like a good advice. Though the pantster that I am, I get a feeling I will ruin everything. Though even thinking of my characters, I'm not sure they always have one. For two I can tell: 1) Putting people away will benefit you in the long run 2) The character shall be good forever. But my other main 2... I can't think of any. One has a technnical misbelief rather than internal one (believing a legendary place exists). I can't think of anything speical other than that... and the other one... I guess his misbelief is "everyone is against me", though unfortunately, because of his cristumstances, it's quite hard to change that... I guess? (Yeah, thinking out loud... but in writing...)
Theme: Other people's way of life is valid and there's no right or wrong way to believe or live; there are only different ways. Misbelief: Racism/religious stigma taught to her as a child. Suddenly she's spending every single day of her life on the road with these people she was taught to hate, and she slowly learns that they aren't as bad as people thought. She learns to love them.
Wow. I've found it so difficult to figure out my MC misbelief, but this made it appear out of thin air so effortlessly. I came to realize her misbelief was different from what i had thought it was. 😮
Abbie, so many thanks! That was on spot! I am fighting with the first completed draft, not a first raw draft, and it seems I have just found how to make it way sharper and focused. The protagonist has to fight his shadow, a sort of inner cave man that often chases him in a form of an old man, an inner Mummy returning, so to say, and the conflict is about the hero believing the lie of exploring and living out so-called spiritual dimension only, which splits his life and vision etc. That lie will have to be destroyed by his Alter Ego, a Future that will have a stronger pull than the cave of his past!
Thank you Abbie, I dare say my action thriller novel has gone from mildly entertaining to face-punch awesome (if I can ever finish it!) thanks to your curriculum!
"Our mindset is the only thing standing between us and happiness." Not only does this help me understand my main character better, it helps me understand myself better. Thank you Abbie.
Hey, Abbie! Wednesday already?! I'm writing a flat arc character, but I now understand why people ask me what MY "why" is. Great content, d always. Thanks.
I just want to say thank you for all of the videos you've put out. I have been sitting on a story idea for about 7 or 8 years and have felt so lost in where to start. Writing a book without any training is no joke! All of your videos have been so helpful, and I finally feel like I have the tools to craft my story in a way that does it justice. Thanks a million!
Thanks Abbie! I really needed this. I’m stuck in the ‘theme’ part of my work in progress, and I’ve been procrastinating for weeks! This got me back on track🥰
bruh i kid you not, the first 3 minutes and 30 seconds of this video made my whole story fall into place and ive been working on why something isnt clicking for so longggg. thank you sm girl
Truth: losing is okay since it helps you learn and achieve a bigger win Misbelief: in order to become successful, you must never lose WARNING!! VIOLENCE Backstory: My character, Andrea, was ignored as a child, and was hated by everyone in her country. Before Andrea and her parents became rebels, they were a part of the royal family, Andrea only having a single maid to look after her. Andrea begged for love from her parents, which her parents never gave. The only two people to “appreciate” her were Elizabeth, the main antagonist, and the maid, who later turned on her due to a lie Elizabeth told. Elizabeth was the most loved child in the nation, being perfect and strikingly beautiful. Elizabeth was very strong and “kind”, and was also extremely smart. Andrea noticed Elizabeth getting love and praise every time she accomplished something, which lead to Andrea’s promise to herself that she would become the strongest knight and become successful and win everyone’s respect and approval when realizing that no one but herself could save her. Andrea’s guts told her not to fall for Elizabeth’s lies, and Andrea didn’t want to believe that Elizabeth was a bad person. Andrea noticed that knights who lost got treated with disrespect, but she didn’t form her misbelief until Elizabeth asked a very weak Andrea to spar with her for “training” and Andrea agreed. To Andrea’s surprise, Elizabeth not only won, but also beat Andrea up brutally. Andrea asked Elizabeth to stop, and admitted defeat, but Elizabeth kept torturing 4 year old Andrea, revealing her true self, telling her how she truly viewed humanity (as stepping stones) and how they are lucky that she’s using those “unimportant creatures”. Andrea threw up blood multiple times, almost passing out, on the verge of death. Elizabeth then beat herself up and cleaned Andrea’s wounds, screaming and framing Andrea for beating her up. The first person to come into the room was the maid, who later tells Elizabeth’s father and stops caring for Andrea. Andrea was locked in prison and was tortured by Elizabeth for about a year before Andrea’s parents decide to finally become rebels after finding out that Elizabeth’s mother was announced as the queen. Truth discovery: Andrea loses to Elizabeth a second time, her trauma of seeing Elizabeth also holding her back during the fight. Elizabeth doesn’t make it obvious that she’s beating Andrea up badly. During the fight, Elizabeth uses an illusion to trick everyone into thinking that Elizabeth is going a little easy on Andrea while winning while Elizabeth casts her strongest magic on Andrea, reminding her of the day she lost to Elizabeth. Knowing that all healing magic injures Andrea, Elizabeth casts her strongest healing spell on Andrea after the fight, making the crowd admire Elizabeth’s “kindness” as Andrea suffers. Alessandro, Andrea’s lover, get’s mad and almost fights Elizabeth but Ellis, Andrea’s friend, stops Alessandro from fighting Elizabeth and stops Elizabeth from healing Andrea, telling her that healing magic injures Andrea. Elizabeth (fake) apologizes to make it seem as though Elizabeth didn’t know that fact. Andrea is weak to her knees after the fight, traumatized about what has just happened. Ellis, comforts Andrea while helping her realize that losing can actually help her win by learning from the mistakes she made during the fight. Alessandro showers her with hugs and kisses and invites her to a restaurant to eat together, which makes Andrea happier. Ellis and Alessandro don’t know what truly happened during the fight, but they know that healing abilities tend to injure Andrea.
I've been writing most of my life, and always struggled greatly with developing internal conflict and character motivations. I've tried a hundred different approaches and styles from any number of books, trying the advice of authors of every possible genre, style, and success level. None of them worked. Then last week I watched "How to Find Your Character's Misbelief", and... Everything just immediately clicked. In five minutes I had plotted out the internal conflicts (and from there the plot arcs) of pretty much every named character in my WIP. So I just wanted to say thank you to Abbie for this, and for giving me the key to finally properly get my novel-writing motor running.
I love these guides! I keep comparing what you're teaching to what I know of the writing process of my favorite authors, and--wow! You make it so understandable. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
This helped me clarify what my character’s psychology is and how it will tie to the themes and plots of the story, thank you so much! On a side note, a lot of this is legit psychology that we see in everyday life.
What if you are at the beginning and have a vague idea for an interesting situation/plot? How do you find a suitable “misbelief” for your character? I personally don’t think about any “truth” l want to share, I think about stories that I would like to read.
I've watched a dozen videos on character arc and "the lie" and this is by far the most practical at actually helping nail it down in the writing process
I love your channel!!! I’m writing a short story for writing camp right now and I’ve been binge watching your videos. The misbelief of my main character is that she thinks that everything needs to be certain and in control/ already planned out. Thanks!!
Hi Abbie, I came back to this video, once the series ended just the other day - been keeping up and jotting notes and plotting and such, and I've come to this video as I really needed to sit down and get honest with my ideas. PROBLEM: My side characters have a better misbelief than my MC does. Well, perhaps I should say I have a clearer, more identifiable understanding of their misbeliefs, at this stage (which blew me away as I went through this process, because I expected my truth, to be more evident in the MC and therefore easier to find their 'lie", but now I feel more connected or at least understand the elements going into the side-characters. I think I'll get there, I have some idea's perculating as we speak (even just writing to you, is giving me something to work with... {coming back to the step 7: Ask yourself WHAT DOES MY CHARACTER THINK WILL MAKE THEM HAPPY...} ...as this video really propelled the bigger issue of theme to the surface, but I just wanted to let you know that if nothing else: Your videos raise issues and concerns I hadn't even understood. And of course, knowledge is power. So, thank you! Dacre ps. I look forward to thanking you in the acknowledgements section of my first published novel, one day.
When I write mine, I'm thinking of making my character's fatal flaw very similar to mine. Acting perfect and not reacting well to criticism. I know the experience, and I've had this delusion of being perfect for years, so if I write that, I can understand myself better. I don't know when I'll start, but I'm hoping that I can try to start my first draft as early as possible. I've been busy for a while, but I'll try. Even if it isn't perfect.
My character's misbelief is that everyone is perfect, and that if something bad happens, it's his fault and his alone. He can't even conceive that other people have problems and conflict of their own
As a huge fan of Lisa Cron's books, Story Genius and Wired for Story, I was so happy to find this video. It distills down everything into a few actionable steps. Thank you.
My character's misbelief is that he is not a monster, he is a not a bad person, all his decisions are for the common good. His AHA moment is when he realizes he is, in fact, a monster and has done horrible things for the sake of "the future".
Two questions: (1) What about books like Harry Potter? I find this video very helpful and important for an author. But I asked myself, does a protagonist really need a misbelief? Does Harry Potter have a misbelief all his decisions are based on and that is revealed at the end of the book(s)? Of course there are shocking moments and revelations but for the main goal (get rid of the evil), Harry never really had a strong misbelief that proved him wrong. Or is it ME who is wrong? Maybe it is so obvious I can't see it (2) How do you do it if you plan multiple books? This lie would probably get dissolved by the end of the whole story. Sorry for any mistakes, english isn't my mothertongue :)
Thanks a million, Abbie. You have inspired me to think in a different direction. I started writing without being able to articulate the theme line of my story clearly. I have just discovered it to be: people will like you when you listen with empathy.
My story's theme: Accepting and trusting hersef Misbelief: If she accepts who she is, she can no longer change to someone better. It makes it harder to change. -she can't accept herself because she doesn't love and trust herself. -She depends on what people think of her, because that, in her opinion, will make her into a better person. Why? Because she doesn't trust herself.
hi, firstly i am not a writer, not my main career or even main hobby... but i was always writing and always wanted to write a story ...for 20 years all i cared about was to come up with a story and to only care about the plot and characters have to come next and simply play the role like puppets and help the plot happens ..because that is the most important thing... the plot but finally i changed my mind and more than the plot i wanted to talk about a person ...i wanted to make the character and that was 90 per cent of all the story i want to say... the character... and right at this time i find your video and now i am even motivated more and can see things more clearly... just wanted to say... thank you and love you❤️
This video came at the perfect time! My second mc has this inner conflict and huge misbelief that he holds onto and has been thinking about since age three!!! It has torn him apart!!! He has been told ever since birth that he is different, and his brothers hate him for it, but he doesnt know why he's different. The only thing that distracts him and makes him happy is being around my main main character and helping her out with her struggles and her plot. He doesnt hv much screen time, but I'm trying to make his POV compelling and make the readers love him just as much as my real mc. Thankyou, Abbie you hv reassured me!!
I'm nervous because I haven't figured out my main characters misbelief yet. There is a side character (who more and more is looking like an antagonist) with a more personal misbelief in life and this whole video spoke to him more. I'm hitting the drawing board again to figure out how to make it make sense to my MC but I seriously appreciate your content 100% !
I arrived in your channel through your Pride and Prejudice analysis and am now a permanent resident due to your writing tips. Instant subscribe. Your content is fantastic!
I have 2 main characters Character A’s misbelief: his happiness depends fully on other people’s happiness, he’s okay with not having any goal in life as long as his loved ones are safe and comfortable. Character B: His happiness depends on external validation, specially from his mother and lovers. He’ll never be good enough if people don’t recognize it.
At the end of step 3, I had to pause the video to have a long sigh. I’m a pantser, and at first, I thought my protagonist lacked a misbelief, but in reality, we have the same misbelief, hence me overlooking it. At this point, I know objectively that it’s a misbelief, but it’s hard to reprogram my thinking because this misbelief was ingrained into me from when I was a preschooler whereas I didn’t realize it was a misbelief until the protagonist and I had a shared aha moment a few weeks ago. (I wrote hers first and then realized it applied to myself.)
WOW. You wonderful person, you pointed directly at my MC's misbelief that's been staring me in the face this entire past year. I was looking at a completely different one this whole time. TY!
It took me about an hour, which may not be very long at all, *but*, along with your video on negative character arcs, this was the best method to create a character with a negative arc and a good misbelief... so to speak. Thanks for your insights, they really help flesh out a story and the characters in it! Cheers, Abbie!
This has helped me a lot. I write fanfiction that takes place after the series is over, which means the character development is pretty much done. But this has helped me figure how to go from there.
Yesss, I have been waiting for this video! I recently found your channel and I've fallen in love with it! You're so inspirational and I really look up to you. I dream of becoming a published (and famous :D) author one day, and though I'm just 15, I feel like that can happen now. I've learned so much on your channel and I will continue to binge-watch your videos until I've watched every single one! Also, I'm a fantasy writer, and I've been trying to write a particular fantasy book for years now, in short, it's about a teen girl who finds a magical world that's dying and she has to find out how to save it. I'm unsure of how to use misbeliefs for my character, how can I include one?
Wow really? I guess I can relate to you a lot. I started writing around the summer before 6th grade ish and it’s just went from there. After finding Abbie’s videos I swear I’ve gotten farther with a story than I ever have- and it actually had a plot and real characters that aren’t flat or boring. As for finding a misbelief for your characters in fantasy writing, that can be hard. I write fantasy as well and am having a hard time. For your teen girl I think I would think on her backstory and how it could possibly tie in to the magical world? Or perhaps she has always been a perfectionist/finisher so she is super stressed about the “what if’s” during her journey to help the magical world she found. I hope this helps you somehow, have fun writing!!
@@dancersupreme3023 Omg, that did help, thank you so much! And yeah, I haven't started writing the actual book yet (but this would be my 3rd time starting over with it, even after reaching around 100 pages or so) I plan on getting everything together first, so I'm just gonna keep watching her vids until I'm ready to begin this time. I used to be a pantser and that's why I rewrote 3 times lol. I wish you success with your book as well!
I relate to this so well... I started writing pretty young too (fantasy stories) and I always had a hard time working out the internal conflict. My stories ended up plot-driven and messy. Even after making a lot of progress with them, I just found I couldn't stay into it. I guess because I couldn't connect with the characters Just a random idea that popped into my head reading this, maybe her misbelief could be that saving the dying world is impossible (maybe rooted in past failures?)
I feel like this is a stupid question. But the very last part, The Motive, The Goal and The Plot is the Plot what "they" are going to do? What "They" Think will make their goal a reality or is Plot what "We" as the writer, are going to make them do, that we know will indeed make them happy. Because if their goal is what "They" think will make them happy and right under that is the steps of how they will make their goal a reality then what sort of steps are we writing here? The Actual "right steps" or the ones that are wrong? (what they think are right steps) I'm keeping in mind the Ah-ha moment as well. I know its probably a stupid question and maybe even confusing and I'm sorry about that but I'm just a little lost in all of this stuff and want a tad bit of clarity ^_^; thank you in advance~
So, I've watched a couple of your vids so far, but every single one I find myself going "Yes. Yes. Yes!" to-- you seem to perfectly lay out everything I believe about character and story, something I try to articulate and am frustrated at how rare the understanding of character is in writers. You do such a good job laying it out and guiding it, too, that even though I think I follow most of it already, I want to go back when I start my second draft and really make sure I hit every point. However, the one thing that has popped up that I don't passionately agree with is the idea of starting with theme. I should probably watch your video on theme to see if you view it differently, but so often I was told that you had to start with a life lesson or moral. And that never worked for me, because for me, I need to attach to a character and situation and it's actually exploring their character arc that drives me. The idea of starting with something that is more universal and creating a character around it just feels wrong to me. However. Something you said actually does make me think a bit more. You mention starting with theme and then flipping it, but also that this is the discovery that the protag will make. By thinking about it like that, as not a universal theme but the discovery I want to push them to make, that is something I can solidly work with. What is their discovery. I'm not against theme in general, I'm just against starting with it because it always felt abstract and deteched. I believe that theme arises organically when a person tells a story and puts the work in, that what the character discovers speaks to a greater truth, and that authors should also see what themes have arisen to ensure it's what they want to tell. I just dont agree with starting there. However, starting with what the character would discover is a much better way for me to think about it.
My theme in my story is not to judge a book by its cover, but not in the way of judging people from their beauty or ugliness but by their first impression. That its better to get to know people first before jumping to conclusions. The two main characters in my story are Melody and Oliver. They both are people with powers who end up on earth that go to a high school for people like them to learn how to use magic. Melody knows she has powers but has been home schooled by her mom her whole life (who never told her how to use magic). When she goes to high school Melody quickly makes a fool of herself and is labeled "the flying meme" by her classmates causing her to believe she is an incapable flying disaster. However Melody is really kind, compassionate, forgiving, and bubbly person, but the only person who really sees this is Oliver, who reluctantly agrees to helping Melody learn how to use magic. He at first sees Melody as pretty annoying but over time starts to open up to her and sees her for the friendly, compassionate person she really is. Now about Oliver. Oliver has actually gone to a normal school before, but not one that was magical, so he has had to hide his powers up until now. He was pretty isolated and introverted, so everybody saw him only as a loner with no friends. In 5th grade a new girl named Cleo meets Oliver and pretends to want to be his friend only so he can do things for her. When Oliver finds out he confronts Cleo only for Cleo to tell him that he will never be more than a loner and that he will never have any friends. Oliver is hurt by this and believes Cleo. But in truth Oliver is actually a loyal, caring, reliable person, however nobody sees this because hes so isolated from everyone. However as the story continues and Oliver starts to open up to Melody she starts to see him for how he truly is, just how he did with her.
Hi! Thank you for the printable :D I'm NaNo prepping for the July camp and this helped me a lot to clarify my MC responses and actions. He's an orphan in a fantasy world, and his misbelief is that he needs to find his birth family, despite having an adoptive and loving family.
How are you this amazing? Thanks, just wrote out my theme which I kinda knew but never vocalised, and now I have a theme, a misbelief and a backstory for it. Amazing.
So . . . my character's motive is that she isn't good enough and can't do what matters when it matters. That's it. That's literally it. And her misbelief is that if she can prove herself to be capable, then she'll be happy. Keep in mind that what this character has is sort of a diluted form of self-loathing. Like, she doesn't think she's pretty, can do what needs to be done, etc. The only thing that she appreciates about herself is her sharp tongue. But in her "aha-moment", she realizes that she's needed to accept herself all along. The series's theme is acceptance btw, lol.
One thing that came to my mind when she mentioned side characters is something a ballet dancer once said: Even if your in the corps the ballet (group dances) and you play some sort of being with a character (for example a peasant from "Giselle"), you need to act in your role. EVen though you´re not doing much, it´s good to think of who you as the peasant are, build a personality or maybe just think of what you did before this scene, what you were planning to do later, why whatever happens to the MC matters or doesn´t matter to you, how and why you react. This is never a mnust but it helps the picture of the story and playing more realistically. Now idk yet what Abbie said in the side characters video, but maybe even if you don´t make your side character too deep in the book, maybe still this of more characteristics and background stories that made the character how he or she is now like to also make it realistic. You don´t have to include all this in the book but just for you so you know the character better, maybe know why he or she reacts in a certain way.
Awesome video! I want to add a few things, though. From what I have heard, it seems like most people in this world grew up in disfunctional childhoods. Some were hit by their parents, namecalled, were told that their issues and pain is "trivial", and other similarly unhealthy stuff. This can greatly affect the way these people perceive themselves and others and how they deal with their emotions and how they behave later in life. Basically, your characters' backstories could include multiple, repeated painful events in their childhoods, which lead them to have not just one, but multiple misbeliefs. I have always wanted to write psychologically realistic stories, even if it's fantasy. But the way the three act structure works doesn't seem very realistic to me. It's like 3/4th into the story the protagonist has a realization, a change in belief, and they rapidly solve whatever external conflict they have, and they then live without those misbeliefs for their entire life. It seems like people can't solve their problems in a matter of a few hours just by having a realization, in real life. It's much slower and the "healing process" might take years of practicing to behave in a different way. I know that stories are supposed to be "larger than life", but I'd like to see more realistic kind of stories (maybe in a cartoon series?). Anyway, just wanted to add some things. I hope this was helpful for you!
Hey Abbie, I was hoping you could do video on how to write a story with multiple themes. I'm writing a series and I want the main characters to have a few ah-ha moment's before getting to the core theme. The thing is I'm not sure how to write her multiple misbelieves and how the play off each other. I'm probably making this more complicated than it needs to be. Anyway just thought it would be a cool video to talk about how multiple misbelieves might work to impact the main plot instead of dedicating each of them a sub-plot. Hope you see this and hope it makes sense. And I Love your videos. ❤️
I've been reading writing advice like crazy since I began crafting my story a year ago; no one has made it as clear and understandable like Abbie; thank you, you've officially become my writing sensei 😊!!
Oh my gosh, this video is wonderful! Suddenly I understand my main character like I never have before! He had this misbelief this whole time, and I just never realized it. Now I can weave it in, and strengthen everything around him!
Abbie. You made such good videos to write by that I was forced to answer your call. My main character's misbelief is that success is an individual thing. The character was also subject to purposeful conditioning to serve his master's purpose through his childhood. He resolves this by doing the opposite of what his second master told him his life's mission is.
Liked this video so much! Your videos always make me realize things about storytelling ✨✨ I uncovered the theme of my story the other day very suddenly and then was able to inform my protagonist's misbeliefs. Theme: the bad things that have happened to you are not who they are and do not have to dominate your life, they are just one part of a bigger whole. Misbelief: my protagonist was kidnapped and lost her mother three years ago and has been defining her life by that ever since.
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For anybody who may read my comment: sometimes you have to start writing, even finish a first draft, before you can figure out what you want to say, this truth that is driving the story. Abbie's advice is great and I watch all her videos, but in the end it comes down to who you are and how your brain works. There isn't a method that works exactly the same for every writer. In my case I often write to find out what I think and how I feel.
Thank you for this. I was getting a bit...frazzled? about how I didn't already know all these things.
That is sooooo true!
I started writing a story in 2020 and I remember when this video came out. I was sooo lost lol I honestly didn't knew my character very well. Now, almost 2 years later, i'm watching this video again and IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! I know my character enough to answer this questions. Everyone has it own time and way to figure out your own writing 🥺🥲
Do you have any of your work posted somewhere?
When MY brain doesn't work, I slam my head into the keyboard a dozen or so times. When I wake up a couple of hours later, I feel refreshed and am able to write again! 😜
🙏🙏👍🏻 and
You know, I watched Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" today, and when you started talking about dissatisfaction because what they believed they wanted isn't actually what will make them happy. Tiana believed that working super hard to get her restaurant was what she wanted, but she realized that it was the people she loved that made her truly happy. After all, what are dreams if we don't have people to share them with? And Naveen, he thought being rich and partying all the time would bring him happiness, but he discovered that being with Tiana and seeing her happy is truly what he wanted, so much so that he was willing to be a frog forever just to spend that forever with her.
Also a thing that she thinks will make her happy is her want of becoming a human again since the start.
Love that movie 😭
Omg thank you so much for this super great example!
Holy crap!
Great analysis!!
My character's disbelief: you need excitement and adventure to live a happy and fulfilling life.
The story is set in a fantasy world were the MC wants to become an Adventurer/Traveler. However, as many warn about the many dangers and hardships he begins to learn that his choices and actions have consequences. He will need to grow up and leave the life of thrills behind to settle and focus on himself and what truly makes him happy.
I want to read this now
Ooh, sounds interesting! Where are you gonna publish it?
No, that's my misbelief about the world 😅 help lol
i want to read it already!!!
Hope you are doing amazing, keep writing!
This seems similar to my misbelief lol
Who needs therapy when we have Abbie?? Writing advise AND answers to why I struggle with anxiety issues - yes, please!
This video is mega helpful, but I'm wondering what you think about characters that don't have much personal growth like James Bond? Characters who already have their shit together and are looking to help other people more than finding personal happiness cuz they kinda already have it. These characters usually don't have a misbelief from what I can deduce. What do you think allows these exceptions to be successful and/or do you think flat character arcs like these are of real value?
@@kathanfors6416 Everyone has a weakness. I think if you can pin down your character’s weakness that can be a point of internal conflict and growth. Your MC could have something in their past they haven’t resolved - a past mistake they can never fix. The misbelief in that scenario would be that they are not a worthy individual until they are able to atone for their past when the truth is that they are worthy and their past does not define who they are. Or you could just go the way of external misbelief - Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible (1996). Ethan believes his boss and mentor is a good guy but then turns out to be the villain. I know that goes against Abbie’s rule, but in the the case of a James Bond like character, maybe you can get away with a less than three dimensional MC and still grab the reader based simply on the good guy vs. bad guy/vindication angle. However, I will say if you can find a way to give your MC depth your story will be 1,000 times better.
@@kathanfors6416: Yes, as Amy said, everyone has a weakness. For Bond, it's women and ego. He scoffs at Q's inventions, but ends up needing every one of them. The women get his guard down, though he regains it later, often when his superpower of charm wins them over to the "right" side.
Much as I enjoy a few of the Bond books and movies, they're not life-changing - for me, anyway.
There's a place for a simple thriller, but compare that with one that imparts an important theme, such as, say, one of Kubrik's thrillers. Or a fine thriller about a down-and-out detective who believes a lie about a past love: "The Yakuza" starring Robert Mitchum and directed by Sidney Pollack. Or "The Maltese Falcon" in which Sam Spade's misbelief gets his partner killed.
@@Amy_Mi6 TBH, I'm not writing an MC like described, personally I'm all about that character growth. I'm just binging wisdom before embarking on writing my baby which I'll inevitably screw up and rewrite since she's my first lol
Mhmm. You get it. 😌
Step 1: Find your story's (truth) theme (1:36).
Step 2: Flip this true upside down and make it a lie (2:59).
Step 3: What could've happened in my character's past to make them believe such a thing (3:29).
Step 4: Write that backstory scene for your character (4:19).
Step 5: Describe (or write) other scenes in the character's past that cemented this misbelief as truth to them (5:04).
Step 6: Ask yourself how is my character dissatisfied with their life today because they believe this lie so firmly? (6:07).
Step 7: Ask yourself: What my character thinks will make them happy, based on their misbelief? (6:54).
Step 8: Ask yourself: what steps could my character take now to actively pursue this goal (7:47).
Step 9: Clarify the motive, the goal, and the plot (8:47).
Step 10: Let this drive the story forward (9:15).
We need you in all her videos
My character’s misbelief is that showing signs of emotion is weakness and that letting people in will only slow her down. So she learns throughout that it’s okay to have emotions and it doesn’t make you any weaker for crying about nothing, or falling in love or for laughing at something stupid. And I guess my story isn’t about a character discovering themselves but about *exploring* the deepest parts of yourself that are even hidden from you
Love this
My character is somewhat similar, only the reason she doesn't want to get attached to people is fear of loss. So she is very guarded, and there are only a few select people who are in her 'vulnerable' zone, and one of them is someone who was in her life before the trauma that triggered these behaviors.
My character is similar, but it isn't that emotions are weakness, but that emotions are a joke and shouldn't be treated as serious (I will point out that he only applies this to himself, he has depression) throughout the story (especially at the end) he learns that this is wrong and that his emotions and depression should be taken more seriously.
This is actually because the villain of the book has a similar fatal flaw, and he sees just how much damage it can do to someone
Mine is trauma. My character believes that if someone hurts you, you hurt them back. In the worst way possible. There's no need to care how unhinged you have to become to take your "revenge". Though she doesn't exactly change her thoughts (maybe she does, I'm on the first draft and starting from scratch because I feel like the story is flat), there are points when this affect others and how she takes her "revenge"
@@minutemansam1214omg this story is about me 😭
My characters misbelief is, if he tries something once and fails it means it will never work. Which of course is not true, especially for me who never gives up on anything xx
Sounds like my daughter. 😕
Lol and my mum is called Katherine xx
Huh that character sounds awfully a lot like me(i mean can you blame me? Everything i wanna do fails while i see people succeed in just one try, i wanna be like them but my luck is just nonexistent so yeah...)
My Characters misbelief is that you have to be special to matter. My main issue is that im unexperience in how to explore that topic.
I want to explore how you dont have to be talented or gifted to be a valuable person, to have a value in the world. Its enough if you are kind and caring towards others and you can make much bigger changes in the world just by beeing a kind person, than beeing a genius.
UI: The funniest part that as im writing this down, my goal is becoming much clearer to me. I value your videos Abbie and thank you for your many helpful videos
My overarching theme is that true freedom is an illusion. It can be found in any circumstance/situation. It all depends on your point of view and what makes you truly happy. The two main characters are from different backgrounds and have found themselves in a similar situation.
Shawn is from a higher status family and is set to be a member of council for the up and coming heiress. His false truth is that finding the humor in everything will make him happy. He takes pride in doing what is expected of him, but his freedom is doing it in his own way.
Agatha is from a lower status family and at a young age, shows that she posses powers. As customary with the few individuals each generation who possess power, they are set to be a member of council. Her parents and herself are now set for life and she has a coveted position of power, but the tasks and expectations make her feel trapped. Her false truth is that she will never be free until she can get away from all of it.
Together they explore different views on what freedom means. In the end, they teach other that sometimes you need to fight for the freedom that you want and other times you have to enjoy the freedom that you already have
That sounds so captivating! Have you finished it by now? And if so, what it's title?
Why does it sound so much like my story lol????
It's amazing
unbelievable ! After I answered all the questions and then added the motive, the goal and the plot , my mind was blown away. It makes it way more easier to understand ! And my main character's misbelief is "You need certainty to be happy/ You can't be happy and live with uncertainty" . Great video as always !!!
Hey! Your character actually helped me clarify mine!! I've struggled so much in sorting out his misbelief (he's basically the exact opposite of me so that doesn't help...), but your comment about uncertainty really sparked some clarity😂
@@alainad6364 glad to hear! :)
That's kinda what my character's misbelief is, but I'm struggling to decide what's his desire to clash with the missbelief.
The character I'm currently working on (I'm writing a series and juggling four protagonists...so erm, *currently* is the key word there) believes that if he ever chooses himself over his family (particularly his brother...who's sort of a villain?) then he has failed them. The next layer to that misbelief is that he is able to constantly give and give and give without hurting himself; he basically is unaware of the fact that he sees himself as sub-human. Anyways, your video helped me so much in clarifying, not only this particular character, but all of them!
So he's kind of a people pleaser. Fascinating.
ooo i love that
That sounds like Elijah Mikaelson
Abbie you’re a GENIUS I’ve been brainstorming stories my whole life and I’m finally trying to write a book and you’ve helped me so much you deserve so much recognition thank you!
Wow, thank you so much!! I'm so glad this helped you out! :D
But abbie I need your help or can anyone tell me what if my character's desire: is to get a specific person and his
fears: are being deprived. Misbelief: that he can't get her because he will broke her heart and also his self. Because they belongs to different family were they aren't welcome (forbidden love trope)
also staying away from her will not cause more troubles
So what would be his goal for rest of the story based on his misbelief maybe "stay away from her" but then how could my story will go ahead if he only wants to shun her. If I make sense abbie pls tell me or maybe I should change this
@@esi1765 Your story makes perfect sense.
The guy wants the girl, but he is afraid that if he is with her or if he pursues her she will be hurt by his presence, maybe by him. But he can't stayaway from her because he is deeply in love with her. [Additionally & optionally, perhaps he sees her with another man (maybe more men) and that makes him jealous. But also, this other man (or men) are not very nice to her; they're rude/disrespectful and don't treat her how she should be treated and that makes him angry.]
Basically, the important thing is that he has to overcome that fear of losing her or hurting her so that he can be with her and love her properly.
@@greyhood2564 Wow, I saw this reply super late. But I'm glad you helped me 🙏🏻 you are a genius thank you. I almost stopped and had given up on that tale but now I'll begin again. And mainly thank you first to give a sense of plot to what to add to the story.
@@greyhood2564 Wow, I saw this reply super late. But I'm glad you helped me 🙏🏻 you are a genius thank you. I almost stopped and had given up on that tale but now I'll begin again. And mainly thank you first to give a sense of plot to what to add to the story.
Thank you so much, Abbie, your guidances crosses languages barriers (I write in Portuguese).
First I was stuck with a character that didn't had any misbelief, she didn't passed through any changes in my first draft, her mother died when she was born, her desire was to collect memories and stories about her mother and get to know the one she could never meet, but she didn't passed for any transformation.
It was hard finding a misbelief for her, since her desire seemed so pure, but one thing about this character backstory is that she never had a home. After her mother died, her father decided to wander with her (because of his own internal conflict), then I came to realize that her misbelief is that she can "build a home out of memories and stories", she believes she'll be happy when she discovers everything about her mother, but the truth is, "you can't build a home out of what is past", so she learns to use the memories from her mother to create meaning in her life, but also learns to make her own memories and build her own home out of the decisions she makes when she's older.
Oh gosh, my character has multiple misbeliefs. Layers of lies. 😂
Thank you for your amazing and insightful content!
My character does, too. Thankfully I’m working on a trilogy so I’m going to try to conquer one per book.
Lie lasagna
This is what I'm struggling with. I'm just starting, but it feels like the protagonists (one in particular) have so many misbeliefs that I'm finding it hard to solidify a single goal or truth. I hadn't planned on writing more than one story... I'm worried that if I have too many it will become mushy lie lasagna @seldom whispering That was the best lol
@jennylivingston2131 Well, realistically, we don't conquer all our flaws at once. If your character still has misbeliefs by the end, that's okay. Just focus on one misbelief for now. If you end up finding a way for them to conquer more than one, that's great! But it's okay if your character hasn't conquered all the flaws you wanted by the end. It just makes them feel more relatable.
Also, different misbelief are held with different levels of tightness. A character who vowed 6 months ago that they were never going to waste time with a romance again after their most recent breakup will hold that "looser" and change that belief quicker than a misbelief planted in early childhood and encouraged their entire life.
My charakters missbelieve is that he can't ever be or show his true self because no one will ever accept or love him this way!
LOVE!! So glad to have it clarified that the reason the character is dissatisfied with their life AND has a goal that drives the plot is BECAUSE of the lie they've believed. So good. And so true! Now I'm looking at myself and my own dissatisfaction and I'm like... dang. Abbie called me out.
The whole "big truth" and then "flip it upside down" was revelatory for me. Thanks! Going from "Chasing your dream is better if you have someone by your side" to "Chasing your dream only works if you do it alone" creates a great starting point for a story. Similarly, "Sometimes, you have to to be willing to give up your dreams for the one you love" turning into "Sometimes, you have to chase your dreams, even if you lose the ones you love" is really neat. These videos are very helpful!
I'd love a case study video to go along with this one!
I'd say two of my MC's false beliefs are "I can’t depend on others and have to fend for myself" and "I can’t protect the people I care about."
My character’s misbelief (and truth) that he’s believed for a very long time is the idea that he needs to help everyone, and if he doesn’t/can’t, he is a bad person. His parents and religion focused a lot on serving others, and he believed that if he couldn’t do every benign action, he was a failure
Your main character sounds like a people pleaser. I recommend you watch infinity train season 2 the the main character has a similar misbelief.
I think of Prince Zuko throughout this video 🤔
Aang is a good one too
My characters misbelief is "if you need help from other people than you're weak / if you're not strong enough to do it on your own then your weak."
Or something like that...
I'm still working it out a little bit, but this is what I got so far.
I'm gonna go put these tips/steps into practice right now!
Anytime I watch one of Abbie's vids I get so motivated to write! Like, Right. Now!
When I'm looking for certain tips on certain things usually it's just like "Okay, cool. I'll try that next time I sit down to write."
But after finding Abbie's channel it's like, "OHMYGOSH! YES! I need to do this RIGHT NOW! WOOHOO! TIME TO WRITE!"
😁
😊
🙂
😯
😯
😅 hehe thanks for being great Abbie! Please don't think I'm weird! Lolololol
That similar to mine !!
Same it’s also similar but instead his misbelief is “I have to do thing alone to protect people” and whenever they will get a partner they just leave them behind
I'm a bit late for a comment, but better late than never, right?
Abbie, thank you so, so much. I'm writing a pretty big fantasy story atm and one of my beta-readers for the 2nd draft said that my character is the most boring and annoying one she ever read. That hurt me in so many ways because I thought I wrote him very badly. But I've come to realise that it wasn't my writing that was bad, but the fact that I had no real misbelief for him. He just stumbled through the story and I realised that the plot drove him, not his misbelief and his goals. Thank you so, so much for this video, it helped me a lot on finding the real reasons for my character to act. You're a true queen! 😇
I created the misbelief that my protagonist needs to protect everyone he cares about at all costs including his life. This would mean that he will try and save the day even without any training or preparation which led him to getting seriously hurt as a result
So I've recently been watching Vinland, which is still ongoing at the moment. I was more than a little mind-blown as you kept breaking this video down. I'm like, honestly awed at how clearly these ideas translate into the protagonist's misbelief and overarching theme of the current story I've been eating up like a hungry animal. You've opened my eyes Abbie
Sometimes videos like this makes my brain hurt. There is so much information that it's hard to follow sometimes. I mean I know what you're saying but it's like my brain is refusing to connect the dots. Like a computer that freezes when a advanced program is working in the background. My knowledge of the three act structure was simple before and finding out about these extra steps now is confusing. Like the theme part. I don't know if my story is the kind that has a theme. Stories with themes makes me think of old literature which I don't read or watch the adaptions of. This isn't a rant or me complaining about your videos. Your videos are amazing and very informative. I just feel like whenever I try to for a solution for something (whether on stories or videos), everything I find isn't really for the stuff I'm working on. It can get really discouraging and it sometimes makes me question if I should continue doing what I enjoy or curl up in my bed and stay there. Sorry if this sounds like I'm complaining. I don't mean too.
You're overthinking it. You just need to find an explanation that fits your understanding. I kind of had the same problem until I found this channel.. and remember baby steps.
Buddy I’m in your shoes, so I understand. It’s just overthinking. Writers and artists especially ameturs tend to overthink things a lot.
I feel the same way. Before finding her videos, I thought I had a KILLER idea for a murder mystery series. But after watching her videos now idk....I can explain my characters perfectly, but not in the ways that answer her questions. Maybe her advice is genre specific? Idk I'm kinda down in the dumps now. Like if I cant do what she's talking about, does that make me a bad writer? 🤷🏽♀️
@@paigenalex4eva no, it doesn't make you a bad writer. You might be a pantser (write by the seat of your pants) or a plantser (Makes a few simple plot points, but mostly write by the seat of your pants). All writing styles are valid, you just have to figure out what's best for you. I definitely jump between pantser and plantser. Full on plotting kills my creativity. I might use some of this, but I know I won't use all of it. However, I can craft my story as I write and discover my characters' depths with these steps in mind.
My MC's motivation in the sci-fi/fantasy story I'm working on is to find someone to heal his dad. I don't understand how he could need a misbelief in this particular story. I don't personally see how this advice works for every story. There are misbeliefs in the background that kinda go with subplots, or at least one, but you don't need a misbelief to find someone to heal your father do you? I don't entirely get her line of thinking in this particular video. I don't think it makes us bad writers. 🤷♀️
Female lead's misbelief: my bluntness and steadfast righteousness only hurt/offend my classmates and make them angry at me. Nobody will accept me the way I am. In order to get along with everyone, I need to tell white lies and play a role for them.
Vs always speak the truth, stand up for what you think is right.
Male lead: I am unworthy of love, inferior to humans. (He's a creature). I don't believe in myself- what's there to believe in? In order to be worthy, I need to become a human.
Vs it's okay if you feel like you can't blindly "believe" in yourself. Work on creating value in your life, becoming the kind of person you admire, just push through your comfort zone and do the things you felt too powerless to achieve. Once you do that, you will no longer need to baselessly "believe", you will have "proven" your worth to yourself.
Or something like that? But would these two even have chemistry? Does the idea make sense?
It's good in my opinion both relatable struggles for readers to relate to as well
I've been learning that keeping things brief and simple can actually be easier to work with than adding details at the very beginning of the process. Your male character's belief/misbelief are a bit long. If you're having trouble, perhaps try making each one a short sentence long, and no more!
Loved this video! My character’s misbelief is that there is one person in the world she is meant to be with and if she doesn’t make it work with him, no one will ever truly love her.
Character's misbelief: "Drugs are vital for me, as they are helping me cope with my emotional pain and loss of self-esteem (expressed by mental illness/depression) caused by my parents divorce and my father's abandonment (due to his own drug use at the time) when I was eight years old"
Main theme of the story: battle of my main character against his inner demons, aka drug addiction, which is resulting from depression and fear of abandonment, which is resulting from the adverse childhood events mentioned above. One might figure out in which direction the story goes...
I've also wondered what addicts would want in a story to drive it forward from their misbeliefs!
I have been struggling with my character's internal conflict for YEARS- all of my character's lack direction and agency- but suddenly this video has helped me organize what I already had into usable internal conflict and has boosted the meaningfulness of this story. THANKYOU! Diving into the backstory for solidifying that misbelief was so much more important than I realized.
AAAAAAAH ABBIE THANK YOU for bringing structure and clarity in this crazy mind of mine. I was struggling to find a deeply rooted misbelief for my antagonist and here we go:
MISBELIEF: In my community, I am insignificant, invisible and unworthy of love (Hi there painful backstory).
TURNS INTO: My community is harmful to me and the world but I am different.
TURNS INTO: I can save the world, let's find them all.
Mwahaha.
Ugh. This is why I can't write when I'd depressed, even though writing is the thing that lifts me out of depression. There's not a truth I want to shout from the rooftops, only things I wish were true and used to shout when I thought they were true. Maybe my feeling of resignation is a symptom of a lie I believed, but that lie is far more convincing than any hope that's been dangled tauntingly in front of me lately.
I think you should write a story around that theme.
Ikr that's why I'm still stuck
I'm writing a story about depression, so..
Maybe write something like a fairy tale - no it does not need fairies. Or make a character strive for a world that you want or something^^
Also, I feel like not all books need to have a plot line like this. For example I loved the book Kim Jiyoung; it just tells about her life, all these situations she was in, all those real hardships women like her had to go through. I don´t exactly remember the story and it´s end, but it wasn´t so... idk... big thing like? It was more a character written to tell how sh*t the world is to many of us, what it does to us. Maybe you can write about how it could be. Idk I feel like if it´s your book, it´s your rules, especially if you´re not publishing it. maybe even make your character believe the world is like ours but it turns out to be rather like the one you have in mind.
@@EE-iw3fy Well, you're basically recommending I write a story without conflict or obstacles, just a spectacular display of teamwork.
My character's misbelief is "I’m a failure if I mess up in front of people." It's rooted from her parents who always succeed and never thought about sharing their mistakes, so they never really mess up in front of her. This lead her to believe that she had to be perfect and please everyone from a young age. Her goal is to always keep everything perfect and impress her parents that she can handle everything. She's a huge planner, so if something goes even slightly off, it throws her off too.
My other main character's misbelief is "If I focus on work, I'll become a workaholic. I’m never going to be loved if I work" (work meaning job/career) This is rooted by her parents who are workaholics and never show any love or affection to her. Her goal is to be loved/cared abt in friendships and make her parents happy. (In my story this character is also in a curse, so that's another goal.)
My characters are teens btw.
I hope this makes sense and is good for my story. I gave my characters character voice, internal conflict, misbeliefs, goals, fears, personality, everything and did some serious plot working. I'm writing a fantasy adventure trilogy, planning to publish it summer (July) 2024! Thank you so much Abbie and I'm excited to read your book too! (The Otherworld
This video came at a great time for me in my writing process!
I'm writing a fantasy novel where the MC has magic but doesn't know it, she just knows that something is off about her.
The MC believes that she is different and doesn't deserve to belong in her society. It stems from her mother faces prejudice as a mage and then her mom left when she was just 10. Now she wants to belong but is incredibly mistrusting of others and struggles to make relationships. It's worsened by the fact that some people actually do disregard her as different or other.
My issue is that she doesn't really have a goal before her magic appears and the plot starts because she doesn't genuinely believe her life can really get better. She is too scared to explore who she is really is and would rather hide and stay under the radar, continuing to live as she is but not sticking out at the risk of attracting unwanted attention.
I've gone a bit more in-depth in my podcast comment so I look forward to your thoughts on it. Thanks Abbie!
maybe someone else should take notice of her at the beginning and give her a helping hand. But she must first bring herself to trust him. So she could be pushed out of her comfort zone and she can pursue her main goal. Hope i could help you
maybe some bad entities or individuals can push her out of her comfort zone by inflicting or trying to inflict physical damage. And then that can kickstart her escape/ adventure to find out why they are attacking her and who she is? just throwing ideas out her ahha
Lol mine is the opposite, she does not have power so her family sees her as weak and abandons her so she believes that if people see your weakness they use it against you or don’t want to talk to you, her goal is to get stronger to impress her family and be let back in
Don’t copy 😏
Every time watching your videos just pushes me to grab the notebook, uncap the pen and just Write!!
Well, I have written my first short story of 20+ pages.
Thank you so much.
Loads of love from India🥰
I love how simple and clear your steps are. As a writer, I usually do this but never as organized as this. While Misbelief> Motive> Goal> Plot works, I also like to work out the Obstacles after the Goal because this will also inform the plot.
I'd like to point out to anyone feeling overwhelmed while watching this video that it's okay to not have all this information at first. For some, they may have to first chug out the discovery draft before they know their character well enough to do this. With my current work in progress, I coincidentally stumbled on a discovery process that worked for me. Because I was too busy to dive straight into writing or even outlining, I gave myself permission to do nothing but let the idea percolate in my brain. As I lived my busy life and consumed media in all forms, my story and my characters were not far from my mind. I found myself having several aha moments at random times. Like ''Yes, my hero would definitely do this" "This would make sense with my heroine" or "This could be interesting". I did nothing with these little sparks of ideas except typing them in my notes app in barely understandable shorthand but before long, ideas started building on themselves as I continued to live my life and consume media. Several weeks- maybe a few months- down the line, I had all sorts of thoughts about my story and my characters. Going through this video helped me distill my thoughts clearly as I move to a more concrete story-mapping phase.
My suggestion is to give yourself time to know your characters and your story. Then come back to this. It would be way more helpful than overwhelming at that point.
Hope this helps someone.
My main protagonist has magic-induced amnesia (unbeknownst to her) due to a childhood incident, and it caused a rift between her & her parents for several years. When she loses them in an accident (NOT a car accident) that she believes to be her fault and is forced to move back to her hometown where the incident happened, she immediately throws herself into finding out what happened to her back then. She believes that regaining her memory is the only thing that’ll make her happy by giving her a sense of closure (without having to talk about the accident).
My character believes that she needs to earn love in order to feel it. So, she ultimately markets herself as wife material and invests her efforts in men that just take everything and anything until she breaks. I have to say that I have researched, studied, and participated in workshops and none of them satiated the structure that I needed to shape my story as this video. Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites!
Sounds like a great book!
Oh I love that!
Please write that whole novel and hand it to all the "pick me" girls on TikTok. Sure they annoy me but I don´t think they are completely bad people, actually I feel like at least some of them are extremely unhappy with themselves and think they need male validation, attention and love in order to have a happy future. But oh s any women are so unhappy with the lives they are reaching for because daily life isn´t some aesthetic housewife video and some some old fashioned romantic little *whatever kind of media you wish for*.
Btw no I do not want to say with this that your character is a pick me, but I think it would be a huge eye-opener to "pick me" girls.
The project I’m working on has 3-4 characters
Character 1 values their family over everything else and wants to reshape the world to make them happy, because they need to be and stay in control of everything, without realizing that their family is happy just being with them
Character 2 believes that the only way to live and be successful is to make your own way in the world alone and they don’t believe that anyone else should or can help them, even though they have people who would gladly help.
Character 3 thinks that power/success is the only way to matter in the world and believes that everyone is trying to take their success from them after they were given a position of influence, even though their paranoia is causing their fear to become reality
Wavering Eyes Sounds somewhat similar to a fan story I’m working on. 😄 Well, just the characters’ beliefs, of course. My story has two main characters (a couple). One character cares a lot about community, and the other is independent to a fault. I haven’t decided my villain’s misbelief yet.
@@youseineko may I ask how did you make them work ? I mean I know my character's individuals beliefs but I don't know how to write a love story and at the same time work on their own individual development 😁
Plot twist: character 3 is actually Klaus Mikaelson
My chararcter misbelief is that you can't trust anybody in order to achieve your goals. When he was little he needed help from people when his father was beating his mother but no one cared about him. He aslo watched his friend getting kidnapped but couldn't find help. Thanks to you Abbie I can understand the need of backstorys to corroborate the character way of seing the world
Yessss thank you so much for this !!! I've finished doing an outline but my protags misbelief is a little shaky
I have three characters- A dryad, a tree, and a little human girl
Dryad's misbelief- She is too dangerous to be loved, and that is her identity. She must remember that otherwise, she will hurt the "people" she loves.
Tree's misbelief- The world is broken and cannot be saved, the only way they can be happy is to stay hidden and stay away from the rest of the world.
Girl's misbelief- She is not a good person unless she can protect her family.
Good luck with your writing 😁, it looks very interesting 🤘
Love 2 Learn- Its a story not a subject that sounds like such a cute story 😭
Wow I want to read this.
Love the idea of a tree character! Can't wait to read it someday 📖
You literally helped me figure out the plot of a story I've been thinking about for over 1 year. I followed what you said step by step and now i have the complete plot of my story
This was amazing, thank you so much
This video helped me find my protagonist's misbelief - Control is an illusion. Any semblance of control you have over your life can and will be taken away at a moment's notice, and there's nothing you can do.
I love your videos thank you for posting! My character (mis)believes that her purpose in life is to help others, and that she will never be fulfilled until everyone else is completely secure.
I have been writing the same story for a DECADE. I just started going down the rabbit hole of Writerslife Wednesdays, and while all of them are valuable, THIS VIDEO IS EVERYTHING.
Thank you so, SO much for this video.
I was struggling with a rather complex idea - to take a character that seems to "have passed her character arcs", so to speak. And I had lots of problems with the thought "does she change through the story at all?"
And as I watched your video, I finally got it. I found her misbelief - that all that happened to her, her whole past was for naught, because she isn't perfect and can't hold up to the ideal of her former mother figure. And maaaaaan was that a revelation for me. It also was a little bit fun to see that the character that is actually considered by others to be a guru of sorts still has to learn a lot about the world and herself.
Thank you very, very much.
Sounds like a good advice. Though the pantster that I am, I get a feeling I will ruin everything. Though even thinking of my characters, I'm not sure they always have one. For two I can tell: 1) Putting people away will benefit you in the long run 2) The character shall be good forever.
But my other main 2... I can't think of any. One has a technnical misbelief rather than internal one (believing a legendary place exists). I can't think of anything speical other than that... and the other one... I guess his misbelief is "everyone is against me", though unfortunately, because of his cristumstances, it's quite hard to change that... I guess?
(Yeah, thinking out loud... but in writing...)
Theme: Other people's way of life is valid and there's no right or wrong way to believe or live; there are only different ways.
Misbelief: Racism/religious stigma taught to her as a child.
Suddenly she's spending every single day of her life on the road with these people she was taught to hate, and she slowly learns that they aren't as bad as people thought. She learns to love them.
This sounds good! More info! Is it first draft stage/halfway through/finished/published??
Wow. I've found it so difficult to figure out my MC misbelief, but this made it appear out of thin air so effortlessly. I came to realize her misbelief was different from what i had thought it was. 😮
Abbie, so many thanks! That was on spot! I am fighting with the first completed draft, not a first raw draft, and it seems I have just found how to make it way sharper and focused. The protagonist has to fight his shadow, a sort of inner cave man that often chases him in a form of an old man, an inner Mummy returning, so to say, and the conflict is about the hero believing the lie of exploring and living out so-called spiritual dimension only, which splits his life and vision etc. That lie will have to be destroyed by his Alter Ego, a Future that will have a stronger pull than the cave of his past!
Thank you Abbie, I dare say my action thriller novel has gone from mildly entertaining to face-punch awesome (if I can ever finish it!) thanks to your curriculum!
Way to go!! That's awesome, I'm so glad this video helped! :D
"Our mindset is the only thing standing between us and happiness." Not only does this help me understand my main character better, it helps me understand myself better. Thank you Abbie.
Hey, Abbie! Wednesday already?! I'm writing a flat arc character, but I now understand why people ask me what MY "why" is. Great content, d always. Thanks.
Kathy L u could make it flat as long as your character affects characters around them. Kinda like dragon ball.
Flat arcs highlight how the MC has to hold onto their truths throughout the story, and yeah they feature how their truths change others around them
I just want to say thank you for all of the videos you've put out. I have been sitting on a story idea for about 7 or 8 years and have felt so lost in where to start. Writing a book without any training is no joke! All of your videos have been so helpful, and I finally feel like I have the tools to craft my story in a way that does it justice. Thanks a million!
Thanks Abbie! I really needed this. I’m stuck in the ‘theme’ part of my work in progress, and I’ve been procrastinating for weeks! This got me back on track🥰
bruh i kid you not, the first 3 minutes and 30 seconds of this video made my whole story fall into place and ive been working on why something isnt clicking for so longggg. thank you sm girl
Truth: losing is okay since it helps you learn and achieve a bigger win
Misbelief: in order to become successful, you must never lose
WARNING!! VIOLENCE
Backstory: My character, Andrea, was ignored as a child, and was hated by everyone in her country. Before Andrea and her parents became rebels, they were a part of the royal family, Andrea only having a single maid to look after her. Andrea begged for love from her parents, which her parents never gave. The only two people to “appreciate” her were Elizabeth, the main antagonist, and the maid, who later turned on her due to a lie Elizabeth told. Elizabeth was the most loved child in the nation, being perfect and strikingly beautiful. Elizabeth was very strong and “kind”, and was also extremely smart. Andrea noticed Elizabeth getting love and praise every time she accomplished something, which lead to Andrea’s promise to herself that she would become the strongest knight and become successful and win everyone’s respect and approval when realizing that no one but herself could save her. Andrea’s guts told her not to fall for Elizabeth’s lies, and Andrea didn’t want to believe that Elizabeth was a bad person. Andrea noticed that knights who lost got treated with disrespect, but she didn’t form her misbelief until Elizabeth asked a very weak Andrea to spar with her for “training” and Andrea agreed. To Andrea’s surprise, Elizabeth not only won, but also beat Andrea up brutally. Andrea asked Elizabeth to stop, and admitted defeat, but Elizabeth kept torturing 4 year old Andrea, revealing her true self, telling her how she truly viewed humanity (as stepping stones) and how they are lucky that she’s using those “unimportant creatures”. Andrea threw up blood multiple times, almost passing out, on the verge of death. Elizabeth then beat herself up and cleaned Andrea’s wounds, screaming and framing Andrea for beating her up. The first person to come into the room was the maid, who later tells Elizabeth’s father and stops caring for Andrea. Andrea was locked in prison and was tortured by Elizabeth for about a year before Andrea’s parents decide to finally become rebels after finding out that Elizabeth’s mother was announced as the queen.
Truth discovery: Andrea loses to Elizabeth a second time, her trauma of seeing Elizabeth also holding her back during the fight. Elizabeth doesn’t make it obvious that she’s beating Andrea up badly. During the fight, Elizabeth uses an illusion to trick everyone into thinking that Elizabeth is going a little easy on Andrea while winning while Elizabeth casts her strongest magic on Andrea, reminding her of the day she lost to Elizabeth. Knowing that all healing magic injures Andrea, Elizabeth casts her strongest healing spell on Andrea after the fight, making the crowd admire Elizabeth’s “kindness” as Andrea suffers. Alessandro, Andrea’s lover, get’s mad and almost fights Elizabeth but Ellis, Andrea’s friend, stops Alessandro from fighting Elizabeth and stops Elizabeth from healing Andrea, telling her that healing magic injures Andrea. Elizabeth (fake) apologizes to make it seem as though Elizabeth didn’t know that fact. Andrea is weak to her knees after the fight, traumatized about what has just happened. Ellis, comforts Andrea while helping her realize that losing can actually help her win by learning from the mistakes she made during the fight. Alessandro showers her with hugs and kisses and invites her to a restaurant to eat together, which makes Andrea happier. Ellis and Alessandro don’t know what truly happened during the fight, but they know that healing abilities tend to injure Andrea.
I've been writing most of my life, and always struggled greatly with developing internal conflict and character motivations. I've tried a hundred different approaches and styles from any number of books, trying the advice of authors of every possible genre, style, and success level. None of them worked. Then last week I watched "How to Find Your Character's Misbelief", and... Everything just immediately clicked. In five minutes I had plotted out the internal conflicts (and from there the plot arcs) of pretty much every named character in my WIP. So I just wanted to say thank you to Abbie for this, and for giving me the key to finally properly get my novel-writing motor running.
Only half way through this and I must say this is *`~EXCEPTIONAL~`*
I love these guides! I keep comparing what you're teaching to what I know of the writing process of my favorite authors, and--wow! You make it so understandable. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
This helped me clarify what my character’s psychology is and how it will tie to the themes and plots of the story, thank you so much! On a side note, a lot of this is legit psychology that we see in everyday life.
I'm so glad this video helped you! The psychology aspect of writing is SO crucial to understand and write good characters.
What if you are at the beginning and have a vague idea for an interesting situation/plot?
How do you find a suitable “misbelief” for your character? I personally don’t think about any “truth” l want to share, I think about stories that I would like to read.
I've watched a dozen videos on character arc and "the lie" and this is by far the most practical at actually helping nail it down in the writing process
This video is great! After following along with it my protagonist is so much better. Her misbelief is that “No one will ever love me”
Wow! This made my character so much more interesting, and it also made the general plot clearer. Thank you!
I love your channel!!! I’m writing a short story for writing camp right now and I’ve been binge watching your videos. The misbelief of my main character is that she thinks that everything needs to be certain and in control/ already planned out. Thanks!!
Hi Abbie,
I came back to this video, once the series ended just the other day - been keeping up and jotting notes and plotting and such, and I've come to this video as I really needed to sit down and get honest with my ideas.
PROBLEM: My side characters have a better misbelief than my MC does. Well, perhaps I should say I have a clearer, more identifiable understanding of their misbeliefs, at this stage (which blew me away as I went through this process, because I expected my truth, to be more evident in the MC and therefore easier to find their 'lie", but now I feel more connected or at least understand the elements going into the side-characters.
I think I'll get there, I have some idea's perculating as we speak (even just writing to you, is giving me something to work with...
{coming back to the step 7: Ask yourself WHAT DOES MY CHARACTER THINK WILL MAKE THEM HAPPY...}
...as this video really propelled the bigger issue of theme to the surface, but I just wanted to let you know that if nothing else: Your videos raise issues and concerns I hadn't even understood.
And of course, knowledge is power.
So, thank you!
Dacre
ps. I look forward to thanking you in the acknowledgements section of my first published novel, one day.
When I write mine, I'm thinking of making my character's fatal flaw very similar to mine. Acting perfect and not reacting well to criticism. I know the experience, and I've had this delusion of being perfect for years, so if I write that, I can understand myself better. I don't know when I'll start, but I'm hoping that I can try to start my first draft as early as possible. I've been busy for a while, but I'll try. Even if it isn't perfect.
This is the most useful channel for writers. Thank you for the quality content without the unnecessary fluff.
My character's misbelief is that everyone is perfect, and that if something bad happens, it's his fault and his alone. He can't even conceive that other people have problems and conflict of their own
As a huge fan of Lisa Cron's books, Story Genius and Wired for Story, I was so happy to find this video. It distills down everything into a few actionable steps. Thank you.
My character's misbelief is that he is not a monster, he is a not a bad person, all his decisions are for the common good. His AHA moment is when he realizes he is, in fact, a monster and has done horrible things for the sake of "the future".
need to read this book asap
My scene for the misbelief was literally some weird royalty discussion over dinner haha
Two questions:
(1) What about books like Harry Potter? I find this video very helpful and important for an author. But I asked myself, does a protagonist really need a misbelief? Does Harry Potter have a misbelief all his decisions are based on and that is revealed at the end of the book(s)? Of course there are shocking moments and revelations but for the main goal (get rid of the evil), Harry never really had a strong misbelief that proved him wrong. Or is it ME who is wrong? Maybe it is so obvious I can't see it
(2) How do you do it if you plan multiple books? This lie would probably get dissolved by the end of the whole story.
Sorry for any mistakes, english isn't my mothertongue :)
Thanks a million, Abbie. You have inspired me to think in a different direction. I started writing without being able to articulate the theme line of my story clearly. I have just discovered it to be: people will like you when you listen with empathy.
My story's theme: Accepting and trusting hersef
Misbelief: If she accepts who she is, she can no longer change to someone better. It makes it harder to change.
-she can't accept herself because she doesn't love and trust herself.
-She depends on what people think of her, because that, in her opinion, will make her into a better person. Why? Because she doesn't trust herself.
honestly if the opinions of others abt her are positive but she doesn't love who she is than that is actually relatable
hi, firstly i am not a writer, not my main career or even main hobby... but i was always writing and always wanted to write a story ...for 20 years all i cared about was to come up with a story and to only care about the plot and characters have to come next and simply play the role like puppets and help the plot happens ..because that is the most important thing... the plot
but finally i changed my mind and more than the plot i wanted to talk about a person ...i wanted to make the character and that was 90 per cent of all the story i want to say... the character... and right at this time i find your video and now i am even motivated more and can see things more clearly... just wanted to say... thank you and love you❤️
This video came at the perfect time! My second mc has this inner conflict and huge misbelief that he holds onto and has been thinking about since age three!!! It has torn him apart!!! He has been told ever since birth that he is different, and his brothers hate him for it, but he doesnt know why he's different. The only thing that distracts him and makes him happy is being around my main main character and helping her out with her struggles and her plot. He doesnt hv much screen time, but I'm trying to make his POV compelling and make the readers love him just as much as my real mc. Thankyou, Abbie you hv reassured me!!
I'm nervous because I haven't figured out my main characters misbelief yet. There is a side character (who more and more is looking like an antagonist) with a more personal misbelief in life and this whole video spoke to him more. I'm hitting the drawing board again to figure out how to make it make sense to my MC but I seriously appreciate your content 100% !
Well if the side character is going to be the main villain/antagonist. Then why not make the protagonist's trueth the opposite of the antagonist lie.
I arrived in your channel through your Pride and Prejudice analysis and am now a permanent resident due to your writing tips. Instant subscribe. Your content is fantastic!
I have 2 main characters
Character A’s misbelief: his happiness depends fully on other people’s happiness, he’s okay with not having any goal in life as long as his loved ones are safe and comfortable.
Character B: His happiness depends on external validation, specially from his mother and lovers. He’ll never be good enough if people don’t recognize it.
At the end of step 3, I had to pause the video to have a long sigh. I’m a pantser, and at first, I thought my protagonist lacked a misbelief, but in reality, we have the same misbelief, hence me overlooking it. At this point, I know objectively that it’s a misbelief, but it’s hard to reprogram my thinking because this misbelief was ingrained into me from when I was a preschooler whereas I didn’t realize it was a misbelief until the protagonist and I had a shared aha moment a few weeks ago. (I wrote hers first and then realized it applied to myself.)
WOW. You wonderful person, you pointed directly at my MC's misbelief that's been staring me in the face this entire past year. I was looking at a completely different one this whole time. TY!
It took me about an hour, which may not be very long at all, *but*, along with your video on negative character arcs, this was the best method to create a character with a negative arc and a good misbelief... so to speak.
Thanks for your insights, they really help flesh out a story and the characters in it!
Cheers, Abbie!
This has helped me a lot. I write fanfiction that takes place after the series is over, which means the character development is pretty much done. But this has helped me figure how to go from there.
Yesss, I have been waiting for this video! I recently found your channel and I've fallen in love with it! You're so inspirational and I really look up to you. I dream of becoming a published (and famous :D) author one day, and though I'm just 15, I feel like that can happen now. I've learned so much on your channel and I will continue to binge-watch your videos until I've watched every single one!
Also, I'm a fantasy writer, and I've been trying to write a particular fantasy book for years now, in short, it's about a teen girl who finds a magical world that's dying and she has to find out how to save it. I'm unsure of how to use misbeliefs for my character, how can I include one?
Wow really? I guess I can relate to you a lot. I started writing around the summer before 6th grade ish and it’s just went from there. After finding Abbie’s videos I swear I’ve gotten farther with a story than I ever have- and it actually had a plot and real characters that aren’t flat or boring.
As for finding a misbelief for your characters in fantasy writing, that can be hard. I write fantasy as well and am having a hard time. For your teen girl I think I would think on her backstory and how it could possibly tie in to the magical world? Or perhaps she has always been a perfectionist/finisher so she is super stressed about the “what if’s” during her journey to help the magical world she found.
I hope this helps you somehow, have fun writing!!
@@dancersupreme3023 Omg, that did help, thank you so much! And yeah, I haven't started writing the actual book yet (but this would be my 3rd time starting over with it, even after reaching around 100 pages or so) I plan on getting everything together first, so I'm just gonna keep watching her vids until I'm ready to begin this time. I used to be a pantser and that's why I rewrote 3 times lol.
I wish you success with your book as well!
@@tianyreeYT eek! That was supposed to be a thumbs up!!!!!! NOT down!!! Sorry - your idea sounds excellent!!
@@rickklarsen2034 That's ok, and thanks!
I relate to this so well... I started writing pretty young too (fantasy stories) and I always had a hard time working out the internal conflict. My stories ended up plot-driven and messy. Even after making a lot of progress with them, I just found I couldn't stay into it. I guess because I couldn't connect with the characters
Just a random idea that popped into my head reading this, maybe her misbelief could be that saving the dying world is impossible (maybe rooted in past failures?)
I feel like this is a stupid question. But the very last part, The Motive, The Goal and The Plot
is the Plot what "they" are going to do? What "They" Think will make their goal a reality
or is Plot what "We" as the writer, are going to make them do, that we know will indeed make them happy.
Because if their goal is what "They" think will make them happy and right under that is the steps of how they will make their goal a reality
then what sort of steps are we writing here? The Actual "right steps" or the ones that are wrong? (what they think are right steps) I'm keeping in mind the Ah-ha moment as well.
I know its probably a stupid question and maybe even confusing and I'm sorry about that
but I'm just a little lost in all of this stuff and want a tad bit of clarity ^_^;
thank you in advance~
So, I've watched a couple of your vids so far, but every single one I find myself going "Yes. Yes. Yes!" to-- you seem to perfectly lay out everything I believe about character and story, something I try to articulate and am frustrated at how rare the understanding of character is in writers. You do such a good job laying it out and guiding it, too, that even though I think I follow most of it already, I want to go back when I start my second draft and really make sure I hit every point.
However, the one thing that has popped up that I don't passionately agree with is the idea of starting with theme. I should probably watch your video on theme to see if you view it differently, but so often I was told that you had to start with a life lesson or moral. And that never worked for me, because for me, I need to attach to a character and situation and it's actually exploring their character arc that drives me. The idea of starting with something that is more universal and creating a character around it just feels wrong to me.
However. Something you said actually does make me think a bit more. You mention starting with theme and then flipping it, but also that this is the discovery that the protag will make. By thinking about it like that, as not a universal theme but the discovery I want to push them to make, that is something I can solidly work with. What is their discovery.
I'm not against theme in general, I'm just against starting with it because it always felt abstract and deteched. I believe that theme arises organically when a person tells a story and puts the work in, that what the character discovers speaks to a greater truth, and that authors should also see what themes have arisen to ensure it's what they want to tell. I just dont agree with starting there. However, starting with what the character would discover is a much better way for me to think about it.
My theme in my story is not to judge a book by its cover, but not in the way of judging people from their beauty or ugliness but by their first impression. That its better to get to know people first before jumping to conclusions.
The two main characters in my story are Melody and Oliver. They both are people with powers who end up on earth that go to a high school for people like them to learn how to use magic. Melody knows she has powers but has been home schooled by her mom her whole life (who never told her how to use magic). When she goes to high school Melody quickly makes a fool of herself and is labeled "the flying meme" by her classmates causing her to believe she is an incapable flying disaster. However Melody is really kind, compassionate, forgiving, and bubbly person, but the only person who really sees this is Oliver, who reluctantly agrees to helping Melody learn how to use magic. He at first sees Melody as pretty annoying but over time starts to open up to her and sees her for the friendly, compassionate person she really is.
Now about Oliver. Oliver has actually gone to a normal school before, but not one that was magical, so he has had to hide his powers up until now. He was pretty isolated and introverted, so everybody saw him only as a loner with no friends. In 5th grade a new girl named Cleo meets Oliver and pretends to want to be his friend only so he can do things for her. When Oliver finds out he confronts Cleo only for Cleo to tell him that he will never be more than a loner and that he will never have any friends. Oliver is hurt by this and believes Cleo. But in truth Oliver is actually a loyal, caring, reliable person, however nobody sees this because hes so isolated from everyone. However as the story continues and Oliver starts to open up to Melody she starts to see him for how he truly is, just how he did with her.
Hi! Thank you for the printable :D I'm NaNo prepping for the July camp and this helped me a lot to clarify my MC responses and actions. He's an orphan in a fantasy world, and his misbelief is that he needs to find his birth family, despite having an adoptive and loving family.
How are you this amazing? Thanks, just wrote out my theme which I kinda knew but never vocalised, and now I have a theme, a misbelief and a backstory for it. Amazing.
So . . . my character's motive is that she isn't good enough and can't do what matters when it matters.
That's it.
That's literally it.
And her misbelief is that if she can prove herself to be capable, then she'll be happy.
Keep in mind that what this character has is sort of a diluted form of self-loathing. Like, she doesn't think she's pretty, can do what needs to be done, etc. The only thing that she appreciates about herself is her sharp tongue. But in her "aha-moment", she realizes that she's needed to accept herself all along.
The series's theme is acceptance btw, lol.
One thing that came to my mind when she mentioned side characters is something a ballet dancer once said: Even if your in the corps the ballet (group dances) and you play some sort of being with a character (for example a peasant from "Giselle"), you need to act in your role. EVen though you´re not doing much, it´s good to think of who you as the peasant are, build a personality or maybe just think of what you did before this scene, what you were planning to do later, why whatever happens to the MC matters or doesn´t matter to you, how and why you react. This is never a mnust but it helps the picture of the story and playing more realistically.
Now idk yet what Abbie said in the side characters video, but maybe even if you don´t make your side character too deep in the book, maybe still this of more characteristics and background stories that made the character how he or she is now like to also make it realistic. You don´t have to include all this in the book but just for you so you know the character better, maybe know why he or she reacts in a certain way.
Awesome video! I want to add a few things, though.
From what I have heard, it seems like most people in this world grew up in disfunctional childhoods. Some were hit by their parents, namecalled, were told that their issues and pain is "trivial", and other similarly unhealthy stuff. This can greatly affect the way these people perceive themselves and others and how they deal with their emotions and how they behave later in life.
Basically, your characters' backstories could include multiple, repeated painful events in their childhoods, which lead them to have not just one, but multiple misbeliefs.
I have always wanted to write psychologically realistic stories, even if it's fantasy. But the way the three act structure works doesn't seem very realistic to me. It's like 3/4th into the story the protagonist has a realization, a change in belief, and they rapidly solve whatever external conflict they have, and they then live without those misbeliefs for their entire life. It seems like people can't solve their problems in a matter of a few hours just by having a realization, in real life. It's much slower and the "healing process" might take years of practicing to behave in a different way. I know that stories are supposed to be "larger than life", but I'd like to see more realistic kind of stories (maybe in a cartoon series?).
Anyway, just wanted to add some things. I hope this was helpful for you!
Hey Abbie, I was hoping you could do video on how to write a story with multiple themes. I'm writing a series and I want the main characters to have a few ah-ha moment's before getting to the core theme. The thing is I'm not sure how to write her multiple misbelieves and how the play off each other. I'm probably making this more complicated than it needs to be. Anyway just thought it would be a cool video to talk about how multiple misbelieves might work to impact the main plot instead of dedicating each of them a sub-plot. Hope you see this and hope it makes sense.
And I Love your videos. ❤️
I've been reading writing advice like crazy since I began crafting my story a year ago; no one has made it as clear and understandable like Abbie; thank you, you've officially become my writing sensei 😊!!
Oh my gosh, this video is wonderful! Suddenly I understand my main character like I never have before! He had this misbelief this whole time, and I just never realized it. Now I can weave it in, and strengthen everything around him!
He makes so much more sense now. How did I not see this? Wow.
Abbie. You made such good videos to write by that I was forced to answer your call. My main character's misbelief is that success is an individual thing. The character was also subject to purposeful conditioning to serve his master's purpose through his childhood. He resolves this by doing the opposite of what his second master told him his life's mission is.
THIS IS GOLDEN! People always looked at me like I’m crazy when I say character driven stories are better. I’m going to break this down!
Liked this video so much! Your videos always make me realize things about storytelling ✨✨
I uncovered the theme of my story the other day very suddenly and then was able to inform my protagonist's misbeliefs. Theme: the bad things that have happened to you are not who they are and do not have to dominate your life, they are just one part of a bigger whole.
Misbelief: my protagonist was kidnapped and lost her mother three years ago and has been defining her life by that ever since.