05:44 - "Honestly, we're all little kids at heart." Confirmed. I'm 62 and can still feel this way. I talked to my dad a few months before he passed. He was 82 and he told me the very same thing. Don't wait. Do it now.
To put it simply, I like to think of it like this: What is your character’s belief *before* the story What is your character’s beliefs *during* the story? And What is your character’s beliefs *after* the story?
HONESTLY, I’ve seen SO MANY videos of authors teaching how to write a book, authors with SO MANY subs and you, girl, you are MARVELOUS, pure gold falling right into my hands. Like, real gem. And your examples are, uh, the clearest. THANK YOU
how have more people not watched this video? these are words of wisdom. you are extremely intelligent and wise, and your knowledge amazes me! thank you for these three videos; they have impacted my character profiling and writing immensely!
Í am new to this. Trying to write in word 2010, have 200 pages and been advised to switch to Scribner. Trying to figure that out. Have enjoyed you tips on writing. Maybe you could make a suggestion or a thousand.
Backstory is awesome. It helps you live your characters life with them. See what they've seen and experience everything with them. It's the difference between telling someone about a person you just met or telling them about a person you have known your whole life. The difference is EXTREME. If you know where some has been it's easier to understand how they ended up where they are. Thanks for the video it's very insightful.
I’m not sure if anyone still comes back to this video, but I’m rather proud of the backstory that I made. A very long time ago, there was no magic in the world. The people of the world were constantly waging meaningless wars on each other for the sole reason of brutality and violence. These wars occurred frequently and lasted anywhere from a decade, to several centuries. To the point where children grew up to never know the feeling of security or safety. But one day, in the midsts of one of these century long wars, a solitary man climbed to the peak of the tallest mountain in the world, Barrier mountain. The man found a rift at the top, a tear in the fabric of space. This rift lead to a whole different dimension. From the rift, the man received a vision from the other side. This alternate dimension was unformed, and raw. The energy of creation swirling pointlessly with no conduit for creation itself When the man reached out his hand towards the barrier, he felt the essence of this power. And as his flesh came into contact with the silver liquid that made up the tear in space, it ruptured, releasing magic on the world for the first time. The man who was standing at the very place of the rupture, was struck with the full brunt of raw magic, infusing itself in his very soul, imprinting his eyes with the silvery sheen of unbridled, purely focused instinct. This man, now with his near infinite control of his newfound powers, and his hyper-enhanced instincts that he dubbed "Feral Instinct", became the first Mage. Amarin Regalis, The Mage used his powers to put an end to the foolish wars of the world. The warmongering kings of these various nations, fearing for their lives, negotiated terms of surrender with the Mage, and he was appointed the High King of Arem (the human continent, also the only known land mass at that time). But even though magic had been released on the world, doesn't mean that the people discovered how to wield it until another 3 centuries had passed. Along with his powers, the first Mage also gained immunity to time, near immortality. And his mere existence was more than enough to scare the humans into never waging another war again. But it wouldn't be lore without proper cause and effect, so here's a bit of that. Also due to the release of magic on the world, some species of animals absorbed a portion of that energy and underwent a mangling transformation into beasts. These monsters, afflicted with what I'm calling Mana Derangement, or Ether madness, or something like that, lost any semblance of consciousness, and became bloodthirsty and malevolent. In killing a monster, the magical energy stored inside of it is released as a new type of energy that the humans referred to as Chaos. As this Chaos left monster after monster as each of them died, slain by humans, natural causes, infighting, the released energy was all attracted to one spot (for lore reasons that I have yet to figure out) and it converged, and over time, took a form of an eldritch entity. And eventually, it gained consciousness and began wreaking havoc on the world as the embodiment of true chaos. The Mage witnessed the destruction caused by the beast from afar, and concerned for the wellbeing of his people, he engaged in combat with it. The battle raged for weeks without rest, each day only growing more and more intense and destructive. Not even 3 days in, the forest they had battled in was completely swept away in The pure explosion of raw energy that was the battle between the First Mage, and the Embodiment of Chaos. The battle continued for 3 weeks, until finally, everything went silent. No more rushing energy, no more crashing explosions, no more clashing of magics. The Mage and Chaos merely stood and stared at each other, until they conversed for the first time in the 3 weeks of battling that had just done. No one knows what they said, but when they stopped, they each held out their hands and unleashed their most powerful attacks to finish the duel once and for all. As they fired their spells at each other, there occurred yet another rupture of pure magic on the world, just as intense as the first one at the peak of Barrier Mountain had been. The Mages power of Creation and the Embodiment of Chaos' Chaotic magic mingled, and resonated with each other, and with the souls of the humans in the world. Because of their shared nature, this new magic imprinted itself on the very souls of the humans, giving them the ability, but not the understanding to wield it. Each person has an elemental attribute that is engraved in their soul. They can only wield the element that resonates with their engraving, and if they try to force it, they "shatter their soul" and lose any semblance of sanity. They had to figure out how to wield it by themselves, because in that final blast of energy, both the Mage, and Chaos were destroyed. The mage was cast into a cycle of reincarnation with a 1,000 year interval, and Chaos was shattered into three shards. The first shard of Chaos was thrown into the reincarnation cycle along with the mage, the second shard took the form of an eternal white flame, and the third shard was completely destroyed, leaving no hope that it would ever return.
On a scale of 1-You, I would just like to say that after getting into novel writing and your videos, my backstory went from a level 4 in screenwriting to a Double Abbie level for novels! Thank you for all you do!
Sameeeeee! Especially since after writing my series, I wrote a short story of the backstory lol. But to the backstory there’s another backstory so I still got that too Also don’t mind me replying 4 years late
I am not able to start writing without backstory, my notes are always full with what happened before the novel and sometimes it feels like all the good plots happened before :D thank you Abbie for whole this block of character creation, it is amazing :)
I've learned other tips on writing... and yes, a lot of them makes sense. I hear your ideas and it's so laser-sharp on point. You should have titles about "how to tighten your book." How could your story sprawl if you use your tips? Almost impossible. You might grab lots of new viewers with a title like that because there are a lot of writer-sprawlers out there... like me... who know what the problems are with their manuscript... but can't get advice on the sharp techniques that will fix the issues. Thanks for being so talented.
I started using your videos to help with my writing, but ended up examining my own life through these questions as well. I was literally in tears from my reflections. I’m kind of afraid to delve that close to my own inner conflicts and limiting beliefs, especially since I feel like they’re pretty unappealing. Fictional characters would have to have a dumbed down and prettied up version of what’s going on inside me to be likeable. :(
to be honest, i always fell asleep during this school movie tradition. blame it on the high-school depression. but the movie seems so much more interesting now that you've explained it. :3
This has been really helpful thank you! I kind of did these steps in reverse, but I think going back and doing them step by step will help round out my characters
I just.... i ... i have worked on this project i couldn’t let go for almost a decade. I have reseached the heroes journey, Michael hauges 6 stage story structure and everything i could find, but i have NEVER made so much FAST PROGRESS since i found your channel. And i have NEVER been this excited to revise and use every tool you offer. You are a GIFT 💕 Thank you Abbie. Just watched your new Series on stort structure and I Cant wait for your what you come up with next!
You got a new subscriber. I have to admit I had to smile when you were talking about the kid in the movie. For me, you look like a kid... (just wait till you are my age - 48 - you'll understand what I mean). Impressed with how well you explain everything. Thank you for this series!
Haha I still call myself a kid sometimes - I'm 21 but I feel like I'm 12 to be honest… 😂 I'm so glad you liked this series, thank you so much for watching! 💛
I've watched so many writing tutorials from other youtubers but the information never really translated into results. But after watching this series I finally created characters and a story that feels "real". And I've always hated outlining but after trying it now I'm confident that my first draft will be much stronger just like you said. You have a talent for teaching and simplifying things. Thanks for your help. ☺
Abbie, I hope as a reward for the magnificent work to you've had done here with all your videos to this current time, that get rich and very blessed. This stuff is so hard to understand and you bring it to life. Its become natural. You should be part of an elite team for Hollywood writers and paid extremely well as a specialist and consultant.
I honestly think it helped me so much in my journey because right now I was about to outline a book I shouldn't and that I can work on my old draft and make it well. Please, this series was so helpful, I loved watching every second of it.
Abbie this has been revolutionary. I started filling out the character profile as myself , to really get a feel for the emotions that my character would have. It exposed fears I hadnt confronted and the reason behind them that I had never put into a cognitive thought. I think my MC is going to be that much more vivid and relatable because if it. my Personal Character is getting a work-over because of this process!!
My character's belief is "I am unlovable". And when she finally escapes from the people who betrayed her and brainwashed her into that false belief, she not only realizes that she has always deserves love, but she is surrounded by others who have believed the same about themselves, for similar reasons. They find a sense of family together and learn that they are strong enough together to create the lives they have always dreamed of but believed were impossible as a community and a found family. Especially her and the male protagonist, who are in love but never become a Canon romance, at least not yet. What is my subconscious doing to me at this point?
Abbie, I absolutely love your videos! Actually, you made me sign to youtube after many, many years of seeing no point in it, just to leave you a comment. Although the things you talked about were not a 100% new to me, I never saw such a short video (series) full of facts and information that was as funny and entertaining at the same time as yours. Please keep up the good work! It is gorgeous and you have a new fan here. Thank you a lot!
This series was sssssooooooo good! Especially this video ! I'm busy with the backstories and character profiles. The old beliefs vs new beliefs are crucial to the character arc 😅😭
Thank you for this series! I loved it, and it helped so much! Also, a good backstory example is Disney's "Meet the Robinsons". Again, thank you so much for your videos! They are super helpful. :)
I love It's a Wonderful Life! When I was younger, this movie had actually given me a reason to try and leave my hometown at all costs... I've lived here my entire life, my parents live and were raised here, my grandparents live here, and aunts, uncles, and cousins live/have lived here at different times. Going back in family history, my great-grandfather owned a farm here, therefore my grandpa and great-aunt were raised here and both lived their whole lives here. Alas, similar to George, every attempt I made to leave was foiled... In my late twenties, I finally realized that I was really trying to run away from myself, not my hometown. No matter where I go, I will never be able to outrun that! XD
Watching this in October 2022 ..Great tutorial on the topic!...writing the backstories for the main protagonist and antagonist in a post-apocalyptic adventure story series set in a tropical S.American country.
I love backstory tooooo much lol have too be careful of infodumps and to sprinkle backstory and foreshadowing. :). love this series 20++++. Thank you!!!!
I love backstories 😍 l do get caught up in creating them. This just makes them better 👌 am so happy l found you. (That random recommended ) make it digestible parts about writing new try to get into it this is wonderful like they say ask good questions and you will get good answers 😁👌👍
Agh wow. This is SO good Abbie! Definitely using those questions. :D The whole series actually! Your advice is so amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Thank you for this series. I love your energy and enthusiasm. It's contagious and just the kickstart I needed. This approach of creating the character first makes a lot of sense and really resonates with me. Can you comment on how to apply it to a historical novel? My plot points are already determined and set for me based on events that factually happened. I'm really struggling to figure out the character's misbelief. I'm having to use your approach backwards (plot first) and I'm finding it hard to get to know my character at a deep level.
I love writing backstories for my characters. I tend to write a bunch of things that have nothing to contribute to the story because I just wanna go over every single detail so people can try to understand them. I have had more than a few of my friends tell me i need to cut back a bit and yeah I they have a point, but I just tend to go overboard on the details. 😅😅😅
I am writing a story with four-ish main characters (2 antagonists, 2 protagonists). The problem is they all need the same goal and similar misbeliefs meaning I need four seperate ways to come to the same wrong conclusion, a difficult task but one I have seen achieve by numeris classmates during maths exam. How hard can it be. I'm sure, armed with this brilliant character building trilogy, I'll find a way for them to peak at each others' notes.
Hi sorry I’m extremely late to this convocation, but is it ok if I have a book on my antagonist’s backstory, I was planning to have a series and after the completion of it I wanted to add a backstory for my antagonist. Is that ok?
lol, I'm seriously thinking of making a book of just the backstories of the main cast of the books I'm working on. it might have to keep me occupied during this whole lockdown bs Peace
I’m at your level of back-story geek 😂 but I have a solution for backstory being included! My story is sci fi, and a lot of the backstory scenes are actually going to be holographic security footage 🥰
My struggle with the back story is that my main character is 11, so... she's experiencing some of these things that comprise her misbelief and deepest fears.
In other words, the "scene that changed everything" is a past aha moment that lead to the acceptance of a lie rather than a truth? Who's saying then that the aha moment at the end isn't leading him to accepting yet another lie? 😁
That is the beauty of writing a series. You can make your characters have a misbelief about what their misbelief is and slowly peel back the layers giving them a new belief each time getting a little closer to the truth. The trick is to do so without undermining the first revelations.
@@feebo4558 Yeah, I‘ve discovered that in the meantime. 😉 My protagonist now learns a variant of the truth at the end of part one. However, her new misbelief is that this truth is conditional on her current environment, and might change if the environment changes. It takes her until the end of part 3 to understand this truth as categorical, and valid in any context.
I am writing a story with 2 POVS. The first POV would be sort of like the backstory and then by chapter 2 or sooner I would introduce the second POV/ MC. I may change to the first POV one or two times throughout the story as some things they do or know will effect the MC. Do you think this is a good way to go about my story? I feel like the first POV backstory will hook the reader but not enough to care when the POV changes but still interested in how it. I need your advice 😭
Hello, Abbie. My name is Frandy. I am from Indonesia. I want to ask about the main character's backstory. Should I make dialogue in it too? Or just a narrative? The backstory I mean is a backstory that is not for a manuscript. Thank you for your attention.
My MC is about 15-17. I have found it hard to find his internal conflict. I know he's old enough to have experienced SOMETHING. I just don't seem to have found it. My story has obstacles, but no real conflict... and I'm almost done with the 2nd draft. :'( HELP!
From one to you my level of backstory liking is probably you. I create backstories for created wrestlers on wrestling video games that ought to tell you something
Though it is classic to talk about backstory as a misconception, it's not always true, or sometimes these misconceptions are really abstract. For example: if someone was witnessing a murder, what misconception was there? The world is safe? If it is, it's really abstract. You can always find abstract misbelief but in those cases, people look at the event, rather than the misbelief.
I’d say for that maybe it could be something like just shock. Not exactly a misbelief but a change leading to a misbelief. Maybe they will come up with some crazy conclusion from such a traumatic experience which might not even make any sense like that they’ll never be happy, or that people are born evil or that everyone is born evil or maybe they become desensitized to murder. Or maybe they become shut off and quiet idk.
Writing things from kids point of view is easy. Since my main characters are always kids. I write for children. On a scale from 1 to you I think I'll say you!
What if the story is more so a journey, I know all stories are, but like watching the character go from almost a nobody to more and more, I don't mean entirely blank but like he's just been normal till now, procrastinating, being a normal person getting by then something happens and it forces him to act and change, like can this work, can his world view be nothing in particular in the beginning but change quickly as the world around him changes or something like that. Again I say he won't just be blank but just sort of aimless at first, maybe that isn't actually interesting but I'd like know if it could be. Could his progression and pov and motivation from some life changing incident in the beginning be enough
Should you create your characters before the plot? Or do you make them at the same time? Honestly, It's hard for me to integrate characters into my plot when I don't know how they're related to the plot. Can someone help me figure this out?
Does my character *have* to have a fear that's holding them back from achieving their goals or can he just go for it right away as soon as he figures out that it's possible? Because I cannot think of a single fear that would be holding him back from this.
So...your comment was written a year ago, but there’s a few general fears I can think of. Unfortunately, I don’t know your character, so I’m just running into this blind and hoping you’ll take it with a grain of salt. - Fear of Failing (he’s afraid his plan is going to backfire) -Fear of Disappointment (he’s afraid he’ll let someone he loves down) -Fear of Embarrassment (he has a strong ego and is afraid of embarrassing himself) Again, please just take this as a random internet person blindly throwing out suggestions. If you want to use one of these, then cool. But don’t feel obligated to do so. I hope you have fun with your story, and have a great day!
I accidentally kind of answered these questions in video one, but, because I hadn't watched this video yet, I misinterpreted the questions and assumed that they were about how the character in question recovered from the mistaken belief instead of what led to the mistaken belief. Now that I have the appropriate context for the questions, I'm going to try to summarize what led to the mistaken belief. First, a bit of relevant world building: the series is set in the 58th century and advances in medical science have allowed same-sex and cross-species couples to have kids biologically related to both parents, with the kid being the same species as whoever provided the egg that was involved in conceiving the child. I'm mostly bringing this up so that nobody is confused when I'm talking about Fumiko's backstory, since she has two moms who are biologically related to her. On to the backstory: Mom #1 is the daughter of the villain, knows that her mother is one of the main villains of the series, and is being manipulated into serving as her mother's enforcer. She was concerned that her wife and child were in danger of being used by her mother like she was. This led her to break up with Mom #2 shortly after Fumiko was born and trying to cover up her relationship to Mom #2 and Fumiko. Mom #1 didn't explain why she did this, out of fear that the knowledge would lead either Mom #2 or Fumiko to do something to reveal their connection to her or provoke Mom #1's mother into seeing them as a threat and eliminating them. The sudden abandonment and lack of explanation led Mom #2 to become bitter about Mom #1 leaving and blamed Fumiko, due to it occurring shortly after Fumiko's birth. Mom #2 became abusive towards Fumiko and would punish her for every single thing that went wrong in Mom #2's life, not caring whether or not Fumiko was actually at fault. Eventually, Mom #2 remarried and had two more kids, but continued to abuse Fumiko and started displaying blatant favoritism towards Fumiko's siblings, while gaslighting her new spouse into ignoring the problem. Fumiko's brother decided to emulate Mom #2 and added to the abuse Fumiko was being subjected to, while their sister went in the opposite direction and tried to help and support Fumiko whenever possible. Because of how young Fumiko was when the abuse started, she never really had the chance to develop a healthy view of her own worth and, instead, developed the fear that she was unlovable. The final straw that brought her right up to the edge of firmly believing that she's unlovable was an incident in high school when the one person she considered to be a closer friend that her sister decided to play a malicious prank. The prank left her traumatized and with serious trust issues, and hospitalized one of the few classmates who was actively friendly towards her. It was only because of her sister's love that she questioned her mistaken belief in her own unlovability enough to avoid having it completely break her.
What if I want my character’s “misbelief” to not be a misbelief? I based her backstory on my own, so the big event is one of realizing that an authority figure is harming you and realizing that you need to get out of there in order to be happy. I don’t want to go the whole “she doesn’t trust anyone anymore” route even though _I_ have social anxiety and severe trust issues as a result of my trauma because I don’t think that fits her or the story (one of her reoccurring characteristics is that she still has hope for humanity), but the event is still important because it made her realize that humanity is flawed and drove her want to escape Area 51 _and_ advocate for world peace. Update: I decided to chew on this for a bit and then proceeded to have a dream in which I interacted with a real person who I based the character's backstory on. In the dream, she was being nice to me, but I felt conflicted because I was unsure how long her kindness would last. In the past, she would often care for me, but then criticize me that same day. So, perhaps my protagonist isn't entirely distrustful of humans, but rather, uncertain about people's kindness, worried that they may change at a moment's notice. Not an, "I can't trust you." to everyone she meets, but rather, "I appreciate your kindness, but _why?"_ Uh... thanks, brain?
What if your antagonist is a concept and not a person? Something like old age or pollution, something that can't really be defeated.. such an "antagonist" wouldn't really have misbeliefs and fears and such, right?
I have a question. For someones antagonist what if the characters dont know the antagonist`s backstory just yet, can you cut these last set of questions for the antagonist?
So I'm writing a hella big fan fiction, but I wouldn't exactly call it a fan fiction, because it's a novel, I write a novels but it just so happens that the story I'm choosing to write takes place in the same universe as an existing one, but however it's my own story, with my own unique spin on it because I'm unfamiliar with every aspect of the universe as I didn't create it, Therefore it can't actually ever be published unfortunately but I'm writing it for the love of the series, I also have other ideas I'm working on to but I've really been working on this one story because I find that I can relate to it the most RightNow, it's a universe that I wanna live in, anyway I'm kinda writing it by ear no real prefabrication I prefer to write in the moment because that's when the writing is the best, is there a format for this? Have other authors used this teqnique as well?
05:44 - "Honestly, we're all little kids at heart." Confirmed. I'm 62 and can still feel this way. I talked to my dad a few months before he passed. He was 82 and he told me the very same thing. Don't wait. Do it now.
Sorry for your loss. Hope you never loose that little kid ❤
To put it simply, I like to think of it like this:
What is your character’s belief *before* the story
What is your character’s beliefs *during* the story?
And
What is your character’s beliefs *after* the story?
The way I do it is: What is their personality? Why is it like that? What are their reactions? Why are they like that? Stuff like that.
HONESTLY, I’ve seen SO MANY videos of authors teaching how to write a book, authors with SO MANY subs and you, girl, you are MARVELOUS, pure gold falling right into my hands. Like, real gem. And your examples are, uh, the clearest. THANK YOU
how have more people not watched this video? these are words of wisdom. you are extremely intelligent and wise, and your knowledge amazes me! thank you for these three videos; they have impacted my character profiling and writing immensely!
Ashley, I'm so happy this video series helped you!! This comment brightened my day. 💛✨ rock on!
when you come for writing advice and stay for full on psychological, mental, and spiritual education
This is the best compliment I've ever received
I am so impressed. You openned another old kid's eyes!
Wow I'm so glad! thank you!
Í am new to this. Trying to write in word 2010, have 200 pages and been advised to switch to Scribner. Trying to figure that out. Have enjoyed you tips on writing. Maybe you could make a suggestion or a thousand.
"If you haven't seen this movie, what are you doing with your life?"
Obviouly watching your videos instead😂😂😂
I never appreciated this movie until Abbie broke it down in her lessons. Still not a favorite, but at least I get it now.
Backstory is awesome. It helps you live your characters life with them. See what they've seen and experience everything with them. It's the difference between telling someone about a person you just met or telling them about a person you have known your whole life. The difference is EXTREME. If you know where some has been it's easier to understand how they ended up where they are. Thanks for the video it's very insightful.
I’m not sure if anyone still comes back to this video, but I’m rather proud of the backstory that I made.
A very long time ago, there was no magic in the world. The people of the world were constantly waging meaningless wars on each other for the sole reason of brutality and violence. These wars occurred frequently and lasted anywhere from a decade, to several centuries. To the point where children grew up to never know the feeling of security or safety.
But one day, in the midsts of one of these century long wars, a solitary man climbed to the peak of the tallest mountain in the world, Barrier mountain. The man found a rift at the top, a tear in the fabric of space. This rift lead to a whole different dimension.
From the rift, the man received a vision from the other side. This alternate dimension was unformed, and raw. The energy of creation swirling pointlessly with no conduit for creation itself
When the man reached out his hand towards the barrier, he felt the essence of this power. And as his flesh came into contact with the silver liquid that made up the tear in space, it ruptured, releasing magic on the world for the first time.
The man who was standing at the very place of the rupture, was struck with the full brunt of raw magic, infusing itself in his very soul, imprinting his eyes with the silvery sheen of unbridled, purely focused instinct.
This man, now with his near infinite control of his newfound powers, and his hyper-enhanced instincts that he dubbed "Feral Instinct", became the first Mage. Amarin Regalis, The Mage used his powers to put an end to the foolish wars of the world.
The warmongering kings of these various nations, fearing for their lives, negotiated terms of surrender with the Mage, and he was appointed the High King of Arem (the human continent, also the only known land mass at that time).
But even though magic had been released on the world, doesn't mean that the people discovered how to wield it until another 3 centuries had passed.
Along with his powers, the first Mage also gained immunity to time, near immortality. And his mere existence was more than enough to scare the humans into never waging another war again.
But it wouldn't be lore without proper cause and effect, so here's a bit of that. Also due to the release of magic on the world, some species of animals absorbed a portion of that energy and underwent a mangling transformation into beasts.
These monsters, afflicted with what I'm calling Mana Derangement, or Ether madness, or something like that, lost any semblance of consciousness, and became bloodthirsty and malevolent.
In killing a monster, the magical energy stored inside of it is released as a new type of energy that the humans referred to as Chaos.
As this Chaos left monster after monster as each of them died, slain by humans, natural causes, infighting, the released energy was all attracted to one spot (for lore reasons that I have yet to figure out) and it converged, and over time, took a form of an eldritch entity.
And eventually, it gained consciousness and began wreaking havoc on the world as the embodiment of true chaos.
The Mage witnessed the destruction caused by the beast from afar, and concerned for the wellbeing of his people, he engaged in combat with it.
The battle raged for weeks without rest, each day only growing more and more intense and destructive.
Not even 3 days in, the forest they had battled in was completely swept away in The pure explosion of raw energy that was the battle between the First Mage, and the Embodiment of Chaos.
The battle continued for 3 weeks, until finally, everything went silent.
No more rushing energy, no more crashing explosions, no more clashing of magics.
The Mage and Chaos merely stood and stared at each other, until they conversed for the first time in the 3 weeks of battling that had just done.
No one knows what they said, but when they stopped, they each held out their hands and unleashed their most powerful attacks to finish the duel once and for all.
As they fired their spells at each other, there occurred yet another rupture of pure magic on the world, just as intense as the first one at the peak of Barrier Mountain had been.
The Mages power of Creation and the Embodiment of Chaos' Chaotic magic mingled, and resonated with each other, and with the souls of the humans in the world.
Because of their shared nature, this new magic imprinted itself on the very souls of the humans, giving them the ability, but not the understanding to wield it.
Each person has an elemental attribute that is engraved in their soul. They can only wield the element that resonates with their engraving, and if they try to force it, they "shatter their soul" and lose any semblance of sanity.
They had to figure out how to wield it by themselves, because in that final blast of energy, both the Mage, and Chaos were destroyed.
The mage was cast into a cycle of reincarnation with a 1,000 year interval, and Chaos was shattered into three shards.
The first shard of Chaos was thrown into the reincarnation cycle along with the mage, the second shard took the form of an eternal white flame, and the third shard was completely destroyed, leaving no hope that it would ever return.
On a scale of 1-You, I would just like to say that after getting into novel writing and your videos, my backstory went from a level 4 in screenwriting to a Double Abbie level for novels! Thank you for all you do!
In my writer's club, we have a term for those of us who go extra crazy with backstory - Lore Lords XD
Literally had visions of my MC's past as we went through this 😂
Sameeeeee! Especially since after writing my series, I wrote a short story of the backstory lol. But to the backstory there’s another backstory so I still got that too
Also don’t mind me replying 4 years late
I am not able to start writing without backstory, my notes are always full with what happened before the novel and sometimes it feels like all the good plots happened before :D
thank you Abbie for whole this block of character creation, it is amazing :)
I've learned other tips on writing... and yes, a lot of them makes sense. I hear your ideas and it's so laser-sharp on point. You should have titles about "how to tighten your book." How could your story sprawl if you use your tips? Almost impossible. You might grab lots of new viewers with a title like that because there are a lot of writer-sprawlers out there... like me... who know what the problems are with their manuscript... but can't get advice on the sharp techniques that will fix the issues. Thanks for being so talented.
I started using your videos to help with my writing, but ended up examining my own life through these questions as well. I was literally in tears from my reflections. I’m kind of afraid to delve that close to my own inner conflicts and limiting beliefs, especially since I feel like they’re pretty unappealing. Fictional characters would have to have a dumbed down and prettied up version of what’s going on inside me to be likeable. :(
to be honest, i always fell asleep during this school movie tradition. blame it on the high-school depression. but the movie seems so much more interesting now that you've explained it. :3
One of my MC’s backstories caused me to change the story i was writing from a short story into a novel.
This has been really helpful thank you! I kind of did these steps in reverse, but I think going back and doing them step by step will help round out my characters
I just.... i ... i have worked on this project i couldn’t let go for almost a decade. I have reseached the heroes journey, Michael hauges 6 stage story structure and everything i could find, but i have NEVER made so much FAST PROGRESS since i found your channel. And i have NEVER been this excited to revise and use every tool you offer. You are a GIFT 💕 Thank you Abbie. Just watched your new Series on stort structure and I Cant wait for your what you come up with next!
You got a new subscriber. I have to admit I had to smile when you were talking about the kid in the movie. For me, you look like a kid... (just wait till you are my age - 48 - you'll understand what I mean). Impressed with how well you explain everything. Thank you for this series!
Haha I still call myself a kid sometimes - I'm 21 but I feel like I'm 12 to be honest… 😂 I'm so glad you liked this series, thank you so much for watching! 💛
Her energy and restless excitement,just loved it so much ofcourse less than her way of explaining
Thank you for this series. I had a HUGE breakthrough while filling out the questionnaire and I could NOT have done it without your helpful videos!!!
Wonderful!! Glad to hear that. Thank you for watching!
I've watched so many writing tutorials from other youtubers but the information never really translated into results. But after watching this series I finally created characters and a story that feels "real". And I've always hated outlining but after trying it now I'm confident that my first draft will be much stronger just like you said. You have a talent for teaching and simplifying things. Thanks for your help. ☺
Abbie, I hope as a reward for the magnificent work to you've had done here with all your videos to this current time, that get rich and very blessed. This stuff is so hard to understand and you bring it to life. Its become natural. You should be part of an elite team for Hollywood writers and paid extremely well as a specialist and consultant.
I honestly think it helped me so much in my journey because right now I was about to outline a book I shouldn't and that I can work on my old draft and make it well. Please, this series was so helpful, I loved watching every second of it.
Abbie, I love your passion for writing! Thank you so much for all of your help in so many facets of the writing process!
Abbie this has been revolutionary.
I started filling out the character profile as myself , to really get a feel for the emotions that my character would have. It exposed fears I hadnt confronted and the reason behind them that I had never put into a cognitive thought. I think my MC is going to be that much more vivid and relatable because if it. my Personal Character is getting a work-over because of this process!!
Lightbulbs going off all over the place after watching this. Thank you!
Thanks!
My character's belief is "I am unlovable". And when she finally escapes from the people who betrayed her and brainwashed her into that false belief, she not only realizes that she has always deserves love, but she is surrounded by others who have believed the same about themselves, for similar reasons. They find a sense of family together and learn that they are strong enough together to create the lives they have always dreamed of but believed were impossible as a community and a found family. Especially her and the male protagonist, who are in love but never become a Canon romance, at least not yet. What is my subconscious doing to me at this point?
I have always wanted to know where the backstory scene slots into the main outline of 3 acts in order for it to feel natural and not out of place.
I was watching this video and it struck me about my protagonist and the theme for my book. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
this is better than therapy
This girl needs more subscribers, her content is so helpful and amazing thank you so much 💜
This series has been so helpful! I've had AH-HA moments about my characters during every video, and had to pause and run for my notebook. THANK YOU!
Abbie, I absolutely love your videos! Actually, you made me sign to youtube after many, many years of seeing no point in it, just to leave you a comment.
Although the things you talked about were not a 100% new to me, I never saw such a short video (series) full of facts and information that was as funny and entertaining at the same time as yours. Please keep up the good work! It is gorgeous and you have a new fan here. Thank you a lot!
This series was sssssooooooo good! Especially this video ! I'm busy with the backstories and character profiles. The old beliefs vs new beliefs are crucial to the character arc 😅😭
Thank you for this series! I loved it, and it helped so much! Also, a good backstory example is Disney's "Meet the Robinsons". Again, thank you so much for your videos! They are super helpful. :)
I'm so glad you enjoyed this series and found it helpful! Thank you Emma 💛 Oooh I've never seen it!
This series is amazing I don't know how I haven't found you before!! Subscribed.
I love It's a Wonderful Life! When I was younger, this movie had actually given me a reason to try and leave my hometown at all costs... I've lived here my entire life, my parents live and were raised here, my grandparents live here, and aunts, uncles, and cousins live/have lived here at different times. Going back in family history, my great-grandfather owned a farm here, therefore my grandpa and great-aunt were raised here and both lived their whole lives here. Alas, similar to George, every attempt I made to leave was foiled... In my late twenties, I finally realized that I was really trying to run away from myself, not my hometown. No matter where I go, I will never be able to outrun that! XD
Watching this in October 2022 ..Great tutorial on the topic!...writing the backstories for the main protagonist and antagonist in a post-apocalyptic adventure story series set in a tropical S.American country.
Really helpful and I hope many struggling writers will watch this as it's very useful.
Backstory really gives you an introspective reasons for characters behaviour and outlook
Love your personality! It’s electrifying !!!😁🙌💥 ⚡️ ⚡️
Great advice! I'm publishing soon and working in my next novella. I'm definitely going to try writing 3 back story scenes this time around!
Best intro ever... "The moment that changed everything..." (Cuts to intro)
Agreed!
‘Be careful what you wish for’ sums it up for me. Is this relevant to other genres? For example sci-fi and fantasy?
This is so helpful! Thank you
This is brilliant 😍😍😍
This makes sense! Thanks for these tips!
I'm so glad you liked this video, Julia!! 💛
Am a urdu writer :-D I mean am beginner
But your guidelines,,,,wow ,finally am dealing with my story goodly just because of you.
Thanks abbie
Hi Abbie- These videos on character development are great vids. Thanks for what you do for us writers.
Honestly, Universities should be handing you out doctorates just for these videos! You’re a genius!
I love backstory tooooo much lol have too be careful of infodumps and to sprinkle backstory and foreshadowing. :). love this series 20++++. Thank you!!!!
I LOVE this!! Talk about some major light-shedding!!
I love backstories 😍 l do get caught up in creating them. This just makes them better 👌
am so happy l found you. (That random recommended ) make it digestible parts about writing new try to get into it this is wonderful like they say ask good questions and you will get good answers 😁👌👍
Girl you are soooo amazing for these videos. THANK YOUUUUUuuu!
Wow, I'm loving these videos! You're really good!
Also, awesome eyebrows. I'm serious, I love them.
Haha thank you! 😊
Aaaaagh! I love this! I love this whole series, thank you so much!
Thank you so much for watching! 😊
Agh wow. This is SO good Abbie! Definitely using those questions. :D The whole series actually! Your advice is so amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Thank YOU so much for watching, Liv!! You're awesome, and I'm so glad you found this series helpful. Rock on! 💛✨
Thank you for this series. I love your energy and enthusiasm. It's contagious and just the kickstart I needed. This approach of creating the character first makes a lot of sense and really resonates with me. Can you comment on how to apply it to a historical novel? My plot points are already determined and set for me based on events that factually happened. I'm really struggling to figure out the character's misbelief. I'm having to use your approach backwards (plot first) and I'm finding it hard to get to know my character at a deep level.
I love backstories, and I give you a ten on your performance and teaching.
*If I finish my story this year, I'm gonna yeet myself to your house to hug you so tight coz like YOU ARE A QUEEN BABE!!! 👊😭✨*
sooo inspiring!! thank you!
this channel is brilliant
Abbie, you have a great catalog of classic films under your belt. Have you seined Wuthering Heights?
I love writing backstories for my characters. I tend to write a bunch of things that have nothing to contribute to the story because I just wanna go over every single detail so people can try to understand them. I have had more than a few of my friends tell me i need to cut back a bit and yeah I they have a point, but I just tend to go overboard on the details. 😅😅😅
I am writing a story with four-ish main characters (2 antagonists, 2 protagonists). The problem is they all need the same goal and similar misbeliefs meaning I need four seperate ways to come to the same wrong conclusion, a difficult task but one I have seen achieve by numeris classmates during maths exam. How hard can it be. I'm sure, armed with this brilliant character building trilogy, I'll find a way for them to peak at each others' notes.
Thank you so much , really helpful my friend, keep doing it we need you
Love your style.
Hi sorry I’m extremely late to this convocation, but is it ok if I have a book on my antagonist’s backstory, I was planning to have a series and after the completion of it I wanted to add a backstory for my antagonist. Is that ok?
YES!
This series is incredibly insightful! Thank you so much
I'm so glad you enjoyed this series, Diana! 💛✨
It's A Wonderful Life. I LOVE that movie!
lol, I'm seriously thinking of making a book of just the backstories of the main cast of the books I'm working on. it might have to keep me occupied during this whole lockdown bs
Peace
Update?
@@miamedory2682 still a wip,
@@onlyhuman351 ???
@@miamedory2682 work in progress
@@onlyhuman351 Oh okay then, keep it up mate =)
So my book should have so much electricity that it's *shocking* to my readers?
Eh? Eh? No just me? Ok I'll leave now 😁😁
nice
me: **watching**
me: **looks at work**
me: what the.. *HOW DID I DO THIS BEFORE I EVEN WATCHED THIS*
Hey Abbi, you should add love languages to your character sheets!
I’m at your level of back-story geek 😂 but I have a solution for backstory being included! My story is sci fi, and a lot of the backstory scenes are actually going to be holographic security footage 🥰
I love back stories!
It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie!
My struggle with the back story is that my main character is 11, so... she's experiencing some of these things that comprise her misbelief and deepest fears.
In other words, the "scene that changed everything" is a past aha moment that lead to the acceptance of a lie rather than a truth? Who's saying then that the aha moment at the end isn't leading him to accepting yet another lie? 😁
That is the beauty of writing a series. You can make your characters have a misbelief about what their misbelief is and slowly peel back the layers giving them a new belief each time getting a little closer to the truth. The trick is to do so without undermining the first revelations.
@@feebo4558 Yeah, I‘ve discovered that in the meantime. 😉 My protagonist now learns a variant of the truth at the end of part one. However, her new misbelief is that this truth is conditional on her current environment, and might change if the environment changes. It takes her until the end of part 3 to understand this truth as categorical, and valid in any context.
Like, it *is* a pattern that can work, but it don't have to happen exactly like you described it.
I am writing a story with 2 POVS. The first POV would be sort of like the backstory and then by chapter 2 or sooner I would introduce the second POV/ MC. I may change to the first POV one or two times throughout the story as some things they do or know will effect the MC. Do you think this is a good way to go about my story? I feel like the first POV backstory will hook the reader but not enough to care when the POV changes but still interested in how it. I need your advice 😭
Hello, Abbie. My name is Frandy. I am from Indonesia. I want to ask about the main character's backstory. Should I make dialogue in it too? Or just a narrative? The backstory I mean is a backstory that is not for a manuscript. Thank you for your attention.
My MC is about 15-17. I have found it hard to find his internal conflict. I know he's old enough to have experienced SOMETHING. I just don't seem to have found it. My story has obstacles, but no real conflict... and I'm almost done with the 2nd draft. :'( HELP!
From one to you my level of backstory liking is probably you. I create backstories for created wrestlers on wrestling video games that ought to tell you something
This is challenging therefore helpful
Though it is classic to talk about backstory as a misconception, it's not always true, or sometimes these misconceptions are really abstract.
For example: if someone was witnessing a murder, what misconception was there? The world is safe? If it is, it's really abstract. You can always find abstract misbelief but in those cases, people look at the event, rather than the misbelief.
I’d say for that maybe it could be something like just shock. Not exactly a misbelief but a change leading to a misbelief. Maybe they will come up with some crazy conclusion from such a traumatic experience which might not even make any sense like that they’ll never be happy, or that people are born evil or that everyone is born evil or maybe they become desensitized to murder. Or maybe they become shut off and quiet idk.
Writing things from kids point of view is easy. Since my main characters are always kids. I write for children. On a scale from 1 to you I think I'll say you!
What if the story is more so a journey, I know all stories are, but like watching the character go from almost a nobody to more and more, I don't mean entirely blank but like he's just been normal till now, procrastinating, being a normal person getting by then something happens and it forces him to act and change, like can this work, can his world view be nothing in particular in the beginning but change quickly as the world around him changes or something like that. Again I say he won't just be blank but just sort of aimless at first, maybe that isn't actually interesting but I'd like know if it could be. Could his progression and pov and motivation from some life changing incident in the beginning be enough
Should you create your characters before the plot? Or do you make them at the same time? Honestly, It's hard for me to integrate characters into my plot when I don't know how they're related to the plot. Can someone help me figure this out?
Does my character *have* to have a fear that's holding them back from achieving their goals or can he just go for it right away as soon as he figures out that it's possible? Because I cannot think of a single fear that would be holding him back from this.
So...your comment was written a year ago, but there’s a few general fears I can think of. Unfortunately, I don’t know your character, so I’m just running into this blind and hoping you’ll take it with a grain of salt.
- Fear of Failing (he’s afraid his plan is going to backfire)
-Fear of Disappointment (he’s afraid he’ll let someone he loves down)
-Fear of Embarrassment (he has a strong ego and is afraid of embarrassing himself)
Again, please just take this as a random internet person blindly throwing out suggestions. If you want to use one of these, then cool. But don’t feel obligated to do so. I hope you have fun with your story, and have a great day!
@@Spark_is_right_here Thank you! You have a good day, too! :)
Thanks.
I accidentally kind of answered these questions in video one, but, because I hadn't watched this video yet, I misinterpreted the questions and assumed that they were about how the character in question recovered from the mistaken belief instead of what led to the mistaken belief. Now that I have the appropriate context for the questions, I'm going to try to summarize what led to the mistaken belief.
First, a bit of relevant world building: the series is set in the 58th century and advances in medical science have allowed same-sex and cross-species couples to have kids biologically related to both parents, with the kid being the same species as whoever provided the egg that was involved in conceiving the child. I'm mostly bringing this up so that nobody is confused when I'm talking about Fumiko's backstory, since she has two moms who are biologically related to her.
On to the backstory: Mom #1 is the daughter of the villain, knows that her mother is one of the main villains of the series, and is being manipulated into serving as her mother's enforcer. She was concerned that her wife and child were in danger of being used by her mother like she was. This led her to break up with Mom #2 shortly after Fumiko was born and trying to cover up her relationship to Mom #2 and Fumiko. Mom #1 didn't explain why she did this, out of fear that the knowledge would lead either Mom #2 or Fumiko to do something to reveal their connection to her or provoke Mom #1's mother into seeing them as a threat and eliminating them.
The sudden abandonment and lack of explanation led Mom #2 to become bitter about Mom #1 leaving and blamed Fumiko, due to it occurring shortly after Fumiko's birth. Mom #2 became abusive towards Fumiko and would punish her for every single thing that went wrong in Mom #2's life, not caring whether or not Fumiko was actually at fault. Eventually, Mom #2 remarried and had two more kids, but continued to abuse Fumiko and started displaying blatant favoritism towards Fumiko's siblings, while gaslighting her new spouse into ignoring the problem. Fumiko's brother decided to emulate Mom #2 and added to the abuse Fumiko was being subjected to, while their sister went in the opposite direction and tried to help and support Fumiko whenever possible.
Because of how young Fumiko was when the abuse started, she never really had the chance to develop a healthy view of her own worth and, instead, developed the fear that she was unlovable. The final straw that brought her right up to the edge of firmly believing that she's unlovable was an incident in high school when the one person she considered to be a closer friend that her sister decided to play a malicious prank. The prank left her traumatized and with serious trust issues, and hospitalized one of the few classmates who was actively friendly towards her. It was only because of her sister's love that she questioned her mistaken belief in her own unlovability enough to avoid having it completely break her.
Do we do this step, before or after developing the plot?
What if I want my character’s “misbelief” to not be a misbelief? I based her backstory on my own, so the big event is one of realizing that an authority figure is harming you and realizing that you need to get out of there in order to be happy. I don’t want to go the whole “she doesn’t trust anyone anymore” route even though _I_ have social anxiety and severe trust issues as a result of my trauma because I don’t think that fits her or the story (one of her reoccurring characteristics is that she still has hope for humanity), but the event is still important because it made her realize that humanity is flawed and drove her want to escape Area 51 _and_ advocate for world peace.
Update: I decided to chew on this for a bit and then proceeded to have a dream in which I interacted with a real person who I based the character's backstory on. In the dream, she was being nice to me, but I felt conflicted because I was unsure how long her kindness would last. In the past, she would often care for me, but then criticize me that same day. So, perhaps my protagonist isn't entirely distrustful of humans, but rather, uncertain about people's kindness, worried that they may change at a moment's notice. Not an, "I can't trust you." to everyone she meets, but rather, "I appreciate your kindness, but _why?"_ Uh... thanks, brain?
What if your antagonist is a concept and not a person? Something like old age or pollution, something that can't really be defeated.. such an "antagonist" wouldn't really have misbeliefs and fears and such, right?
I have a question. For someones antagonist what if the characters dont know the antagonist`s backstory just yet, can you cut these last set of questions for the antagonist?
So I'm writing a hella big fan fiction, but I wouldn't exactly call it a fan fiction, because it's a novel, I write a novels but it just so happens that the story I'm choosing to write takes place in the same universe as an existing one, but however it's my own story, with my own unique spin on it because I'm unfamiliar with every aspect of the universe as I didn't create it,
Therefore it can't actually ever be published unfortunately but I'm writing it for the love of the series,
I also have other ideas I'm working on to but I've really been working on this one story because I find that I can relate to it the most RightNow, it's a universe that I wanna live in, anyway I'm kinda writing it by ear no real prefabrication I prefer to write in the moment because that's when the writing is the best, is there a format for this? Have other authors used this teqnique as well?