To understand what lie your character believes you have to go back to the wounding event they suffered that changed everything for them. There are many articles that help with the lie/false belief/misbelief, but two books I would suggest you pick up is Story Genius by Lisa Cron and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus (by Becca Puglisi and me). They are the only books I know of that deep dive into this topic. 😉

It sounds like you are on the right track, but what we recommend is using the free trial at One Stop for Writers to run your character through the Character Builder. We built this tool and you’ll be able to do some deep level planning that will help you really understand your character’s lie. https://onestopforwriters.com/

That’s terrific–I’m so glad you figured this out. It makes everything so much easier because you can constantly challenge this misbelief!

After thinking about this for over a week, I believe I understand what the lie is for Kes and Dani.

For Kes, her basic lie is that she doesn’t deserve to be forgiven for being weak when her mother needed her. She believes she has to do better, be stronger so that it won’t happen again. Although Kes wants closure, it is hard for her to stop feeling like she doesn’t deserve anything better.

The basis of Dani’s lie would be that she can’t allow herself to trust the world. Because if she did trust people again they will break you. Dani believes that people will lie to you even if they love you. She can’t let herself get hurt again like that.

Thank you for helping me clear things up there!

There’s a lot going on here, so I may not have this right, but first, it’s totally normal for the sisters to have the same wound but react differently to it. They are still individuals, and how they were raised, their birth order, friendships, experiences, and personality will make them react differently, want different things, or if they want the same thing, they may want it for different reasons.

Where the lie comes in is how does each sister somehow blame themselves for what happened? Kes somehow did something that led to her mother’s death, so that is an easier one to figure out. She let her mom down at a time when her mom needed her most, and she refuses to let Dani down, failing again. Not it’s probably not fair that she blames herself about letting her mom down, –it could have been her age, trusting the wrong person, making an misjudgement or not realizing the impact of something she let slip. That’s the nature of a lie – is is a mistruth, but in the character’s pain and grief and fear, they aren’t thinking logically and only know they should have somehow been able to prevent the outcome (even when they couldn’t).

Dani seems to have a lot of anger, and she’s looking for someone to blame. Maybe it is easier to blame a person or the government rather than look at other sources…did her mom put herself and the family in jeopardy through her own actions (beliefs, stubbornness)? If so, it could feel like a betrayal for Dani to blame her mother, so Dani looks for someone else to lay it on. Or, maybe Dani also believes her sister was to blame, and it would be a betrayal to lay this death at her feet, so instead she lays it at the feet of someone else. Or maybe Dani is running from her own guilt that she didn’t protect her mother as she should have but she’s unable to deal witht he guilt so she deflects and takes it out on others.

I don’t know if any of this fits, but it might stir up ideas. For figuring out the lie for each, think about the lesson each must learn if they are to feel whole again. For Kes it might be self-acceptance and self-forgiveness, and possible Dani also.

The story I am trying to write is a fantasy novel. My two MCs are sisters, Dani and Kes. They both experienced the abandonment of their father and the death of their mother in their childhood. But the sisters have responded differently to their trauma.

Dani, the older sister, has emotionally closed herself off to the world and does not trust people especially people in authority. Dani wants to find out answers from the man who executed her mother and then eventually kill him. Seeking answers and revenge is her motivation.

Kes, the younger sister, hides her guilt for exposing her family that led to her mother’s death through humor and sarcasm which has kept people at arm’s length. Kes wants to find her uncle across the world because she believes he could offer more answers than the man who killed her mother. Seeking answers and protecting Dani is her motivation.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to discover what is the lie that Dani and Kes believe.

At the core, they both want answers surrounding their mother who had left behind a considerable amount of unanswered questions about their father, about their heritage, and why their mother was executed by the government of their homeland. But how they go about it is different. I just need help if you don’t mind.

Great question, Ashley. I’ve seen it done both ways: sometimes the character struggles with the same lie throughout the course of a series, and other times, the character confronts a new lie in each book. Full disclosure: Katie Weiland covers this whole idea beautifully, so rather than repeat what she says, I’m going to point you to her post about this. And if you’re not familiar with her site, pull up a chair while you’re there and look around. It’s a gold mine of authorial information :).

Hi David, sure thing. You just need to go here and select that option: https://writershelpingwriters.net/subscribe-to-our-newsletter/

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Best,

Angela