How the Flawed Belief Links Character to Plot
The Flawed Belief is one of the most important pieces of developing a character. It creates lots of juicy conflict for your character as they struggle to pursue their story goal. Without the Flawed Belief, the plot won’t link logically to the character.
A plot that hooks your reader’s attention is one that demands your character to make tough choices if they want to live the life they truly desire. Writers can use the Flawed Belief to help create a character who struggles to pursue their story goal despite their passion or desperation to succeed.
In this article, I talk about how to develop your character with a Flawed Belief, and how to use that information to link the character to the plot for a page-turning story.
Let’s hop to it!
CHARACTER + PLOT
This is a relationship you want to build from page one. If these two storytelling elements stray apart from each other, you run the risk of writing a story that feels episodic or emotionally flat.
For the purposes of this article, when I use the word “character” I’m referring to the main character or protagonist. This is the person you want your readers to root for and bond to.
Character
When the main character is introduced, we should get a sense of their personality, the life they’re living, and what they’re yearning for. As early as possible, give us a reason to CARE whether the character succeeds in reaching their story goal. Readers are only going to be immersed in your story if they can relate or empathize with your protagonist and want to see how they handle their story problem. Without that emotional connection, readers will bail.
Plot
A plot is a series of cause-and-effect events that make up the central storyline. Your main character should be personally involved in and personally affected by these events.
In other words, the events of the plot shouldn’t just happen to your character. They should affect her on a personal level so that she’s emotionally invested in what happens next. The events should have consequences that affect her and (possibly) others that she cares about.
This relationship between CHARACTER and PLOT is what makes a story captivating. Not only do you need to write a dramatic external story, but you also need to tie those events to your character’s emotional landscape so that she’s compelled to react and take action.
Flawed Belief
You want your story to kick off with a protagonist who is dissatisfied or unfulfilled in their Current World*. They’re living a life that’s missing something, but they’re too scared to change, so they settle for the life they have.
This lack is due to a Flawed Belief. An example could be a character who is lonely. They believe it’s because they’re unlovable, or maybe they’re workaholics and don’t think they can balance their careers and a serious relationship.
The Flawed Belief allowed them to build a life that they settled for (Current World), and they’ve learned how to navigate it extremely well. They tell themselves they’re happy or that it’s not the right time to make a change or that things will get better down the road. They’ll tell themselves anything to avoid making the change they need to make.
This can go on for years.
Until something happens. Something unexpected. Something they can’t ignore. Something they can’t escape. Something they can’t avoid.
Bring on the Inciting Incident
The most interesting characters are the ones who struggle with the challenges presented by the story events. It shouldn’t be easy for her to navigate what’s happening around her, otherwise you’ll have no conflict, no tension, and your reader will get bored.
The Inciting Incident launches your protagonist out of their Current World and into the Adventure World*, where they’re forced to face specific events that trigger that fear and get them reacting and taking action.
The Inciting Incident is a Call to Adventure and cannot be ignored or dismissed by your character. Either they choose to accept the call or they’re forced to accept. Either way, this is the beginning of the main conflict that will make up the majority of your story.
Once they begin to engage in this conflict, they believe if they continue to do things the way they’ve always done things, they can either avoid their fear or gain their desire.
Bring on the Character Arc
As a result of all this external kerfuffle, your character undergoes internal change. This is your arc. They question their values, their worldview, their choices, their way of life.
Listen, they’ve been operating under the code of a Flawed Belief in the Current World for years. Maybe even decades. It’s what they know. The Flawed Belief kept them “safe” from their fear, but their experiences in the Adventure World gradually teach them this belief has held them back from living a fulfilled life.
This is pretty heavy stuff! Your protagonist will buck and kick in resistance. No one likes to change, right? Same with your character. They’re going to do everything they can, throughout the majority of the story, to continue living by the code of the Flawed Belief while pursuing their story goal.
However, it becomes clear that while this Flawed Belief works brilliantly in the Current World—it can’t survive in the Adventure World.
Which really sucks because the thing they want is in the Adventure World, somewhere. In order for them to succeed at getting what they want, they’re going to have to adopt a Transformed Belief.
So, yeah, your protagonist is not a happy camper by this point. To reach their story goal, they have to give up that belief that they’ve held dear. (Depending on your story, this belief could be represented by something concrete. An alcoholic would have to give up booze if he wants to reunite with his estranged children. His belief that alcohol makes him charismatic or gives him confidence is flawed. So, in a scenario like this, living a sober life is a concrete action that crushes the Flawed Belief.)
As you can probably see, the Flawed Belief worked for him in his Current World. However, as long as he lives in the Current World, he’ll never reunite with his family.
The Adventure World offers him a second chance with his estranged children, but his Flawed Belief is constantly trampled on in that place. It’s proven to him over and over that to get the thing he wants (to reunite with his family), he must change his ways. He must get sober. And to be successful at that, he has to crush his Flawed Belief that alcohol makes him a better person. Adopt a Transformed Belief that’s healthier and allows him to attain the thing he wants.
Your character will be forced to make a choice. If they want to be victorious, they must let go of the thing they believe keeps them safe. This isn’t easy, and it requires your character to go through an arc of change.
By the end, your character will either figure out how to ditch the fears that held them back from living the life they want (Positive Arc). Or, they’ll swing in the opposite direction, refuse to make the final changes to their life, and go back to their Current World, even worse off than before (Negative Arc).
SHOWING THE FLAWED BELIEF IN ACTION
Every character has a system of psychological strengths and weaknesses (impatience, self-righteous, kind to animals, serious, brave, greedy, etc.).
Strengths and weaknesses are concrete details you can use to show your character’s Flawed Belief in action. Heck, you can use these bad boys for any number of things in your story. These traits not only create conflict for your character in the plot, but they also create conflict in the character’s internal arc of growth.
One of the interesting (and fun for a writer) things is that traits can be both a strength AND a weakness. For example, a character can be independent but a poor team player. They could be courageous but also reckless.
This opens up a realm of possibilities for your character and how they might react in any given situation. You can more easily create a three-dimensional, multi-layered character because many traits can manifest as a strength, weakness, or both.
Strengths
Any trait that leads to a positive result is considered a strength. This strength is what helps readers relate to the character in a positive way. Your character doesn’t necessarily have to be likeable, but they should be relatable. Readers want to empathize with your characters, even when they’re making a mistake, and it’s these positive traits that foster that bond.
We won’t approve of our heroine stealing from the cash register at work, but we might be more likely to understand her theft when we know the money is to buy outrageously expensive medication for her sick father. Her strength: Her love for her father. Love so powerful, she’d do anything to save him is a theme most of us can relate to.
Examples of Strengths: confidence, trustworthy, honorable, loyalty, wise, protector, kind
Strengths and their Shadows
Strengths can be dangerous when used the wrong way. Sometimes, a character might misuse their strength in a way that brings them or others harm.
This is a marvelous way to evolve a character who might have reached their pinnacle of growth. By tipping them into the shadow side, you now have a brand-new character arc to explore. Or, you could flip the tables on a character who is still growing and evolving. As our hero pursues their story goal, they’re tempted by an evil power. Promised victory will come sooner if they swear allegiance to the villain’s side. Will they overcome these darker impulses? Will our hero become a villain? Will this change in their behavior and attitude destroy all the progress they’ve made?
When we assign strengths to a character, avoid any that don’t ultimately create conflict for them in the plot. If your character is highly intelligent, that can help them get out of some tough jams—but there needs to be a limitation to that high intelligence where it’s not enough to help them reach their story goal. Otherwise, there’s no story.
The Flawed Belief should pull rank over your character’s strongest attributes. Your character could deeply love their family and be grieving over the estrangement-but that Flawed Belief is kicking their ass. The love they feel for their family is not enough to ditch the Flawed Belief.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses are traits that cause internal conflict or limit internal growth. From the beginning of your story, your character has one or more weaknesses preventing them from living the life of their dreams. Something is missing, something is not quite right, something is lacking.
Examples of Weaknesses: arrogance, selfishness, inexperience/naiveté, greed, low self-esteem, cruelty
In order for your character to fulfill her greatest desire, she will have to overcome whatever flaw is getting in her way.
For this to work effectively, the weakness should be a logical impediment to the desire. A character whose story goal is to work on Wall Street should have some kind of weakness that would logically make that goal difficult such as laziness.
While you construct your character, you want to pay careful attention when describing certain traits as a “weakness.” There are some traits (such as dyslexia or age) that are out of the character’s control. Calling it a “weakness” could be found offensive—even though you’re probably just trying to find a trait that limits the character in some way.
When you pick traits that are out of the character’s control and categorize them as weaknesses, see if you can subvert expectations. How can dyslexia be a strength? How can age ultimately help your character toward reaching their story goal? How can your character’s ADHD be used to solve the crime?
You want to make sure the weaknesses you assign your character are relevant to the Flawed Belief. Don’t assign “greed” to a character if it has nothing to do with the central story problem. Just remember that a Flawed Belief has to stem from a vulnerable point in your character’s past.
Your character isn’t going to suddenly wake up one morning and believe that they’re unworthy of success. There has to be a reason they adopt this belief, and it’s got to be wrapped up in some of your character’s deep-seated weaknesses.
A Flawed Belief of unworthiness would be logical in a character who’s an underachiever, lazy, points the finger of blame at others, doesn’t take responsibility for their actions, etc.
You can use those weaknesses in detailed scene work to help show your character’s Flawed Belief in action.
Try answering the following questions:
Your protagonist should be unfulfilled or dissatisfied in their Current World in some way. What is the Flawed Belief that prevents them from changing their life?
What weaknesses support your protagonist’s Flawed Belief? How?
What is your protagonist’s story goal? What strengths will help them accomplish this goal?
How does the protagonist’s Flawed Belief pull rank over their strongest attributes? Why is it so difficult for them to change their ways and live the life they want?
Test what you have so far: The protagonist’s story goal should conflict with their Current World. (They can’t continue to live the life they currently have AND successfully reach their story goal. Example, a character who wants to be a musician (story goal) must leave their family and the safety of their homeland to study music in a foreign land where they don’t know a single person.)
*Current World / Adventure World—I’m not solely talking about a physical environment. This refers to the character’s state of being, which includes their home life, friends, family, place of work, level of education, social and economic statuses, health, and anything else that makes up their daily life.
Thank you so much for reading! Have a writerly day!