Story Building (Part VII): the hero we’re proud of

Way back in Story Building (Part I): the foundation, I said that a story is something that revolves around change. Without something changing, the story makes no progress, nothing is gained or lost, and there’s no resolution.

The Man Who Learned Better

There are multiple places for change to occur in your story, but the main place readers look for it is in the hero or MC. They want to see a “Man Who Learned Better (MWLB).” This can be the entire basis of your plot, or simply a subplot. “Man Who Learned Better” storylines don’t always have a clearly defined villain character or quest. They tend to follow the path of a hero who is either arrogant and by the end, through the circumstances of the story, becomes humble, or a MC who is good, only to become great by “The End.”

Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove is a great example of a MWLB. The movie starts out with Emperor Kuzco who thinks that he should get whatever he wants. After a failed poisoning attempt (by his ex-advisor) that turns him into a llama and accidentally relocates him far from his palace, he must submit to the humiliation of needing help from a peasant to get home. The movie takes us on a journey across the kingdom with the peasant and llama-emperor learning to work and sacrifice together. Kuzco finds out that friendship through humility is more valuable than anything he could get with all his riches.

But the way he “learns better” is through the pressure put on him, through conflict. He didn’t wake up one morning and think, “I want to quit being a jerk.”

The pressures of the story squeeze his arrogance out of him. As he responds to the pushing, pulling, and discomfort of the plot, we see who he is. At first, he’s a jerk, then like a steak in a meat tenderizer, the more he’s beaten, the more he breaks down and softens. The interesting thing is that the “beatings” don’t weaken him. As he becomes humbler, more selfless, and more truthful, he actually becomes stronger. Those are the things we admire in people: humility, selflessness, honesty, sacrifice, etc. Those are the things that we see as strengths.

In a story that’s not primarily a MWLB storyline, you can still have it as a subplot woven throughout the narrative.

In Hidalgo, Frank Hopkins learns that he can be proud of his people and that he belongs, but the main story goal is for him to win the impossible desert race on his supposedly inferior American Indian stock horse.

And it’s not always a story about a less-than-admirable character who becomes honorable. Sometimes the character is already loveable, like Albert Narracott from War Horse. He starts out as a hard-working, sacrificial teen, who is maybe a little ignorant about heroism. He tells his mum that he would be proud if he’d went off to war and “saved his mates.” But then his mom tells him, “Think of how much courage it takes not to be proud.”

When Albert comes home from war, we don’t see him parade his heroism. The ending is quiet and gentle, and he silently returns home to his humble family farm. That’s it.

What your hero learns is often the theme of your story.

Under Pressure

It’s easy to dump disaster after disaster onto your hero and have him “take it like a man.” It’s easy to throw him in a battle or a burning building and write him keeping his head, saving people, and emerging the hero de jour. But sometimes people aren’t level-headed. Some people can take a lot of pressure, but some people can’t. Some people end up looking like fools when under strain. Some act shamefully. And some do great things.

When you write, give your characters freedom to act like themselves. Let them be people.

The more human your characters act when under pressure, the more we’ll relate to them and ask ourselves what we would do if in that situation. I like to picture myself as a strong person when under pressure, but it really depends on the kind of pressure. Unfortunately, I discovered that I don’t do well in large earthquakes. But if I get injured, I’m generally pretty calm.

Who is your character when you push him into hard places? Make sure he’s not just who you want him to be.

No Perfection and No Preaching, Please

Showing character change, like writing ideals, has its tricks. You don’t want to draft a great book, only to have a cheesy ending because the hero is holier than thou. You don’t want to preach at us through character change. Your MC still needs to act human. He can be a better person, but no human reaches perfection, and neither should your MC.

Executing character change without preaching must happen through showing, showing, and only showing. I can’t say it enough. Don’t tell us how he changed; don’t spell it out. Let us see and discover it for ourselves. Non-preachy always impacts and challenges me more than someone whacking my head. Maybe I’m arrogant. Or maybe that’s the way God meant stories to be: flowing naturally from the surrounding events, showing—not telling—what’s good, what’s beautiful, and what we should strive for. Those are the kind of stories He told when on earth. Living outside of Jewish culture, we don’t understand how deeply integrated and part of everyday life Jesus’ stories were. He used examples that came right out of the context of the people. They weren’t preachy. They came organically out of the surrounding context, and that’s how all stories should be.

Lastly, like I mentioned in last week’s post, Dan Schwabauer suggests that a helpful way to avoid preachiness is by making the audience want the hero to change before he wants, or is willing, to.

Questions for Consideration

·        How will the disasters and dilemmas in your story wear on your hero, but also grow and strengthen him as the story moves on?

·        What will he learn by the end of the story? How will he change?

·        Will his character deteriorate, change from bad to good, or go from good to great?

·        How can you show, not tell about, him changing under the pressures of your story events so that by the end, he is a hero that we can be proud of?

Enjoy brainstorming ideas for your character change, and don’t forget to comment with thoughts or questions!

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There’s nothing worse for a good book that will do better damage than a bad ending.

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