What’s your character’s Lie?

@joy-caroline Y’know, I don’t suppose I’ve ever really put much thought to it…hmm…most of my characters believe a series of Small Skinny Lies that are complied into a Big Fat Bunch of Lies… Anyway, I’ll do my character Sylvie from my 9/11 story Daylight…

Her BFL is that it’s her fault her friend’s in the hospital. It’s her fault that he could die. And because of that guilt, because of all that happened, she doesn’t deserve a happy ending or to even be looking on the bright side when so many people are hurting.

Eh, not much…at least in comparison to all the lies my other characters believe (Sylvie went easy on me XD).

@joy-caroline

Awesome topic, I LOVE this kinda stuff!

Hmmm….  *ponders over which best most devastating character lie to use*

Enter Dylan.  He believes he can’t be loved.  He wasn’t loved or appreciated by his father as a boy, and then he witnessed his mother’s death, which scarred him.  He put all his worth into MMA fighting but didn’t think anyone could love love him, but maybe look up to him.  Poor guy.

@gracie-j Correction: *BFL* lol

Hmm…. Many of my characters either have a flat arc or I can’t exactly pinpoint their lie….now I see why my stories sometimes end up flat. I suppose…..Maybe Kestrel from my Wings of Fire/Star Wars fanfic Curse of the Animus might work?  She was born with a sort of power which could be called magic, and she thinks she has to carry this weight alone, without the help of her parents and brothers. (Her father has the same ability, it’s hereditary.) Then comes an attack on her father’s mountain hometown (by one of her evil ancestors who extended his lifespan by using his power), and she has to learn to 1) trust her family to help her defeat him, and 2) that it’s wrong to think no one understands what you’re going through. I know, it sounds rather boring when I write it like that, but…..I found it interesting! (I haven’t even gotten past the first few chapters though.)

@joy-caroline

oy vey… I don’t plan character lies… umm they sorta develop with the character, but the first one in my mind would be Brianna Hakonik;

she was kidnapped as a child and raised in a very dark place and trained as an assassin and ring fighter and with it came a lot of trauma and abuse. As you can guess she’s bitter and aggressive and extremely distrusting.

Lie: She believes she’ll never be lovable and that she will always be evil; no one will be loyal to her, and she’ll always be alone.

@joy-caroline

I love this topic! Thanks for starting it.

Personally, I don’t really plan these things out, so I can only identify my character’s lies after I’ve finished a first draft, sometimes much later (second or third draft). One story I’m just about to start the fourth draft and I’ve only just worked out the lies of the majority of the main characters.

Anyhow, I will tell you the lies of a couple of my main characters. For my previous WIP, my main character, Ilio believes that he is not worthy of love and that he is a monster. This is drawn, pretty obviously, from the fact that he’s a werewolf. He doesn’t feel like he can ever accept love from anyone because what if he hurts them?

His brother, Sholo, believes the same thing, that he is unlovable. Not because of any werewolf mutation, but because he’s a criminal and believes the things he’s done make him a bad person. Which they do, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not as bad a person as he believes he is.