Yesterday we started our character’s spiritual journey by asking:  What lie do they believe?  (by the way, I often use this when chatting with children, or eve myself when confronted with behaviors that might not be healthy…it’s a good exercise!)

Armed with the lie, the first thing you want to do on the journey, probably in that first scene is PROVE IT to your hero.  (a note here – every POV character needs their own lie journey!)

Step 2 – Confirmation of the Lie – Proof
What can you do to convince the hero that his lie is true?  You want to do something at the beginning of the book that will cement him into this lie – of course, it needs to be something that only pushes him deeper in trouble.

In one of my favorite books, Nothing But Trouble, PJ Sugar, my heroine believes that she can do no right – and that God isn’t on her side.  In fact, that she’s a sort of misfit, and that He has no use for her, even though she is saved.  And, in the first part of the book, we really see this as true – her “pastor” boyfriend rejects her, her nephew whom she is supposed to take care of hates her, and when she tries to help a friend in trouble, it only backfires on her.  She is convinced that she is trouble.

Let’s take another movie – the Patriot. There’s a great line in the beginning of the movie – I have long feared that the sins of my past would come back to revisit me.   This a great line because it not only tells the lie – that he believes that because of his past, that he’s beyond redemption, but then and he “proves” it throughout the movie – up until even his oldest son is killed.   Set up the lie, and then prove it to the hero/heroine.

Since we’ve been studying Eagle Eye this year, let’s apply this Lie.  Our hero believes he will never be the hero that his brother was.  (a decorated soldier).  This lie is confirmed when he walks into the church of his brother’s funeral and says, “I’m not him.”  Then we see him walking up to the casket and the brutal comparison of who he is versus who his brother was.

Book Therapist Question: Do you have a PROOF moment in the beginning of your story?

So…Step Two of building the Lie Journey:  Proof
Step 3 –  The Voice of Truth

In every book, you should have someone who is outside the lie.  Someone who see the truth and can declare it – either directly, or in their actions, or in some sub-texted speech to the hero/heroine.  Going back to the Patriot, his father believes  — because of his past, that being “bloodthirsty” is the only way to win the war, and he and Gabriel, who represents the voice of truth – there can be honor in war – have a discussion about the kind of people they should be recruiting.  His son says, as Martin is melting down the chess pieces of his deceased son’s army men,

GABRIEL
If you’re here only for revenge,
you’re doing a disservice to Thomas
as well as yourself.

He implants the idea that they are there for a higher purpose.  It’s not about being bloodthirsty, but being men of honor.  Martin struggles to see the difference…because he wasn’t a man of honor before…and isn’t sure he can be one now.

The Voice of Truth in Eagle Eye is both the brother (in memory) and the heroine.  She makes a comment about her deadbeat husband that someone has to pay the bills, someone has to be responsible.  It’s this tidbit of truth, and others (like his brother, in memory, believing in him when he learns to walk, or hits a baseball), conspire to convince him that he is there for a higher purpose….and lead him into Step 4. (Until, of course, he realizes he’s been duped into reactivating the deadly assassination program).

Book Therapist Question:  Do you have any voices of truth?  Look through your cast – who could deliver truth to your hero/heroine?

So…Step Three: Add in a Voice of Truth

Step 4 –   The realization of the Lie and the testing of the truth

At some point, your hero has to see that he’s been living in the lie, and that he CAN change.  He has to see there is another way – if only he can embrace the truth.  He might even try it –

For example, again, going back to the Patriot, there is moment where Martin’s band attacks a redcoat caravan.  There are a number of soldier who want to surrender, but Marin’s band kills them.  Gabriel, the Voice of Truth, is horrified, and seeing his horror, Martin decides to try it his way – he declares that they will give mercy to all the other captured soldiers in the future.  And then, he sort of “tests the water” by saving the two Great Danes.  Later on, those Great Danes come to love Martin and are loyal to him – a sort of metaphorical truth that when he does right, he will earn other’s esteem and be the man he wants to be.

Again, looking at Eagle Eye, Jerry Shaw begins to consider that his brother had a plan – especially when the heroine suggests it.  He takes on the mantle of  hero and helps the heroine survive all the way until the black moment, when he realizes that he has doomed the president and will be named as a traitor because of his action.

Book Therapist Question: Look at your plot – right around the beginning of Act 2, is when your hero realizes the lie.  Do you have this moment?

So – Step Four: give them a realization and an attempt to test the truth

Next week, we’re going to revisit the Black Moment and talk about how to weave the lie in for maximum Black Moment effect!

Susie May