My new fantasy book, Kingdom of Dragons, is available now! Get a signed, deluxe edition here (with glorious interior artwork): jedherne.com/kingdom

In a lot of my stories I tend to have the resolution of the overall conflict to be a collusion of main character and several other side characters, rather than just having the main character solve it alone. I find that to be much more satisfying because not only does it make it easier for me to not allow side characters to go to waste, but it also elevates the comradery and friendships that I enjoy writing about.

I especially love it when the main/major character is told by someone they are a *_Leader_* , and I'm sitting there thinking at what point before this have they demonstrated any traits that could charitably be called 'leadership qualities'. Then they go on to show they don't even have the ability to lead shore leave sailors to a brothel.

If your main character isn't inextricably tied into the plot, then you have neither character nor plot. You have some guy who's there while stuff happens.

One fun twist to people telling you that a character is this or that thing instead of showing that character to be that thing is that those people could be wrong. I don't want to say what it's from to spoil it, even if it's not really a major plot point, but there was a story where one character was known across the world as the most powerful being on the planet. The issue is that the character had literally no powers (as I remember), he just kept happening to be at a location where a powerful enemy showed up and got taken down by the main character of the story who had a habit of defeating enemies without telling anyone about it, so all those defeated bad guys got attributed to the other guy. Not all reputations are earned or accurate.

I think one issue with having a character with any contradictions in their nature, is that quite often certain internet reviewers will spot that, and either fail to realise it's a deliberate choice to show the nature of the character and just claim it's bad writing in action. Or, they do spot that it's deliberate and twist and turn it into something else, which is quite common these days with a certain type of internet reviewer who tends to fixate on nit-picking above all else.

I want to say something about "Write What You Know" I think limiting your stories to your experiences can eliminate many possibilities. Like if you have a dozen characters and want them to have different issues it becomes harder to make them their own because they are just now a piece of one person. So I say "Write What You Understand" I've never struggled with addiction but I can write a relatable story about alcoholism because I know what those who struggle with it do. Please feel free to criticize my point.

I figured that something recently that I think a lot of writer's I've met don't understand. Your character can have a DnD class, but your character cannot BE a DnD class. If the hero's characterization is ruined for you because you see them as a rogue, but halfway through your story they realize they are actually way more effective as a barbarian, it does not mean that your character is ruined - it means that your character learned something about themselves that changes their previous image. That's not bad writing, that's growth and true to life! You can spend years thinking that you're one thing and then out of the blue find out you're farrrr better at something else and switch to that.

19:26 Hyping up the main character without justification, reminds me of Captain Marvel

I really appreciate that you said a writer should present their characters with strong challenges. I couldn't agree more. When writing, I sometimes feel as if authors get so attached to a character they've developed so well that they end up just not wanting that character suffer. I've found this to be especially true with not only a singular character in stories, but the entire force of what would be called the "good guys." As a result, the conflict never feels engaging enough because things aren't difficult enough on the part of the good guys, and too difficult on the part of the "bad guys." If the contrast/struggle is more balanced, more head to head, I personally find it to be a more entertaining read. Anyway, loving the content. I just discovered this channel, and it's alreadg a new favorite. I'm a huge fantasy guy, too. Keep up the awesome work, though 👏

I think what people mean when talking about plot driven vs character driven is similar to active/passive protagonist. In character driven stories the characters and their internal struggles create the plot whereas in plot driven stories the events in the plot prompt various actions and reactions of the characters.

Sorry in advance if this idea has already been discussed in the comments, but I would like to add to all the advice given (and they really good and useful) add one more small point: - don't overdo it I often see young authors in my country wanting to get more and more of everything. There is more “glass”, that is, poignant moments for the characters, more personality sides, more emotions that turn the text into a continuous emotional swing in which logic dies (and the reader loses his breakfast). I always want to tell such authors: don’t forget about balance. I think it's important to be able to stop expanding and elaborating on details, whether they're complexities for a character or a side of their personality, and guide the reader at least a little bit down the line. I hope the online translator can handle the idea I want to convey...

This dropped JUST as we were deciding which project to work on finishing next. Time to refine our main characters for that! Only recently discovered your channel, but it's reignited a lot of our passion for writing, so thank you for what you do :)

My favorite protagonist and antagonist relationship is Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Both are horrifyingly twisted and morally flawed characters, but they're both extremely empathetic, understandable and complex at the same time. Seeing how they constantly influence each other and the entire world around them is fascinating.

Theme ties everything, fam. On a "macro" level: Character, Plot, Story World. On a "micro" level: Relationships between Characters, events and types of obstacles in Plot, key/symbolic locations in the Story World. Theme, in this random dude's opinion, should be the first step in every writer's process. If we can't make it the first, then it should be referred back to and worked on after every step until found; because it's literally the DNA that ties everything together. All the greats, from Gaimen to Nolan, all speak to the importance of Theme. Mastering it really unlocks that Ultra-Instinct-level of clarity in storytelling...At least, for me, it does! Not saying I've mastered it yet, but it feels like, after 13 years of writing, I can finally see the light at the end of this beautiful/frustrating tunnel!

I remember a real life example of transferring respect from one character to another. As a teenager I went with a friend to meet someone irl that she met online before. He came with a friend as well. A big muscular guy who presented him as some sort of silverback gorilla. Driving possibly dangerous people away from us girls, while supporting his friends. He invited us (to McDonald's 😂 but hey, we were teens) and he was the type of guy we somewhat adored. Then he got a phone call from another guy he had to settle things with. He panicked. This muscular big guy panicked over a phone call of a possible enemy who wanted to come for him. To say we girls were intrigued would've been an understatement. Who could possibly make this guy shiver in fear? Even consider him to run away? He was so very masculine. Well, end of the story, the other guy came into said McDonald's to pick a fight. He was almost a full head smaller than me, pretty lean and not at all imposing. The "fight" they had was settled with handing over 15$. Needless to say, big guy became somewhat of a laughing stock for us, while small guy hold much more of at least my interest for a while.

In regards to number 10: I actually think this can be used really well as an intentional inversion. I would say the first Mistborn trilogy actually does something similar to this because Vin is kind of a red-herring for most of it and not really the most important character in the climax or the story when you look at it as a whole.

You should do another one of these types of videos about how to avoid the pit falls of various tropes and how to use them effectively. I don't know how many times I have looked at a fantasy book and thought "oh god, not another chosen one."

Robert Jordan does the point of view thing really well- it is very clear in wheel of time that everything is filtered through the characters' points of view (the omniscient descriptions excepted). Brandon Sanderson has discussed Jordan being so good at this in some of his BYU lectures and Jordancon videos.

I think this video applies very well to writing characters for dungeons & dragons and speaking with your dungeon master about your backstory

On the "No attempt to see them from antagonist's perspective" segment, I have some addendums. With very, very few exceptions, my villains are monsters. Not humans who are in the "You're a monster!" camp, but actual monsters. This is true for both "this is basically a crazy violent bear" and the more "thinking and feeling dragon" aspects. Realism is fine and all, but I feel like a lot of writers simply are incapable of drawing up primal motivations that you can see despite literally being incapable of relating to a bear or a dragon. As someone who really dislikes the "a monster, but mentally a human in every way" villain, I'd really like people to untrain themselves from the very way presented in the video. But that's just me, who prefers to see actual, non-human enemies that aren't just dumb animals or "basically human"-and I especially hate when I see stories of "the enemy is non-human" but then most of the story's conflict is just human versus human. I consider it THE #1 sin in fantasy writing.

This was really good. Don't sell yourself short. All this is true for all stories, not just Fantasy.

In a first draft I'm more focused on getting down what i want to happen. I intend to go back through it and "complicate" it, with these kind of concepts.

This video has been a god send for me. My main desire for my writing is that what I write brings emotions to the reader. Evil as it may sound, I want my readers to cry at a sad scene, to laugh at a comedic point, to get angry at the villain, and to be understanding of the villain when the reason comes about. All these mistakes and how you talked about them has helped me start to solve and fulfill that desire

Wonderful ideas, Jed. You saved me from a large dilemma i’ve had in my own main character for my first novel. I’m working on making his character flaws more personal and relatable, less annoying hahaha.

This is some really great advice on how to flush out my antagonists when I feel like my protagonists are so real. Feeling inspired after this video, thank you!!

Ok, that double description sold me the book! Thanks for the video, too!

Interestingly, my writing didn’t click until I saw the plot and character as two SEPARATE stories. I come up with the overall plot first, as well as list all the major scenes that I think we be particularly entertaining. Then I write a separate outline of the characters’ internal journey. Then I start writing from the top, working the characters into the plot. The fun part for me is discovering how the plot changes the characters and how the characters change the plot. Often ideas crop up from these changes that have a cascading effect, requiring me to go back and add or revise a previous scene to lead to incorporate the changes, but it’s all very satisfying to see it all come together. To me, it’s like the plot and characters are engaged in a complex series of dances, which are sometimes discordant and require modifying the choreography to get them in sync.

Great video. Came just in time as I was struggling with a singular character in my story that didn't have the impact I was wanting. I had some trouble pinning down what was missing and you solved the mystery for me. Thanks!

Thank you so much for this video! Especially the part about breaking down characters' contradictory natures. I find I have a hard time breaking down my own characters in a way that isnt too simple or too vague. This system is a great foundation to work off of, at least for me. Much appreciated!

the one dimensional part reminded me of the fact that i keep coming back to this idea of the main character's senior or whatever whos a great person currently but has a past of being a really cool villain

So I'm new to your channel, I've been brainstorming and taking down ideas for multiple books for years now. However deep inside I always knew I wasn't quite ready to sit down and write a good story. This video made me feel like I knew what I was missing in a way I could essentially tackle by sitting down and doing the adult equivalent of homework. Thank you so much and here's to hoping one day you see one of my books and are impressed.

Uh not even half way through this video and I'm subscribed. There's so much to think about in such a short window in this video, It's perfect.

19:11 this kind of reminds me of Harry Potter but the opposite way. Harry is always depicted as a nerd while Malfoy is depicted as a confident bully and he abuses and mocks Harry, like in the Prisoner of Azkaban during classes, but at that point, Harry had slain an ancient monster in a legendary chamber never discovered for millennia using the legendary sword of one of the founders of Hogwarts, while Malfoy literally did nothing noteworthy, but the story kept the bully-nerd dynamic between the two characters even though Harry would be regarded as a legend by his peers by that point.

I’ve gotten back into writing again recently now that I’m finally done with exams, and I’m really glad you posted this today. I find the idea of writing compelling characters to be one of the most intimidating things when approaching writing overall and your explanations are always really clear and easy to understand, even for a rookie like myself! Thank you so much Jed for the effort you put into teaching others :D

That's an amazing, well-edited video, super helpful, lots of value, and lots of hard work that you put into this! Thank you so much!

This video puts into structured words the thoughts I’ve been attempting to organise for a very long time with regards to duality in storytelling. I bet this video hasn’t given me a complete description, but any incompleteness that’s present is exactly what will drive me to seek the truth by experience! Also I’ll have my own story to share out of it, which was my initial goal!

Your videos are amazing and has helped me learn so much about writing and how to improve it!!

Tysm 😭 i've been wanting to write my book gor ages

Great video and well versed. This will come in handy as I'm about to refine some characters I made for an idea I'm working on

Thanks for your video man!! Best wishes from Iceland.

Always admire these writer tips that made me relieved I draft my writing before publishing stage for my fantasy stories

Another cracking video about all the mistakes I made at one point or another.

I'm only 3 sections in and I already have ideas and different perspectives for my own story just from that. Fleshing out antagonists alone is a great help, and making sure my fights and struggles aren't boring is also a big deal. Appreciate the break down.

As a writer, I find this truly helpful! I'll come back to this to help me better understand my way of writing for my stories. Thanks!! ^_^

I havent even started writing my book yet I've just been world building, making the characters, how the characters effect and change the world around them. All the creatures in the world, demons, how I want everyone interacting with eachother etc. Your videos have helped open different doors to possibilitys. Thanks Jed!

A great Authortuber is first a great author, and a great Authortube video shows examples of the lessons it’s teaching using the author’s own work. Those contrasting descriptions of “Alegium” rooted in the characters different viewpoints was fantastic sir.

I needed this so much!

Amazing, I have some more direction for my ending and side characters. Thanks

Right at the start of the video, and my time as a sound tech kicked in, looking at your microphone. GOOD JOB! Some reading this might thinking "WTF?" but that is very GOOD mic placement for spoken voice pickup, and that's rare to see. If you ask professional performers many of them would even say it's wrong, because proper placement is sadly uncommon among performers, but if you ask professional SOUND TECHNICIANS (Which is what I used to do as an occupation, for many years.) most will agree that this is excellent placement for that microphone. Moving on to the video content, but I wanted to say thank you for an immediate positive in the video, for me.

I agree on many points but there are many ways to write a story and unconventional ways to do it. It's more difficult to do that though it requires more talent a deep understanding of human emotions and a great capability to write complexity.

This helped a lot. Thank you.

Thank you, very good help.

The best characters always have something that they need to improve on. A recent D&D character I started using was actually in a friend's Ravnica-Themed D&D campaign. Brask, a Viashino Sorcerer of the dragonblood subtype (using the brass dragon lineage for a dragonborn as the proxy) is, what would be a Chaotic Evil character. Most people don't like Chaotic Evil characters because a lot of people who play them make the character little more than a murderhobo. Brask is different, because I thought of his alignment using the five colors of mana and picking three that resonated with him. As a Rakdos Cultust, hes a murderous clown musician, yes... But he aspires to be a headliner rather than an opening act, which emphasizes his alignment to the Red and Black colors of his guild. But, I know that the Cult of Rakdos is more than just murderous clowns and performers, their job is to work the foundries of Ravnica and make sure that any place that needs metal, has it. So I had to think of a third color that would influence his growth. I settled on Green because while hes not a fan of order, he does want to have fans that might actually survive his performances and tell others how awesomr it was so more people would show up next time.

I have been watching your series and may actually sign up to your course. I have a book I am working on, though I am reworking some things, realizing that extending the prologue to several chapters did add impact to the character bonds before everything went down, but broke the flow, so I am keeping the chapters aside, but they will be called back on throughout in memories. The story is called A Tale of Two Brothers and follows brothers torn apart by golden child abuse and how it ended up breaking both of them, leading to terrible pain on both sides, but also follows their eventual reunion and reconciliation so they can return and face the real villain of their story.

Wow. Every single one of your videos is a gold mine.

I dont even know why I clicked this THIS THUMBNAIL just caught my eye. The way he looks at the sword and overall the Scenario just looked facinating.

Excellent advice. In years of reading and seminars about writing, I’ve never heard some of the points you’ve made before. Thanks.

The first point you make about writting what you felt, is what I am useing to write my sci-fi piece. :) I recently went to France, to handle final affairs of a family member not vacation, and am useing the experience to help write for my character. I am not a strong French speaker, yet, so I used that to write for the Aliens VS. MC. :) (I really miss my friends there.)

Sweet, new checklist!

Currently writing my wary first book, so youre tips already helped me improve the story. I delibretly AVOID any talk about Chosen once and that thing. The story is wary simple. A Vampire girl accidentelly summons a boy from oure world into her fantasy world. And now they simply go explore the world to find a way to send the boy home.

Woooo, another Jed Herne video!

I want to say, while it's great to have this advice for new writers, it can be really overwhelming to have everyone say that you can't make these simple mistakes. I'm a new writer, technically. I've been writing my whole life, but only recently have been writing to publish. I've overthought my book so much because of the Mistakes Writers Shouldn't Make idea. It's gotten to the point where I don't want to write it much anymore because there's so much talk about how new writers always make these mistakes and that you should avoid them. Yes, these mistakes can ruin a book, especially one with potential. But for me, thinking about all the mistakes to avoid is making it harder to focus on writing the damn story. New writers can make mistakes. They will learn. I'm still excited to write my book, I know it'll be a good one, but the stress of messing up is a lot to handle. New writers should be allowed to write a one-dimensional power fantasy if they want to. Besides, some of these "mistakes" are the main drivers of plot sometimes. The video is good, don't get me wrong, but trying to avoid all these mistakes at once for the main character, alongside all the other things to think about in a book like the plot and side characters, is a lot for new writers who might not even be trying to publish their stories!

This was honestly really eye opening, and while I don't really fall into ALL of these mistakes, there's definitely a few I noticed I've made somewhat consistently (or in the case of introductions, actively struggled with) while working on my pet project of a novel for the past... way too many years on and off... Honestly I've kind of run into an odd situation where the main character isn't even the one I start off the story introducing as the 'main character', even though most of the first major arc of the story revolves around their perspective, but is actually a character introduced later on, who is built up and developed through varying character perspectives and interactions with and about her. It was entirely unintentional, but it also kind of seems to work in a strange way. Anyway my rambling aside, as a first time viewer, looking forward to more content and well worth the sub.

i just paused and did the 10 worst thing list, but then i retooled it a little and thought about what concerns occupies their mind. i found that even more useful in my case, i guess, maybe it's because i had a little trouble defining the worst things, like if it'd be their fears or things they don't even know may befall them

Thank you SO much for sharing your wisdom, your views, and giving a candid insight into your own writing process and way of thinking! I wrote a short snippet of a drama about 15 years ago while I was waiting for my exams to finish. The story seemed to stay with me throughout college and slowly began to grow into more of a thriller-drama... But I haven't touched it since I started grad-school 12 years ago. Time moved on, and the urgency I once had to get my own emotions outside my mind grew less imperative than the risk of not finishing what I had been studying so hard towards. After all this time, the story still haunts me... Or rather the fact that I have left it unfinished - that I didn't finish my relationship with my characters so to speak. Thank you very much for your advice on how to write better protagonists and antagonists!! You have gotten me thinking about them again with a sense of wonder and curiosity, instead of regret and longing.

Very useful information! Thank you!

Incredible stuff Jed. Definitely helping my book The Secret of the Magi =)

THANK YOU plot vs. character. I never understood this distinction and kind of felt like describing something as a "character-driven story" was the author (or someone else's) excuse for droning on and smelling their own farts with worldbuilding and descriptions, rather than GETTING TO THE POINT and actually telling the story. Robin Hobb's Ship of Magic is a great example of this. Her writing is incredibly descriptive and immersive, her characters vivid, and she puts them through hell. But the entire book I was wondering when we were going to get to the story...

Due to me writing a story based off a D&D campaign I was in, it's great to know this.

Thanks for these vids!

Hello, Jed! Awesome video, the edititing quality is top notch as always. I would like to know your thoughts on "The Story Grid" as a method for writing a story, if you are familiar with it. Also, your videos had me pick up on old ideas I had, and I'm currently about halfway done with my begening hook thanks to your insights! Cheers!

Thank you for your video. I can really see you are a certified author on Fiction books. I trust your advise.

This is a very good analysis sir! And what I love the most is that not only you are a living encyclopedia for an aspiring writer, but also a constantly progressing author as well. Both your skills to teach and to learn are very impressive.

oh i missed watching these kinds of videos. it was enjoyable when i could be arsed to even try write anything

I have been trying to come up with the storyline for my first fantasy novel that i seem to already have stumbled into accomplishing the first goal you have set here. In the series the two main characters are tasked by the gods to rekindle the traditional beliefs of the worlds’ religions into the new empire that has formed after 900 years since the deities had contacted humanity. This puts them in a very tough position as they find themself in a world foreign to their morals in which they must decide on whether they choose to stick with their morals and risk this new empire discovering them and hunting them down or do they choose to abide by the morals of this new empire at the potential cost of falling into this new corrupted way of life.

Another great video Jed!

You were one of the few people who actually show examples. It helps a lot.

This video was super helpful Jed!

How convenient for this video to show up in my recommended as I seriously considered writing a comedy fantasy book

I needed this▪️as a new author I'm always looking for ways to clean up my manuscript and this video is a god send thanks man▪️last thing if my book gets famous I'll make sure to give you a shout out

Looking at your writing included as an example here (of contrasting two characters' experience of the same thing, around 14:00), it doesn't feel as though the writing followed your own advice as much as it could have. And your advice was SO good that I was hoping to see more evidence of it being used in the example. So the idea is a description of a place seen from two different people with wildly different feelings about it, and those feelings are expressed in the way they describe the place: Rovan's description had a suitably bitter tone, but he was barely describing what they were looking at and was done in one short line. The rest of his text was just how he felt about the people who lived there, which we'd probably already know. Instead I'd want to see his seething description of the place that shows how ominous, threatening, deceptive, repugnant, etc. he thinks it is. The only descriptor we have for that in his description is 'drowned in shadow', which is great, but there could be SO much more - maybe it reminds him of a huge insect nest, maybe the trees seem twisted and sickly to him, maybe the buildings (if there are any) seem to be watching and judging, maybe he bitterly notes the difference between powerful floating privilege hanging like a sword over constantly-in-danger townsfolk below, literally taking their sunlight. Zora's description on the other hand should have been a genuinely opposing description; yet though she described the place more it just seemed kind of 'neutral', and not different enough from Rovan's. We knew she was happy because she was described as smiling, but I wanted to see it in her text. I'd want her description to be about how sparkling and beautiful it all is, how strong and ancient, how noble and inspiring: sunlight catching on windows or rock faces, pennants/leaves /mist (whatever) on the morning breeze - colour, life, excitement! She could describe the same twisted tree or rock crack as Rovan, but find it charming instead of sinister. But the 'upside-down mountain' didn't really communicate the joy she felt. And comparing dragons to flies is kind of gross and implies dirt and disease, which would've suited Rovan better than Zora. She could've been compared them to dragonflies(!) instead for a much prettier (and apt) visual. Are there other descriptions of 'Alegium' in the book that give description of how it looked, like what kind of openings in the rock (natural? man-made? ornamented?) what sort of rock (what colour, texture?) and specifics? That's the other thing lacking in both descriptions: anything specific. In fact there weren't really many descriptions in the description, it was 'mountain', 'lake', 'city', 'dragon'. If I was your writing teacher for this I'd be asking for more description, flavour, and specifics here - even in tiny snippets like this - to make the whole thing more uniquely yours. Great advice though, thanks! :)

Well, the main character from The Name of the Wind immediately attracted my attention, I even went to google the book. That says a lot.

"huge grin on their faces" at the end got me sooo muuuuch, during the whole viedo I was like "how does he look so similar to grinch?"... anyway, thx for the awesome content, keep it up

I'm not sold on your definition of dimensions. I don't think it needs to be two conflicting traits. It can be the same trait with multiple ways of expression. Loyalty to a partner looks different than loyalty to an idea, a cause, a country. The diversity and mediation of that single value can make someone very complex

Good advices !

After going through all 10 points, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I seem to have most of my bases covered already, which hopefully means that my own MC is sufficiently compelling so far. Here's a sample: My MC is the granddaughter of someone who was once considered the weakest link in a legendary adventuring party, but had still managed to become famous by somehow defeating a dragon single-handedly. In her childhood, the MC idolized him as the legendary hero that he was, and desired nothing more than to be an ideal hero like him. One day however, a rumor began spreading that his accomplishment was too outlandish to be true, with everyone in their town starting to believe the tale to be an exaggeration, or worse, an outright lie. Even the MC's parents began to doubt it enough to suggest that even if it were true, it was likely a fluke. Absolutely livid at how quickly everyone had turned their backs on her grandfather now that he was old and bedridden, the MC reassured him that she had total faith in him, but in the end he died right in front of her, believing that the rest of the world had abandoned him. This... made the MC snap. She would never forgive the people of this world for their cruelty of making her beloved grandfather's death so lonely. Even so, he wouldn't have wanted her to become some revenge-seeking villain, and that thought made her restrain her wrath. Instead, she would clear his name by proving them wrong about what kinds of accomplishments that people are capable of. She would do something far grander in scale, she wouldn't just defeat 'a' dragon, she would defeat one of EVERY species of dragon in the world (of which there are several dozens). Not wanting to stay anywhere near the people who had wronged her grandfather so deeply, she left home when nobody was looking and sailed away to begin her journey alone. Soon, she stumbled upon an abandoned dungeon on an iceberg at sea, which housed a powerful artifact, a sentient sword with a blade of magical ice, whose strength would match the wielder's determination to reach their goal, regardless of what that goal was, or their motive behind it. With her desire driving her forward, she bound herself to the weapon with zero hesitation and began her training. Before she was even a teenager, she had already begun making a bit of a name for herself as a small-time adventurer who would dip in and out of parties that went on quests that would advance her goal, especially any involving draconic foes, which she would demand to face alone even if she had backup. Although many respected her skill, and were grateful for the good she did, she had a reputation for being unlikable due to her standoffish personality, which came from her deep hatred for the world that she was essentially forcing herself to defend. After 15 or so years of this routine, gradually gaining more power and skill while crossing a good number of dragons off of her list, she eventually takes part in a quest which would eventually snowball into a series of events that would not only turn the lives of her and her soon to be permanent party on their heads forever, but would shake an entire multiverse to its core. While I didn't cover every single detail, that's the summary of her backstory. The rest of the party have (or will eventually have) roughly similar depth to their own backstories, since in truth they're all nearly equally important to the story, but since this is the one that the story begins with while the rest are revealed along the way, she's the closest I have to a "Main" Main Character. As far as I can tell, this does a decent job avoiding mistakes 4, 7, 8, and 9. Furthermore, mistakes 1 and 6 are also covered because one of the central themes of the story which applies to many major characters is finding the good in people despite their mistakes or choices, which is also something I try to strive for when I can help it. Not everyone can (or deserves to) be redeemed, but it's at least worth asking the question before writing them off completely, just in case. As for mistake #2, there are definitely some difficult choices that she has to make along the way, and she doesn't always pick the answer that the majority might consider to be better. Jumping ahead to Chapter 8, she's put in a position during a big fight where she sees that two of her friends are about to die and there's no time to save both of them. One of them was kidnapped by the minions of that chapter's villain, and is about to be sacrificed to power up the big bad, meanwhile the other one is the team archer who's about to be stabbed in the back while on the other side of the room, too far away for anyone else to assist. The MC can save one with an icy projectile from her magic sword, but not the other, and she has a split second to decide. Despite the risk of the ritual making the villain stronger, she chooses to save the archer because she's started to view him like a younger brother, and feels a sense of personal responsibility to protect him. To make matters worse, the two she has to choose between have fallen in love with each other, meaning that they would be unhappy to survive if they knew it was at the expense of the other. Afterward, she realizes that nobody saw what she did, meaning that if she wanted, she could say nothing avoid any responsibility, but when the thought of hiding it makes her feel genuine guilt for what might be the first time in her life, she decides to tell the others, while still making it clear that she doesn't regret her choice. Ultimately, despite so often striving to do the "right" thing (even if it's often for the wrong reason), she's still willing to be "selfish" by saving someone she's a bit more attached to, even if the alternative might result in a bigger problem. And finally, for mistake #10, my MC is definitely essential to resolving the climax. You could maybe argue that the day could potentially be saved if one of the many other heroes had been absent, but not the MC. Furthermore, she's necessary in a way that only matters BECAUSE of all the growth she went through along the way, whereas if she had the same strength OR mindset that she started with, it would be impossible to win. The final boss is such a massive threat, that the only thing strong enough to finish it off is the MC's sword being powered by the intense desire to protect those who matter to her, a desire which only exists once she finally acknowledges and accepts that she's able to care about others again. That just leaves mistakes 3 and 5, although for the latter I suppose her long-lasting general hatred of pretty much everyone might count for how she views people, but not so much environments. And for #3, the villains mostly just see her as one member of the group who keeps getting in their way, so thinking about how they view her (and the rest of the party) is definitely something I can flesh out to be more interesting. All in all, this was a good watch, very helpful.

Just looking at the titles of the sections on your video's timeline, I got an epiphany to fix a weak portion of a novel I'm writing!

For the 'weak challenges' point, that could be handled well actually. There are stories where the main character is presented as super op at first, at first it seems like the villains are always getting bowled over by the hero and it feels like the story is going to be overly safe. Then one particular villain appears and has some ability (be it a particular magic spell, innate physical ability, trained in the same abilities as the main character, etc.) that nullifies the hero's op abilities and we get either a stalemate or the seemingly overpowered hero takes a solid defeat. As an example, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Early on the Jedi, who are the protagonists, Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi, are pretty much unstoppable. With the strength of the Force they defeat the Trade Federation's soldiers every time they appear, Qui Gon Jinn easily wins games of chance by using his Force powers (the dice game with Watto), uses the Force to make leaders agreeable with him (Boss Nassa of the Gungans), etc. But this overpowered presentation ends as soon as one particular enemy, Darth Maul, appears on the scene, dueling Qui Gon Jinn one on one and overpowering him. Once Qui Gon Jinn escapes he immediately collapses, saying he had no idea what had just attacked him, and once back on Coruscant admits that 'the situation has become much more complicated'. So, the heroes getting weak challenges *at first* can be a good setup to give you an idea of how much of a problem are the villains who can legitimately challenge the hero. Of course, if it's just weak challenges from start to finish, yeah, that's garbage.

Excellent video! I loved the Ned Stark character introduction example and all of Kvothe's conflicting motivations. I also enjoy flat characters to contrast round ones. One of my favorites is Sweet Robin Arryn in A Game of Thrones: "Mother, I want to see him fly!"

Awesome, thanks

This is one of the most useful writing videos ive ever watched.

Hehe. I'm not a writer, but I play PBFs for half my life so far and this video absolutely feels like a pat in the back ;D I have two different characters that I play in this particular world and I love how different it is to write from those drastically different perspectives. Also they're both built upon on their previous plot and what happens to them always comes back in future posts and I absolutely love it.

I have making draft after draft for the past 20 years I have finaly created something worth reading, cause I nailed every point in your video ... (I was curious to see if I did)

I've been thinking about writing my own book for a while now and 4 months ago I broke ground on it, I've been having trouble setting scenes and writing my main character around it and this video gave me so much insight into why I'm having the issue. Thank you. Have u made a video about word count?

...I just realized I always have three main characters in my stories... or at least three main driving forces. Like, currently I have a grand witch travelling the realm in search of a magic spell/curse left by her predecessor in order to break it (the one to solve the conflict), the cursed one (the conflict), and the character that stumbles upon the cursed one(the reader).

This is a very useful video. Thank you. I agree with 6:34 and the points when there's no attempt to write around the main character(s). We know how the character is, but how does the main character get involved to others and how does their behaviour work on others? those are many things readers might want to know as well. ^w^

When I was in high school, I got into creative writing, and actually started the beginnings of a book, maybe even a book series, it was a few years ago, so I don't remember the small details, but the premise was about a boy who, while not being evil, was not necessarily good either, a boy who's siblings couldn't care less for him, and a father that just didn't have time for hi m, so, when he found a chance to have more in life, he took it, he was selfich, yet selfless at the same time, helping people that he wasn't obliged to help, but choosing those he was close to over the greater good. I was going to add two other main branches of the story, about the "villain" that isn't completely evil but a bit misunderstood as well, he grew from a boy that had nothing, to an immensely ambitious and ruthless man that wanted only the best for those that followed him, and the "hero" who uses his high status to get his way, often putting himself above anyone, even his closest friends. It was going to be a story about the building of the characters personalities, and then growing and changing with the world around them, and the influence they have on others, the stories would have eventually intertwined, tying their stories together, as well as the consequences of the choices and actions they made along the way, creating one big web where the line between good and evil is blurred, and only their actions, inactions, and subsequent consequences would define what they truly are, whether they know it or not. The reason I stopped writing it, was because I didn't have the time, so I think maybe, once I do have more time, I'll get back into it all.

@jed_herne on the point of plot vs character driven while i agree with your advice i feel maybe it would be better to contextualise them as intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation however the best stories imo have a mix of both so your overall point stands

Thank you for the points about: - writing from the villains perspective - contrasting personality traits to create a dimension