DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE THE PODCAST OF AWESOME

On our last podcast and post, we talked about the character misbelief, which is basically what the character in your story believes that isn’t real or true.The big component of this is that your character believes this big lie about life or about themselves because of something that hurt them in the past. The thing that hurt them in the past that causes that big untruth that dictates their lives is often called a wound. Whew. So much lingo. False belief/big lie Wound/thing that hurt them in the past So, the cool thing is that you can use these false beliefs to make a better story. We talked about those false beliefs in our last podcast, but it could be that they aren’t lovable, they are unworthy, that might always makes right. The wound makes this a logical thing for them to think even though it’s super wrong. The big trick is that you want to show this to the reader rather than tell them. You can’t just write: Carrie cried because she was unlovable, which she knew because Steve Sills told her so at the seventh grade dance. And you can’t just write, “I’m only doing this,” Carrie said, “because of what Steven Sills told me at that seventh grade dance.” You want to show these beliefs rather than tell them. Instead, you want to show the reader by how the main character reacts to something BECAUSE of their false belief. It’s all about our character’s mind tricking them into lies. That’s called a cognitive distortion in real life, right? There’s a great post by Jami Gold that talks about 15 ways to show false beliefs in our characters. And honestly, they are so much like real life that it kind of hurts. She talks a lot in that post about Michael Hauge who talks a lot about this and is kind of the guru of false belief. Here we go: 15 Ways to Show False Beliefs in Our Characters (Note that these cognitive distortions are not exclusive. We can use multiple methods to show characters’ false beliefs throughout a story, so we don’t have to choose just one.) If characters believe X about themselves (e.g., they’re unlovable), they might react in one or more of the following ways: Filtering: Magnifying the negative and ignoring the positive They’ll dwell on plot events that prove their belief right and they’ll gloss over those that prove them wrong. Polarized Thinking: Seeing things in black-or-white They’ll deem any attempt to overcome that flaw a failure if it doesn’t turn out perfectly. Overgeneralization: Basing conclusions on single piece of evidence They’ll pick out a single word, act, or event to reinforce their belief. Jumping to Conclusions: Assuming others’ feelings or motivations They’ll assume others’ actions are driven by their flaw. Catastrophizing: Expecting disaster to strike They’ll worry a minor mistake due to their flaw will cause great tragedy. Personalization: Taking everything as a direct reaction to them They’ll see themselves and their flaw as the cause for everything others do or say. Control Fallacies: Seeing themselves as a victim They’ll either think fate forces them to be a victim of their flaw, or they’ll make themselves into victims by accepting blame for everything because of their flaw. Fallacy of Fairness: Judging life by “fairness” They’ll expect things to turn out positively to make up for the pain “life” inflicted with their Wound. Blaming: Blaming others for troubles They’ll think others are responsible for the pain of their Wound. Shoulds</str