45 Master Characters (46 page)

In
Titanic
, Rose is betrayed by her father because he squandered away the family's money and died leaving them penniless. Then her mother betrays her by forcing her into an engagement with an abusive man she doesn't love. It's clear she's been doing what she's told for a very long time. When her fiance´ beats her she decides to kill herself. The whole world has betrayed her; womanhood has betrayed her as well because as a woman she doesn't think she'll ever be able to ride horses and explore the world like she dreams of doing.

If your character is facing an internal “What's my life all about?” then she'll willingly move toward transformation and face villains in the form of people telling her she's not capable to go on the journey. We'll discuss this in the next stage.

This is the stage where the villain is set up. Make sure the villain, the one who betrays, has a good reason for doing what he is doing.

Think of how memorable the villain Hannibal Lecter is in
The Silence of the Lambs
. He isn't shown as just some insane man but is given moments of extreme mental clarity and professionalism that make him almost endearing.

Villains never believe themselves to be bad or wrong. They have concrete reasons behind what they do and truly believe they're right and everyone else is wrong.

Rose's fiance´ in
Titanic
believes that he truly loves her and that she is blessed to be with him. He even gives her the most expensive necklace in the world to prove it. He feels he has gone out of his way to please her. He believes he does everything for her and that she is simply ungrateful.

Examples of Stage 2

One of Inanna's betrayals comes from the god of wisdom. One day Inanna pays him a visit and “with youthful audacity, she boasts that
she
will bless him. But he refers to her as
the young woman
, and bids his servant to treat her
as if she were equal with him
.”

After an afternoon of drinking and feasting he laughingly gives all of his holy possessions to her. She accepts his gifts and joyfully leaves with them. When he sobers up he is outraged that his possessions are gone. He sends his servant to get the gifts back from Inanna. Inanna is crushed when she hears this news. “She sees him as a tyrant, a fraud, a monstrous liar.”

Depressed and devastated, she realizes that all the dogs in the land have homes but she, the queen, has nowhere to call home. Enlil the sky god has made her a wanderer. “He has filled me, the queen of heaven, with consternation … the dog kneels at the threshold, but I — I have no threshold.”

Gilgamesh also turns against her, insulting her in order to steal her power.

She is courted by Dumuzi, the Shepard King of Uruk, but she states several times that she doesn't love him and wants to marry a farmer instead. Her mother and brother convince her to do otherwise.

As mentioned earlier, Dorothy feels betrayed by both her uncle when he doesn't protect Toto from the nasty neighbor who wants to put him to sleep, and her parents because they aren't there for her.

As mentioned earlier, Rose is betrayed by her father because he squandered away the family's money, and by her mother planning an arranged marriage for her.

Edna's husband is out late playing billiards. He never pays much attention to her when he's in town. He comes home and gets upset. For no reason he scolds her for not being motherly enough to their children. She is betrayed by a husband who wants to control her every move, a society that expects her to be content with motherhood as her role and by other women who play that role perfectly, making her look like an outcast.

At work Lester is a pleaser. He obviously hates his job but he smiles and goes with the flow in order to keep it. He is called into the new boss's office and told that he must write down why he is valuable to the company so they can decide if they'll fire him or not. He's worked there for fourteen years and is outraged that they would do this to him. He feels unwanted, unappreciated and useless. When he goes home that night, we see he feels that way with his family, too. He takes a passive role; he never even drives the car.

By the end of this betrayal readers should be asking themselves, “What will she do now?”

To help build the suspense, believability and drama of the betrayal ask these questions:

• Can you add another character, a family member perhaps, to build the suspense?
  

• Have you set up the villain enough so his actions are believable?
  

• Can you change the setting, time or even the hero's archetype to make it more dramatic?
  

Make sure the villain has a great reason for doing what he's doing to the hero.

Think about other supporting characters you can add to set up even more conflict.

Comedies like those of Albert Brooks use this stage with great effect. His character is passed over for a promotion in
Lost in America
, he loses his wife in
Mother
, and he loses his career and creativity in
The Muse
.

Stage 3: The Awakening — Preparing for the Journey

Suddenly someone appears offering to help Sarah rebuild her glass bubble, but at a very high price. As she considers her options she notices a rough jagged path leading the way out of the rubble. As she breathes the fresh air for the first time she realizes it's not worth spending what little she has left to rebuild it.

Stretching her neck she tries to see where the path goes but it just disappears into the horizon. She decides to take a chance and venture forth anyway. Several people try to talk her out of it, pointing out how sharp the pieces of broken glass are along the way.

Not being able to see where the path leads, Sarah gathers tools she thinks will help her on the journey. As she says good-bye to those around her, she makes an ally. Whether she realizes it or not, she has friends who support her.

The hero has been betrayed or has come to a harsh realization about her life. What will she do now? Hopelessness and helplessness tempt her into depression, rage and bitterness. She can take the passive road and:

• Blame others.
  

• Blame herself.
  

• Be a victim and ask, “Why me?”
  

• Avoid the situation by absorbing herself in busyness.
  

• Decide to commit suicide like Rose in
  Titanic
  .
  

On the other hand, she can take the active road where she sees the betrayal as:

• A lesson.
  

• An invitation to freedom and change.
  

• A challenge to go after what she wants.
  

She may first respond to the betrayal in a passive way or she may rage for all the time she has lost, but soon she decides to do something about it.

If she is lost in the passive response, another character can bring her back on track, but it's her decision to act that creates a turning point, sets up the main goal, moves the story forward and changes the hero's life forever. She has decided to say “yes” to what she wants, and most importantly to say “no” to what she doesn't want.

This is when many other characters come out of the woodwork to tell her she can't accomplish the goal, she needs help or that she's crazy. In some cases it's her own inner critic trying to sabotage her. But the force of the betrayal she suffered pushes her to overcome this negativity.

If she's lucky another character will be supportive and push the hero along, asking, “Why do you let them treat you like that?” But don't bring a hero along to save the day for her or she'll never get to embark on her own journey.

She may:

• Give up the superwoman mystique and refuse to take care of everyone at home and on the job.
  

• Speak the truth to a loved one regardless of the consequences.
  

• Ask for that raise she's always wanted or ask to work on a special project.
  

• Set new boundaries.
  

• Start a business or leave one.
  

• Agree to testify against someone.
  

• Decide to go after the killer.
  

• Travel across the country to find herself.
  

• Ask questions when she's told to be silent.
  

• Decide to fight for her beliefs.
  

• Insist she saw what she saw even if it was a UFO or a ghost. Her female intuition won't be suppressed.