Holidays, Belief Systems, and a Character’s Journey
By Heather Webb | December 16, 2024 |
We’re in the thick of the holiday season from the religious to the nature-centric to the end-of-year celebrations, and I find myself ruminating on this cluster of holidays most of us celebrate in some form or another. How these holidays shape our habits, our mood, our intentions, our motivations. As I sip my cappuccino, I’m asking myself: do we really change who we are this time of year, put ourselves on pause and aim to be better human beings? And how do we each choose to adhere to our belief systems? Are we steadfast and loyal, or more of a cherry-picker whose beliefs have eroded over time and experience and distance from their origins? What is the nature of these beliefs, and how do they form a deep-seeded part of who we are? As you can see, my favorite way to spend the month of December is pairing my champagne and Christmas goodies with big thoughts and deep questions.
For writers, it’s an easy jump to take these deep thoughts about ourselves and apply them to our characters. Our characters are, after all, just people on the page that we’re aiming to imbue with life. So I’m considering my current main character’s belief systems, her customs and traditions, and her sense of morality, since they are a large part of what gives any character dimension and depth. I’m also thinking about pivotal experiences and how they not only underscore themes throughout the story, but they are the key to her growth. These aspects of beliefs, both learned and taught, add the kind of scope that makes our character worth reading.
Beliefs that are Taught
Our beliefs are directly correlated to the customs our society embraces, the traditions we are taught, and the codes of morality that are enforced. What do these aspects of your protagonist’s internal and external life look like?
Customs: Religious, cultural, and even law-driven customs (often defined by place and location, environment and climate) can differentiate your characters from others. Paint vivid pictures of these customs to help your characters stand out – or perhaps the goal is to have them assimilate, blend in, become like the others. While certain genres like fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction rely on these customs as an essential part of the story, customs are still important in say, a mainstream women-centric story about divorce. How the divorce is handled by law as well as how the event is viewed by others (thus, how our MC will be treated) will certainly influence your protagonist’s thoughts and feelings and self-esteem, and likely her arc as a whole.
Traditions: Traditions touch nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Consider how traditions provide routine and comfort, how they create a link between generations, and how they honor religious or nature-centric reverence. How does your main character relate to the traditions that define them? On the other hand, breaking tradition is powerful. Breaking away would certainly trigger the protagonist to think differently about a belief they’ve always held, or at least followed, intentionally or perhaps unintentionally. If the break from tradition is on a larger scale, the protagonist’s act might affect a serious change for others in society, too. Ultimately, making way for the new – being a disrupter – even on a small scale is essential to a character (and a civilization’s) growth.
Our beliefs may be expressed outwardly through customs and traditions, but the strength of their power resides primarily in our subconscious. In other words, sometimes we don’t even realize we hold these beliefs until they are tested. Which brings me to morality.
Morality: The concept of morality is often taught as a sort of fixed concept, at least through the tenets of religion. As we age and have more experiences peppered with challenging situations and questions, our views of morality often change and widen. How a character grapples with these experiences and their expanding view makes for rich reflection and internal conflict.
But sometimes, experiences may trigger the opposite in a person. Their views may narrow and their morality codes become stricter, tighter, and the character becomes unwilling to bend and yield. Characters with these black-and-white views of morality and justice can be fun to write as well. This kind of character lives strictly by their own code, but ultimately, must face the paradox of their nature and their own faults that undoubtedly fall outside the lines of this strict moral code. Inspector Javert from Les Miserables is one of the greatest characters that fits this archetype. The inspector is so passionate about justice and the letter of the law that he loses sight of what justice and what is right truly means and ultimately commits suicide to escape his own folly.
Integrating characters with differing kinds of morality codes within the same story can create great conflict.
Beliefs that are Learned
There’s another aspect that comes into play when developing a character’s belief systems: experience-based beliefs. Simply put, actions speak louder words. Your character may have been taught to believe a certain set of principles, but experiences and the wounds they bring are far more powerful. When your protagonist’s beliefs are tested with a negative outcome, their beliefs often shift, and a reactionary defense mechanism is born.
For example, if a parent abandons a child literally or emotionally, the child’s core belief becomes: I’m not worthy of love. The need for approval may also be strong. The way this belief dictates your main character’s behavior might be either a.) to work extremely hard for approval from others through over-flirting, trying to be the best at something or everything, being perfect all the time, or b.) perhaps they go in the other direction and self-isolate. They believe people are unreliable, so they rely on themselves alone. They tell themselves they don’t need anyone, least of all a serious relationship, because the partner will only leave in the end anyway.
During a character’s journey, each time an important emotional lynchpin moment happens, the defense mechanism slides into place, creating a barrier to their growth that they must overcome – or succumb to if it’s a tragic arc – in the end.
What do your protagonist’s taught and learned beliefs look like? How do they morph over the course of your novel? I’ll leave you with some workshopping questions to get you going:
- How are your main character’s beliefs formed? Were they learned or developed as a reaction to some event?
- Is your protagonist still practicing? Are they devout, or non-practicing, or somewhere between? Why or why not?
- What is your MC’s view of right and wrong? Sin/mistakes/faults? Death and the after life?
- How does your protagonist view people with different beliefs? Is there a way to bring a character into their orbit to challenge their views and beliefs?
- How do the protagonist’s beliefs – or conscience suppression of them – influence their emotional inner life? Do they judge themselves? Do they judge others?
- How does your character justify their behavior in a sticky situation?
- How do the protag’s beliefs affect their choices that directly impact the plot?
- What is your MC’s code of morality? They may have been raised with a series of beliefs and they may adhere to them almost all the time – until they don’t. What could possibly cause them to break from their code of morality?
- A character’s actions come from conscious decisions and unconscious reactions. What is the difference between the two kinds of actions in your character’s behavior? Is there a pattern? Where does it come from?
- What are the messages your protagonist carries as a direct result of some intense experience? How does this message prevent them from growth? How will they overcome it by the end?
How have you integrated your main character’s system of beliefs, or code of morality in your current work-in-progress?
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. As a freelance editor and an adjunct in a MFA in Creative Writing program, Heather has helped many writers sign with agents and go on to sell at market. When not writing, she feeds her cookbook addiction, geeks out on history and pop culture, and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. To date, her books have been translated to seventeen languages.
You know, Heather, what I find in reading manuscripts—many, many manuscripts, you don’t want to know—is not that characters’s belief systems are underdeveloped but they are not there at all.
Not that characters are amoral, protagonists are all vaguely “good”. What I mean is that their principles are not sharp and their concept of the universe and any authority in it, is fuzzy at best.
It would be niece if characters stood for something. Sometimes they do. Think of The Outsiders. Even, I stand by my friends, is a moral stand. It’s something we can cheer for, and I wish more manuscripts stirred me that way.
Maybe your post today will inspire in writers to believe in belief as an element of character. I hope so. Thanks for the that and Happy Holidays…whatever that means for you!
That’s a great point, Don. It seems belief systems come up more in historical fiction since religion was law of the land in the past more than it is today (at least in the western world), and it also seems to arise often in fantasy and paranormal where different kinds of beings bring different ranges of morality, but you’re right. I don’t often see a moral stand in contemporary mainstream fiction. Food for thought. And that’s precisely how and why we are stirred, as you say. Interesting…
And a very merry and happy rest of the year to you and your family. :)
Hi, Heather. This is such a fascinating discussion. Customs, tradition, and morality (beliefs that are taught) certainly help to frame a main characters’ moral compass. But, I also come back to the term Lisa Cron coined, a character’s misbeliefs. It is the misbeliefs, the things a character believes in that are not true, that set in motion the trials and tribulations the MC will go through on that transformative journey. The MC’s misbelief must be a major blind spot and it should be clear to the reader early on in the story. I also agree with Don Maas’s point inn his comment that character belief systems are often under developed, even in published novels. Thank you for this thoughtful post. All the best to you and your family for a happy holiday season.
Chris, I’m glad you mentioned Lisa Cron today as I almost talked a bit about her “misbeliefs” more specifically. I, too, agree the messages we carry from some pivotal traumatic moment in our lives are both the prevention of growth and the key to unlocking it. Thanks for your great comments today! And a very merry and happy everything to you!
Your post asks important questions, but as we create our characters, I believe we endow them with beliefs, customs, reactions that help them make choices…moral and immoral. But doesn’t that also hinge on our own belief systems? I do not infuse religion in my work. Instead, I create characters who have a strong sense of self…which can lead them to help and also to harm others, depending on the situation they find themselves in. Don mentions belief systems, but I prefer to have the beliefs of my characters revealed through their actions and choices. I think Don might have meant that. Unless religion is a novel’s centra theme, I prefer the more general good versus evil. Readers know instinctively what that is…or they should! Thanks for your post.
Thanks for your insights, Beth. Yes, I believe that’s what Don meant. Our characters reveal themselves through what they do and choose not to do for sure.
Interestingly, I find it quite challenging and fun as a writer to dig into the morally gray spaces. I think that’s because I believe we are creatures of instinct that wrestle against those impulses at times as higher level thinking beings. I also think many actions can be justified – in the right circumstances. It might not make the actions “right” per se, but as a writer I make it my job to show how and why a character makes the choice they do, and potentially even engender understanding. There is a line somewhere, but I’m not certain where it is, all the time, at least not for certain characters. I find that infinitely fascinating, and it can really make for complex characters as well that infuse the story with themes of questions of morality.
This is why we need all kinds of writers and all kinds of stories. :)
Hi Heather. Great post and some good questions we should ask ourselves when we’re crafting our characters.
I’ve been a student of human nature since I was a child. I think it might go back to hearing someone once state that they would never harm another person, not even to protect themselves. Even as a child, I recognized that we can’t predict how we’ll respond when we’re under duress and our instincts kick in.
In my writing, the question of a person’s breaking points have always been a factor. For me, the circumstances that force a character evaluate their most deeply felt beliefs about themselves and how things *should* work are where things get interesting. Without those internal conflicts that make the characters consider their core values and either re-commit to them or grow past them, the book loses my interest.
Excellent point, Ruth. If we aren’t driving our MCs to the breaking point, we aren’t pushing our characters far enough, and we’re probably not making our stories as tension-filled as they could be. Thanks for stopping by today!
Heather, our beliefs drive behavior, so in essence the undercurrent of belief is built into the characters themselves. I discovered this early on when I needed to simplify my historical–there was too much going on and I thought I could eliminate the Hindu-Muslim conflict by making the Muslim character Sikh. However, it was not just a matter of changing where he went to pray; his worldview was different. He was a different person altogether. Given that stories are all about change, if we want to change behavior, the beliefs (or misbeliefs) must change, too. Thanks for bringing light to this topic. ’tis the season to be merry. Rejoice!
Hi Heather. I loved this post. I’m going to save it because I want to incorporate the points you mention as I flesh out the characters for a new novel. You’ve reminded me of how much texture belief systems and traditions can add to a characters background. Thanks, and happy holidays.
Excellent piece here. And remember, if you ever need to do research on any Jewish traditions, I’m your gal! (Remember, my sister is a rabbi so I have an excellent, expert source.)
Thank you for this, Heather. It’s set me to pondering. Are beliefs learned and taught? Can some beliefs be inherent?
I’m thinking of a couple of my images or dreams from a preschool age. Yet perhaps those images weren’t about beliefs so much as they were my questions about existence. Do we deflate like a popped balloon!? How can there be a permanent death when we’re so very alive now? And then receiving “answers” through the variety of churches I’ve been traditioned in. Yet always the choices, the narrowing or the focus of what answers we chose to remain constant with.