Get to True Identity
We’ve talked in recent weeks about the story-defining concept of
Get to “I love you.”
For me, as I’m working on a new story, this way of thinking is tremendously helpful. It doesn’t work for every book or screenplay but it sure works for a lot of ‘em.
Start with two characters who are as far apart emotionally, materially, politically, and spiritually as possible. They don’t have to be actual lovers, nor does “I love you” have to imply anything physical or romantic. The pair can be an adult and a child (Paper Moon and True Grit), a human and a non-human, a mouse and a mutant. “I love you” can happen within a single character (Far from Heaven), who at story’s end comes to accept and embrace not a separate character but her own self.
Here’s another paradigm I find extremely helpful:
Get to true identity.
In the climax of Huckleberry Finn, when Huck tears up the letter he had forced himself to write turning in his friend Jim, he has reached his true identity.
When Bogey puts Ingrid on the plane to Lisbon, he has reached his true identity.
When Thelma and Louise go soaring into thin air in their ’66 T-bird, they have reached their true identity.
Pick any one of a thousand books or movies (dramas, tragedies, comedies … the principle applies across the board) and you’ll see more often than not this paradigmatic progression:
Act One: Hero starts with a warped and deformed self-conception (Huck, Thelma, Bogey).
Act Two: Hero is compelled by events and her own decisions to embrace a new and initially terrifying (to her) view of herself.
Act Three: In climax, hero embraces this new identity-what we as viewers and readers can see clearly as her true identity-whole-heartedly and in a manner that permits of no going back.
Even mild-mannered Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in Breaking Bad, by the end of series when he has become the arch-villain “Heisenberg,” is true to this principle. That’s why for me the whole burn-down-the-world ending worked. Even within his unrepentant villainy, Walter/Heisenberg manages to sacrifice himself to save his friend Jesse (Aaron Paul).
P.S. On another subject, if you missed the announcement last week of our new video series, The Warrior Archetype, you can sign up (below) to subscribe.
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Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
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A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
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Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Thank you Steve, this is great stuff. This paradigm aligns with the ideas about the character rejecting her ‘lie’ to get what she needs instead of what she wants. I’m loving your mini-videos btw, and have watched through those you created way back when, which I missed, on tribes. Fascinating, and very relevant nowadays, and also to story worlds we all might create.
Peter
Your article is amazing. In terms of keeping you visual and copy chatter to be minimal and significant, keep a single story point that is the star of your message. If it is a legacy that you are to highlight, keep the focus on the press release distribution. Nothing else. Multiple messages will either confuse the audience or completely disengage them.
Love this – as always, thanks!
“Get to True Identity” …… wow, that is the placeholder at the bottom of the foolscap, isn’t it? And figuring it out is the journey of the writer and the protagonist. Thanks as always for the gem, Coach!
Thanks, Steve, for a great post. I just thought, how do I apply this to my novel and boom there it was: this is my hero’s progression. Good confirmation. And as you say elsewhere, this is the artist’s progression through a project also.
looking forward to your insights regarding the sometimes overlooked (at least by some) aspect of the warrior: justice and compassion. These virtues prevent the warrior from devolving into a thug or villain seek to kill or dominate. Cicero’s “On Duties” addresses this and I’m sure you know of many other great thinkers from antiquity and days of knighthood and most likely Eastern traditions, too.
This series brings your “War of Art” to life for me in new ways!
Best wishes
Thelma and Bogey – what juxtapositioning.
A thought on what’s great about this post on “getting to one’s true identity,” as with “getting to ‘I love you'”: didn’t stories arise from early humans’ desire to help each other navigate the wilds? Gathered around a fire to hear the elders speak of how to take down an oryx, or how to avoid becoming prey to a lion.
These stories — novels, films, other art — they entertain us, for sure. But don’t we connect most deeply with the stories that help us navigate our own lives? Provide examples or templates we can use? Huck tearing up the letter, thus transcending the social evils of the day, overcoming the “yetzer hara,” touching his “neshama,” and thus finding his true identity.
I recall Eckhart Tolle sharing his story of nearly taking his own life. He recounted, “I was so low, I said that I can’t live with myself any longer. And then it occurred to me… who is the ‘I’ that can’t live with my ‘self’?” Isn’t that what we’re all engaged in, and why this story archetype of “finding one’s true identity” draws in so deeply (bring us closer to the fire)?
Aren’t we all trying to connect with that “I”? Our true identity?
Charles Bukowski’s books always start off with him presented with change and then he goes through all of his shit and in the end accepts the person he was at the beginning. I always loved that about his work.
Joe,
Ah…our ‘true identity’…
Run, walk, crawl, scratch, and fight to find the Light that is within.
Steve taught me that.
Be good. Do good. Be with.
Thumbs up, Jim.
The timing of this is perfect
I’m feeling this is what I need in my stories and in my own life
And it’s funny; it’s as if the energy of this vibe gathered around today. I just saw a book recommendation in one of Seth’s Akimbo workshops I’m in. It’s a book called The Alter Ego Effect.
I assume it is along the lines of your post.
So it’s really exciting that you posted this today when you did
It’s like a spiritual beacon saying “go in that direction.”
And I’m almost there.
“Be open to all points of the compass” has been a life quote for me personally for the past forty years. Now I will add to it “and may that point lead me to my true identity.
Great post today! Thank you!
My friends told me about Quzzister.com. I’ve gone there to read various templates of A-winning academic papers. They were absolutely free.
Is it … “The Hero’s Journey” retooled?
This really resonated with me … but not from a “story-writing” perspective.
It resonated with me because it felt like just what I needed to hear this week in real life. The journey to true identity, that’s a rollercoaster all of us are on.
When do we get there? I suspect many of us get there when the bright light opens up and we’re called from this world. The lucky few might reach a level of wisdom and understanding before then.
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