00:00:00
these are the character building
00:00:01
techniques that you absolutely need to
00:00:03
use in your current book or in your next
00:00:05
book and I'm pretty sure that you
00:00:06
probably haven't heard of these before
00:00:08
so let's go the first technique is laugh
00:00:10
in the face of cannibals so the best way
00:00:12
to create a really memorable character
00:00:15
is simply by having them react to events
00:00:17
in very counterintuitive ways now the
00:00:20
reason for this is because if your
00:00:21
character acts like everyone else would
00:00:23
act like a tragedy happens and they
00:00:25
react in a very predictable way then
00:00:28
there's nothing about their personality
00:00:30
or character which is being developed we
00:00:32
just understand like oh they're human no
00:00:34
your goal is to give them a reaction to
00:00:36
events that makes the reader feel like
00:00:38
they know this character like oh wow
00:00:40
that's how you react in that situation
00:00:42
huh okay so you might know David Ben
00:00:45
off's name because he wrote the script
00:00:47
for Game of Thrones but what most people
00:00:50
don't know is that he also had a few
00:00:52
novels one of which is called city of
00:00:54
Thieves and in city of Thieves we have
00:00:56
two soldiers who are sent on this like
00:00:58
crazy mission to try to find eggs and
00:01:00
War II when everyone's starving and
00:01:01
nobody has eggs and during their journey
00:01:02
to a try to find eggs they encounter
00:01:04
cannibals they managed to fend off the
00:01:06
cannibals and escape with their lives
00:01:07
and right after as they are running away
00:01:10
one of the characters laughs who laughs
00:01:13
at that I don't know about you but if
00:01:15
cannibals are trying to eat me I would
00:01:17
not be galling on my way out of the room
00:01:19
but that laughter in the face of
00:01:21
hardship perfectly encapsulates Coo's
00:01:24
character and that detail along with
00:01:26
many others in the book is what makes
00:01:27
him one of my favorite characters that
00:01:29
I've ever read I also think that
00:01:30
counterintuitive responses to real
00:01:32
events mirrors what people do in real
00:01:34
life we don't always act the way that
00:01:37
we're supposed to right I mean people
00:01:39
laugh at funerals all the time another
00:01:41
advantage of using this technique is
00:01:43
that you avoid cliche if every single
00:01:45
character acts exactly the way they're
00:01:47
supposed to act in a typical manner then
00:01:50
they are they're too stereotypical right
00:01:52
but there are some risks with this
00:01:54
technique and I would say one would be
00:01:55
overuse right you don't want to use this
00:01:57
for every single situation use it spare
00:02:00
ly just when it feels right and the
00:02:01
other thing is that it does need to be
00:02:03
believable still this can't be like a
00:02:06
weird reaction out of nowhere it has to
00:02:08
tell us something about who this
00:02:09
character is if it's coming from their
00:02:11
personality their authentic personality
00:02:13
then that's believable the second
00:02:15
character building technique is make
00:02:17
your character carry something so I want
00:02:19
you to look at your character's
00:02:21
possessions specifically ones that they
00:02:23
would carry with them look in their
00:02:25
purse look in their glove compartment
00:02:27
look in their wallet look in their
00:02:29
pockets what has it got in its pocket
00:02:34
what objects do you find because all
00:02:36
characters have possessions right and a
00:02:37
character's possessions say something
00:02:39
very important about them I think that
00:02:41
these objects reveal things about these
00:02:43
characters that it's really difficult to
00:02:44
get in any other way and Cormac McCarthy
00:02:46
is No Country for Old Men Anton shagar
00:02:48
carries a coin everywhere and he uses
00:02:51
this coin because he flips it when he
00:02:52
wants to determine by luck or chance or
00:02:55
something whether someone's going to die
00:02:56
or whether they're going to live
00:02:57
essentially whether he's going to kill
00:02:59
them I mean a coin is such an innocuous
00:03:01
symbol but the way that he uses the coin
00:03:03
tells you like this is a dangerous
00:03:05
Psychopathic killer in the movie momento
00:03:08
Leonard Shelby played by Guy Pierce
00:03:10
carries around Polaroids everywhere and
00:03:12
this is if you remember the movie
00:03:14
because his memory is failing him and so
00:03:16
these Polaroids are supposed to help him
00:03:18
remember like oh this is your past and
00:03:21
so those visual pneumonics are something
00:03:23
that tells you something very important
00:03:25
about this character you can also move
00:03:27
Beyond mere physical objects and move
00:03:29
into object that characters carry that
00:03:30
are more metaphorical or symbolical take
00:03:33
this example from Tim O'Brien's The
00:03:35
Things They Carried I mean it's right
00:03:37
there in the title right which is a
00:03:39
master class in characterization through
00:03:41
objects and so in it O'Brien's
00:03:43
characterizing a whole Squad of American
00:03:45
soldiers by the objects that they carry
00:03:47
Michelle Sanders the RTO carried condoms
00:03:49
Norman Bower carried a diary rat Kylie
00:03:52
carried comic books kiawa a devoted
00:03:54
Baptist carried an illustrated New
00:03:56
Testament that had been presented to him
00:03:57
by his father and also carried his Grand
00:03:59
mother's distrust of the white man okay
00:04:01
so there we have some great objects that
00:04:03
distinguish characters from one another
00:04:05
obviously a character who's carrying
00:04:06
condoms is very different than a man
00:04:07
carrying a Bible but I like that this
00:04:09
paragraph ends on something which is not
00:04:12
an object but more symbolic like he is
00:04:14
carrying distrust of the white man oh
00:04:17
that's a weighty thing to carry a third
00:04:19
character building technique that you
00:04:20
need to be using is contradictory
00:04:23
characters contradictory characters are
00:04:25
just some surprising element that you
00:04:26
wouldn't be able to guess based on the
00:04:29
stereotype for like a one- sentence
00:04:31
description of the character so let's go
00:04:32
through a couple examples here for
00:04:34
instance say a billionaire whose wife
00:04:37
still cuts his hair I mean you can buy
00:04:39
the best barber in the universe but
00:04:40
somehow there's some sort of intimacy
00:04:42
maybe that he's still looking for with
00:04:44
his spouse or say a leader of a
00:04:46
motorcycle gang who likes True crochet
00:04:49
that would be the last hobby you would
00:04:51
expect right now you do have to make it
00:04:52
believable right but adding some sort of
00:04:55
contradictory element to their Persona
00:04:57
means that they're not just like the
00:04:58
stereotypical oh tough dude but there's
00:05:00
some other element that's surprising or
00:05:02
say aerous grandma with a foul mouth
00:05:05
right you don't quite see it coming you
00:05:07
see her and think she's just going to be
00:05:08
some like nice daughtering old lady and
00:05:10
then she says something and you're way
00:05:12
taken back so here's the assignment for
00:05:14
you is to take your character and figure
00:05:15
out one thing which is against type
00:05:18
there are two good reasons to do this
00:05:19
right one is that it creates a mystery
00:05:22
the reader wants to figure out how do
00:05:23
these contradictory elements in this
00:05:25
person resolve like do I really believe
00:05:27
this is a real character I wanted see
00:05:29
how this plays out and the second thing
00:05:31
is it helps you to avoid stereotypes it
00:05:34
makes the person into a person rather
00:05:36
than into a character you might know
00:05:38
Walter Mosley because he wrote one of
00:05:39
the most famous private investigators of
00:05:41
all time easy Rawlings but he also wrote
00:05:43
this really fun book called Always
00:05:45
outnumbered always outgunned which is
00:05:47
such a fantastic title in that book
00:05:49
there's this guy called Socrates forlo
00:05:51
and he's this excon he murdered people
00:05:54
in the past he spent a lot of time in
00:05:56
prison he's finally sprung from prison
00:05:59
and he's just this sort of hard-bitten
00:06:01
character so Walter Mosley takes that
00:06:03
Persona and then he adds contradictory
00:06:05
elements Socrates Fort low is also a
00:06:07
philosopher I mean the first name should
00:06:09
have tipped you off right he's a very
00:06:11
contemplative person he's a very
00:06:13
thoughtful person and in the end he ends
00:06:15
up being a peacemaker if you're enjoying
00:06:17
this idea of character contradictions
00:06:18
and want to go a little deeper in
00:06:20
character building check out my course
00:06:22
the triangle method of character
00:06:23
creation it was my very first course
00:06:25
that I ever made so it's a little weird
00:06:27
it's a little odd it's animated for one
00:06:29
but I think all the content is really
00:06:32
really good for how to go deeper with a
00:06:34
character and of course I also give
00:06:36
great advice about how to build
00:06:37
characters in my novel course on book
00:06:39
boox academy so check that out the
00:06:41
fourth character building technique is
00:06:42
three things that you should do every
00:06:44
time you introduce a new character so
00:06:46
every time you introduce a new character
00:06:47
there's a challenge right you have to
00:06:49
make sure the reader feels like they
00:06:51
know this person as quickly as possible
00:06:53
so here are the three things that you
00:06:54
should do to help that process along the
00:06:56
first thing you want to do is have your
00:06:58
character say something thing why
00:07:00
because the things that come out of a
00:07:01
character's mouth help the reader get to
00:07:03
know a character almost faster than
00:07:05
anything else I mean this is something
00:07:06
that we talked about in my other video
00:07:08
the six levels of dialogue that every
00:07:10
writer must master so for example let's
00:07:12
look at Sherlock Holmes and the very
00:07:14
first thing that he ever says to Watson
00:07:16
which is in a study in Scarlet they meet
00:07:18
and Holmes says you have been in
00:07:19
Afghanistan I perceive so the very first
00:07:21
thing out of his mouth is a deduction
00:07:23
how does he know that this man has been
00:07:24
in Afghanistan oh Holmes you're acting
00:07:27
so holmesian it tells you something
00:07:29
about the character right away second
00:07:30
thing you should do is have your
00:07:31
character do something characters are
00:07:34
defined by actions right what they think
00:07:36
defines them yes what they say
00:07:38
absolutely defines them yes but what
00:07:40
they do really defines them when we
00:07:42
first meet Arthur Dent of hitch haacker
00:07:44
guide of the Galaxy he goes out and lays
00:07:46
in front of a bulldozer which is trying
00:07:48
to bulldoze his home I love that right
00:07:50
like he's the type of guy that says yeah
00:07:52
you want to take down my house you got
00:07:54
to take me down first and it doesn't
00:07:55
have to be a big action right it can be
00:07:57
a small action but having your character
00:07:59
do something lets the reader know oh
00:08:01
this is the type of person this is and
00:08:03
the last thing you should do when you
00:08:05
introduce a new character is show what
00:08:07
this character's problem is I think the
00:08:09
natural default for writers is oh I'll
00:08:11
get to the problem in a little bit right
00:08:13
let me start by talking about hair color
00:08:15
and eye color another like you know
00:08:17
basic stuff but I would recommend
00:08:19
letting us know what this character
00:08:20
struggles with as soon as possible like
00:08:23
in the first scene we meet them a
00:08:24
character with a problem is human a
00:08:27
character without a problem is false
00:08:29
just a fictional creation so look at
00:08:31
John Green's The Fault in Our Stars we
00:08:33
learn on the first page that Hazel is
00:08:36
dying and she has cancer uh yeah that's
00:08:38
a problem green doesn't delay he doesn't
00:08:40
tell us at the end of the first chapter
00:08:42
he starts with that information so the
00:08:44
goal is to give an immediate sense of
00:08:45
who this character is and if you do
00:08:47
those three things you have a great
00:08:49
chance of succeeding in making the
00:08:50
reader feel attached to your character
00:08:52
now I will say if you're resistant to
00:08:54
this idea and you're like I'm not going
00:08:55
to do those three things right off the
00:08:56
bat who is this John Matthew Fox guy
00:08:58
anyway well I would say that these are
00:09:00
recommendations first of all right I
00:09:02
mean ignore them if you want to but I
00:09:03
also say that in general the pacing
00:09:06
expectations for stories in this day and
00:09:08
age is a lot faster right you can't
00:09:10
delay for a very long period of time and
00:09:12
expect your reader to still be
00:09:13
interested in your story because there
00:09:15
are so many other competing mediums
00:09:17
right your books are competing with
00:09:18
video games and with social media and
00:09:20
with television and with a thousand
00:09:22
other things so I think in general if
00:09:25
you can start off with a bang with a
00:09:26
certain character it'll make the reader
00:09:28
say like I'm vested like I want to go on
00:09:30
a journey with this person the fifth
00:09:32
character building technique is how to
00:09:33
make your character likable now I will
00:09:35
say off the bat like characters don't
00:09:37
have to be likable they only have to be
00:09:39
compelling but if you look at the
00:09:41
majority of books that sell a lot of
00:09:43
copies a lot of characters often are
00:09:46
likable so if you have a character that
00:09:48
you think should be likable here's how
00:09:50
to accomplish that and I will say that
00:09:51
likable characters doesn't mean Flawless
00:09:54
character you don't want Mary Sue or
00:09:56
Gary stews or whatever Perfect
00:09:58
characters that have no flaws whatsoever
00:10:00
likable characters often have relatable
00:10:02
flaws like the reader sees their own
00:10:04
flaws in the character and thinks oh
00:10:06
that's excusable Sally Rooney wrote a
00:10:08
book called normal people and in that
00:10:09
book there's a character called Maryann
00:10:11
Sheridan now this woman is rich but also
00:10:15
deeply weird and unpopular but I think
00:10:17
her flaws is that she struggles with a
00:10:19
sense of self-worth and she often allows
00:10:22
herself to be mistreated in
00:10:23
relationships so with those flaws we're
00:10:26
like we almost sympathize with her more
00:10:28
than condemn her for those flaws cuz
00:10:29
we're like oh why are you doing this but
00:10:31
we recognize that flaw makes her into a
00:10:35
likable human being okay so here are
00:10:37
four ways to make your character more
00:10:39
likable one give them a strong sense of
00:10:41
morality they should have virtues they
00:10:43
should have standards they should have
00:10:44
values if you look at John Grady Cole
00:10:47
and All the Pretty Horses he has very
00:10:49
firm convictions about what is right and
00:10:51
what is wrong and because of that we
00:10:52
like him a lot as a hero to take care of
00:10:55
animals in a man called UA we have this
00:10:58
kinly old man but because he takes care
00:11:01
of this cat we like him we're endeared
00:11:03
to him and this is what the save the cat
00:11:06
technique is named after right Heroes
00:11:08
have to save the cat villains have to
00:11:10
kick a puppy how people treat animals
00:11:12
tells us a lot about their character
00:11:13
third way to make your characters
00:11:14
likable is make them suffer offred in
00:11:17
the handmaid's tale suffers an enormous
00:11:19
amount and we tend to like her a lot
00:11:22
because she endures that suffering and
00:11:24
the fourth way to make a character
00:11:25
likable is to show competence Elizabeth
00:11:27
Salander in the millennium series
00:11:29
doesn't seem on the surface like a very
00:11:32
likable character she's sort of gruff
00:11:34
and abrupt and does some pretty terrible
00:11:36
things but part of the reason we like
00:11:38
her is that she's just so dang smart
00:11:40
she's This brilliant hacker and so good
00:11:43
at research and maneuvering online she's
00:11:45
also really good at getting revenge you
00:11:47
do not want to be on her bad side so
00:11:49
that level of intelligence makes us like
00:11:51
her so just being Wicked smart and just
00:11:54
by being intelligent the reader is going
00:11:56
to like her the sixth technique in
00:11:58
character development is give your
00:11:59
character an odd habit so let me tell
00:12:02
you a story so there was this 7-year-old
00:12:03
boy he used to tie string around
00:12:05
everything he would tie it around chairs
00:12:06
he would tie it around couches he would
00:12:08
tie around bookcases and he even tied it
00:12:10
around his sister's neck at one point no
00:12:12
matter what his mother did she couldn't
00:12:13
get him to stop tying strings now you
00:12:15
could stop there right it's certainly an
00:12:17
unusual habit it helps us to get to know
00:12:19
this little boy who creates this mystery
00:12:20
like why is this kid doing that and it
00:12:22
certainly sets this boy apart from all
00:12:24
the other little boys out there but it
00:12:25
would be a mistake to stop there right
00:12:27
the trick with characterization is
00:12:28
seeing why they have that habit so the
00:12:31
boy's mother took him to see a
00:12:32
psychoanalyst and the psychoanalyst told
00:12:34
the mother okay I figured it out the
00:12:35
little boy's doing this because you
00:12:37
speaking to the mother have been
00:12:38
hospitalized for depression several
00:12:40
times and been taken away for multiple
00:12:41
weeks and the boy's trying to tie things
00:12:43
down he's trying to tie string around
00:12:45
things to prevent those things from
00:12:47
being taken away he's having abandonment
00:12:49
issues oh now the string has
00:12:52
significance now that tiny little habit
00:12:54
becomes like this broader bigger
00:12:56
significance so my advice is first to
00:12:59
come up with some sort of strange habit
00:13:01
or tick or thing that your character
00:13:02
does they sleep in the closet or they
00:13:05
use five different types of lip balm or
00:13:07
they time the duration of traffic lights
00:13:08
and report it to the city and then once
00:13:10
you show them doing this thing come up
00:13:11
with a reason why they would do this
00:13:13
thing and obviously trying to come up
00:13:15
with something that bucks the obvious
00:13:16
right some sort of unusual reason why
00:13:18
they're doing it number seven widen the
00:13:21
perception Gap it is a fantastic idea to
00:13:24
create distance between how a character
00:13:26
sees themselves and how other characters
00:13:28
or the reader perceive them why does
00:13:30
this technique work so well well one it
00:13:32
enhances reader engagement readers have
00:13:34
to weigh the evidence and figure out
00:13:36
okay is this character telling the truth
00:13:38
or are they telling me a slanted version
00:13:40
of the truth there's also story sension
00:13:42
because the reader wants to see is this
00:13:44
character's perception of themselves
00:13:46
going to be destroyed or changed at some
00:13:48
point or are they going to persist in
00:13:50
their delusion a great example of this
00:13:52
is Walter White and Breaking Bad at the
00:13:54
beginning he constantly tells himself
00:13:56
I'm doing this for family I'm doing it
00:13:58
to provide for my family after I die for
00:14:00
cancer but I think that perception of
00:14:02
himself that lie he tells himself slowly
00:14:04
gets eroded over the course of the
00:14:06
Season until he comes to recognize like
00:14:08
no I did all this drug running for
00:14:11
myself for my own ego that is a huge
00:14:14
character art in realizing his true
00:14:17
motivations now that's a character whose
00:14:18
perception of himself changes over the
00:14:20
course of a story but you can also have
00:14:21
characters whose perceptions are
00:14:23
different than everyone else's but they
00:14:24
never change look at Cersei Lannister in
00:14:27
Game of Thrones I think the way that she
00:14:29
perceives herself is as the rightful
00:14:31
ruler and a clever strategist I think
00:14:33
everyone else though including the
00:14:34
readers perceive her in a vastly
00:14:36
different light as cruel as bitter as
00:14:39
vindictive as paranoid as shortsighted
00:14:42
like just this whole mess of negative
00:14:44
descriptions there was actually tons of
00:14:45
people naming their daughter Daenerys no
00:14:47
one was naming their child Cersei
00:14:49
another example of a big perception Gap
00:14:51
would be from A Confederacy of Dunes
00:14:53
right the dun in question ignacius J
00:14:55
Riley is this huge Manchild right so
00:14:59
immature idiotic opinions about
00:15:02
everything but how does he perceive
00:15:03
himself oh he is a misunderstood genius
00:15:06
and cultural critic I mean the division
00:15:08
gap between his perception and the
00:15:10
reality of things could not be broader
00:15:13
the eighth character creation technique
00:15:15
is to create foils what I want you to do
00:15:18
is to think about the characters around
00:15:20
your character the the ancillary the
00:15:22
supporting characters stuff like the
00:15:24
sidekick the mentor the antagonist and
00:15:27
what I mean by foil is basically who
00:15:28
your main character is influences those
00:15:30
characters and who those characters are
00:15:32
reflects back on your main character for
00:15:34
example an antagonist is often an
00:15:36
inverted version of your protagonist
00:15:38
think of leay miserab by Victor Hugo we
00:15:40
have these two opposing characters
00:15:42
Javier and Jean valon Von is a former
00:15:45
Criminal Who believes in Mercy while
00:15:47
inspector Javier is this rigid
00:15:49
unyielding policeman who believes firmly
00:15:52
in law and order some people have said
00:15:54
that the inspector the policeman is more
00:15:55
of an Old Testament version of a
00:15:57
character filled with fire and brimstone
00:15:59
Stone and rules like the Ten
00:16:00
Commandments and stuff Well jean Von is
00:16:02
more of the New Testament version of a
00:16:04
human filled with grace filled with
00:16:06
forgiveness but those two characters
00:16:08
really are opposite sides of a coin
00:16:10
they're not completely divorced from one
00:16:12
another they're mirror images they're
00:16:14
inverted images for your companion or
00:16:16
sidekick you have to think what sort of
00:16:19
role can they play that complement my
00:16:21
main character for instance if your main
00:16:23
character isn't very funny then maybe
00:16:25
that sidekick character needs to do some
00:16:27
comedic relief like donkey in the Shrek
00:16:29
movies or in CS lewis' Narnia series
00:16:32
there's this character called puddle
00:16:33
glum who is this very funny pessimist
00:16:35
saying stuff like the bright side of it
00:16:37
is said puddle glum that if we break our
00:16:39
necks getting down the cliff then we're
00:16:41
safe from being drowned in the river I
00:16:43
mean gez he's really giving Eeyore a run
00:16:45
for his money now for your Mentor
00:16:46
character you want to think how is this
00:16:47
character an older version of my
00:16:50
protagonist that establishes a kind of
00:16:52
link between them where they're not
00:16:53
completely separate people they are at
00:16:56
different points in their Journey but
00:16:58
they're probably more similar than
00:16:59
different okay now for the last Point
00:17:01
number nine and I kept this one for the
00:17:02
last because it is the most important
00:17:05
number nine create a three-time
00:17:07
character what I mean is that your
00:17:09
character needs to exist in at least
00:17:11
three different time periods the past
00:17:13
the present and the future but I think
00:17:15
the verbs are very important here right
00:17:17
they have to be haunted by the past not
00:17:19
just have a past but actually be haunted
00:17:22
by it they have to be wrestling in the
00:17:23
present obviously right you need
00:17:25
conflict in the present moment they have
00:17:26
to be looking at the future and
00:17:27
uncertain how it's going to play out so
00:17:29
first let's look at haunted by the past
00:17:31
for instance when it comes to backstory
00:17:33
writers often believe that they need to
00:17:34
give information about a character's
00:17:36
past for instance where did they go to
00:17:38
school where did they work who did they
00:17:39
kill well I mean that last one is only
00:17:41
if you're writing a certain genre but
00:17:42
that focus on information can make for a
00:17:44
very dull story now when I'm talking
00:17:46
about the past I mean your character
00:17:47
needs to be haunted by the past the past
00:17:49
needs to be a problem for your character
00:17:51
it needs to be unresolved in some way in
00:17:54
Clare Keegan's book small things like
00:17:55
these we have a character who is haunted
00:17:58
by the identity his father he doesn't
00:17:59
know who his father is and that weighs
00:18:02
on him through the whole story so when
00:18:03
you're constructing a character's past
00:18:05
you need to go shorten information you
00:18:06
can often summarize a whole life in a
00:18:08
paragraph you need to go long on angst
00:18:11
like what does this character struggle
00:18:12
with what are their main problems and
00:18:14
third the past must spill into the
00:18:17
present the past is only significant in
00:18:19
as much as it affects whatever your
00:18:21
character is going through in the
00:18:22
present moment second piece of advice
00:18:23
for having your character exist in three
00:18:25
time periods is obviously the present
00:18:27
and my biggest piece of viice is not to
00:18:29
have a singular problem but at least two
00:18:31
layers of problem a main problem and a
00:18:33
minor problem in Clare Keegan's book we
00:18:34
Discover bill has two problems one is he
00:18:36
discovers nuns have locked this young
00:18:38
girl in an unheated tool ship his second
00:18:40
problem is that he's really worried
00:18:42
about money and providing for his family
00:18:44
the first is more of an external problem
00:18:46
he is worried about this girl the second
00:18:47
problem is more of an internal problem
00:18:49
he has anxiety about providing for his
00:18:51
family if you have those two levels of
00:18:52
conflict your present moment story is
00:18:54
off to a great start third thing for
00:18:55
your characters they need to be wey of
00:18:57
the future they should be anticipating
00:18:58
in the future and be unsure of how it's
00:19:01
going to work out ask yourself what is
00:19:03
your character anticipating and what are
00:19:04
they preparing for for instance in Clare
00:19:07
Keegan's book bill is worried about the
00:19:09
future of his Five Daughters they are
00:19:11
all growing up very quickly and they are
00:19:12
about to enter quote the world of men so
00:19:15
of course a man with five daughters is
00:19:17
going to be worried about that but once
00:19:18
again the future is only relevant in the
00:19:20
way that affects his present moment
00:19:22
story because he's worried about his
00:19:23
daughter he doesn't want to offend the
00:19:25
nuns by revealing that they're keeping
00:19:27
this woman locked in the shed because
00:19:28
he's worried worried that the nuns will
00:19:29
mistreat his own daughters because Bill
00:19:31
is worried about his own daughter's
00:19:32
future he doesn't want to get on the
00:19:34
nuns backside because the nuns have such
00:19:36
enormous sway inside the community all
00:19:38
right I hope that was all helpful and
00:19:39
check out the link in the description if
00:19:41
you'd like to take some writing courses
00:19:42
with me
