The Biggest Lies Are the Ones We Tell Ourselves (Holly Schindler)

I seem to have a slightly different view of unreliable narrators than most authors here. I actually...like them. Or maybe it's that I think they're more realistic? Believable? Because, frankly, no one is honest all of the time. 

But the biggest lies we tell are the ones we tell ourselves. Usually, the lies are limiting: I'm not X enough to do Y. I'm too X for Y to think anything of me. I'm far less X than everyone else. 

Sometimes, this can be the best source for finding your main character's "lie." The thing that holds them back in life. The thing they need to abandon so that they can accept the truth and live a fulfilled life. 

What are the lies they tell themselves when they are nitpicking their own supposed "faults"? Do they think they are too shy? Too bookish? Not smart enough? Not attractive enough? What is the thing they hate so much about themselves that they shine a spotlight on it in their heads? Focus on so much it's now stretched out of proportion?

That can in itself be what they are journeying to get rid of in this book of yours. 

Character creation (whether they're unreliable, sweethearts, or anti-heroes) can be one of the toughest parts of writing a book...especially if you're event-focused. 

Introducing a character? That can be the toughest part of the toughest part. How much detail and backstory, etc. do you include? How do you make your reader care about your character--the one you spent all this time brainstorming a lie and a journey for? I tackle some of that in the video below:

Holly Schindler is the author of the YA novel A Blue So Dark