The Characters

Characters are the primal part of the story. They are complicated beings just like us. In the world of goals, they face the same classic three battles that we do.
1. Man vs. man. One character against each other, both going for the same goal, who will get there first.
2. Man vs. environment. It is a blizzard; a family is trapped in their house, with snow ten-feet high. To survive they have to ration their food until they are able to leave their house to buy more, or starve to death and pray they don't lose electricity for necessary heat.
3. Man vs. himself. Man overcoming the hardest thing, himself. It could be standing up to a bully, taking responsibility for something they've done, or for example, losing weight, by exercising and stopping themselves from overeating.
It is always up to the character to find some way to overcome these challenges through learning and support. And if you don't already know, learning is an on-going process that never stops. You may be the best at one specific thing one day, but don't be surprised if someone comes along who is better at it then you, that is also part of the on-going learning process for your characters. The characters are defined by the choices they make. This can become quite interesting when the story isn't all that black and white.
An example would be the television series, Xena Warrior Princess. Now we can't say that Xena is a classic, but the writers of the series are excellent storytellers. The Xena, decides it is better to help people then to help herself, after facing the gauntlet, and wants to work to redeem herself after all the bad deeds she's done. She changes her goals, and when she meets Gabrielle, she is able to better stay on her track, standing up for what is right. In the beginning their stories start out very simple. They meet a whole bunch of re-occurring characters. Then the story changes and Xena has to protect her son, and Gabrielle protects her daughter, both out of love. Tensions occur between them. At one point in Gabrielle's life Gabrielle is not even sure if she can live with herself and the things she has done. Change comes and they grow from their mistakes. At one point in their lives they are working to stop Hope, and her followers. This come to pass and we follow them on their journey as they meet more re-occurring characters, Xena has a child, and has to battle the gods to keep her child alive. Meanwhile, Xena always has her nemesis, Ares, the God of War at her tail, and she knows him that well that she know when he is around.

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