It’s important to reveal the character’s wound. Some books and films utilize a prologue or flashback for this. The goal is to understand the character’s perspective on themselves, others, and the world. This is the lie.

The wound also establishes the character’s desires and what the character pursues throughout the story. His or her desires will lead them down the wrong path and will even inhibit their ability to solve the big problem they must face throughout the story. Because some tragic or traumatic event has wounded them, the character learns the wrong lesson from that even which becomes the lie they cling to. This lie explains their tragedy in a way that their mind can accept.

Unhealthy desires stem from lies and complicate their journey of character change. Yearning for love without parental affection can breed harmful vices in adulthood. Some turn toxic relationship, prostitution, or infidelity into adulthood. The strength of the lie and negative desires will depend on how deeply the wound cuts.

Your protagonist should also have a superpower. Something that enables them to succeed and accomplish their desires. They hope to suppress or eliminate the pain of their wound. Their superpower allows them to do this.it is the crutch they turn to solve their problems.

For a case study, consider the 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. If you are unfamiliar with either the film or the novel by Alexander Dumas, the story revolves around a young sailor, Edmond Dantes. While on a routine fishing voyage, the captain takes ill, and the ship stops off on the island of Elba where Napoleon lives in exile in search of medical aid. Dantes converses with Napoleon who gives him a letter to delivery back in France. Dantes cannot read but takes Napoleon’s word that it is only personal correspondence. Due to the jealousy, a fellow shipmate along with Dantes’s best friend turn him in for being a spy. The royal prosecutor declares Dantes innocent until he learns the name of the letter’s recipient. To save his father, this man, Villefort, imprisons Dantes in the Chateau d’If. He languishes there for 13 years falsely accused.

Assisted by a fellow inmate, Dantes digs a tunnel out of prison to pass time. Unfortunately, they fail in the attempts, and the fellow inmate, a priest, dies. Dantes takes his place in the sack meant to carry away the dead man’s body.

From here, he plots his revenge. First, he finds the treasure that the priest spoke of on the island of Monte Cristo. Then he remakes himself into a wealthy Count and returns home to seek revenge on those who wronged him.

His core wound: his betrayal and unjust imprisonment.

The lie he tells himself: that he must escape and take revenge.

Vengeance is his desire along with the need to reclaim what he had lost: his father, his fiancé, and the happy life he had once almost had.

His superpower is his tenacity and ability to remake himself. Over the course of 13 years, he could have quit and accepted his fate, but he pressed on fueled by his desire for revenge.

The film simplifies the plot and character arc considerably. The novel delves deep into the character’s internal conflict, desires, and planning his revenge. However, both capture the central conflict: the nature of vengeance, love, and what makes a life meaningful.