Creating DILEMMAS for Characters (Writing Advice)

[@Ayyavazi13]

Katniss had a third option she never even considered, eating the berries alone. Similar outcomes but the MC dies. Also, can we get a video on how to craft the dilemma in the first place? This video is great if you already know the choices available to your character or at least the dilemma itself. But if you're trying to come up with an event/dilemma from scratch you have to look at other factors such as a character's internal and external motivations, their pain points, etc.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Good point, Norm... I'll see about doing another dilemma video with a focus on motivation/flaws/fears/etc. Thanks!

[@BbGun-lw5vi]

The problem with Katniss eating the berries alone is that the Capitol still has a winner with Peeta. By both eating the berries, it robs them of the champion that the country demands. Or did I misunderstand why your option works?

[@dabidosan]

Charlie’s decision to betray Willy Wonka for a quick cash grab or leave with nothing would probably have to be the hardest choice for a fictional character to have make…. that or Sophie’s Choice.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

I still need to watch Sophie's Choice. Almost watched it a few years ago, then Netflix took it down

[@BbGun-lw5vi]

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty You definitely need to watch it.

[@christinejohnson2839]

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty - a life altering experience. At least it was for me as a mother.

[@s.q.10-e66]

MatPat on film theory had a great video on why Spiderman was struggling with his powers in that second movie. Short answer, some form of PTSD. Only after he stepped away and did some self care, getting good sleep, resuming studies, rebuilding relationships, was he able to retake the mantle of Spiderman

[@SequentiallyCompact]

I always found Arya's dilemmas in ASOIAF to be ones that stuck with me, because she always chose in the end to abandon comfort, safety, and companionship for the goal of the lonely path of vengeance or duty to family. Martin always made her circumstances one of a tempting easy choice vs the cold and hard path, and she always chose the latter.

[@christinamaxwell5941]

One of the most gut-wrenching, heartstring-pulling characters I have read and seen performed on stage was George Milton's decision to shoot his friend Lennie Small in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". Additionally, many of the dilemmas faced by both Bernat Estanyol and his son Arnau Estanyol in "La Cathedral Del Mar" ("The Cathedral of the Sea") are excruciatingly taxing.

[@Disgruntled_Dave]

"And I get to tend the rabbi-" *BANG* Yeah... I read the book in high school, but I saw that movie much younger. For some reason, at the time I had this thing where if I realized that a movie was _trying_ to elicit an emotional response, I would stubbornly refuse to react emotionally. I never could get into dog or horse movies for that reason; I knew they were _trying_ to make me cry, so the effect just didn't work. But Of Mice and Men was so well-written, -acted, -etc. and did such a great job building up to the tragedy that even as an emotionally stunted 10-year-old I felt genuine sorrow for the way things had happened. Great book/film, would recommend. Also, to be a slightly cynical troll, I'd say it's a perfect movie for teaching kids about reality, and a natural progression from "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Land Before Time!"

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

What's the toughest choice you've ever seen a character make in a story? Let us know! (And mark for spoilers)

[@SyroNagashi]

I think the toughest choice I've seen a character make is Shinji from Evangelion trying to figure out if he should pilot Eva 01 and save humanity from the angels. Or live a life of running away from all his problems where he, and everyone else could eventually die.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

@@SyroNagashi Only watched the first 6 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Does it get better? I'm a huge Xenogears fans, but NGE didn't wow me as much as I'd hoped.

[@SyroNagashi]

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Fact of the matter is, it depends on how you truly view it. Its amazing but, it requires some understanding before hand. I think its worth the experience if your into deep meaning, if you search some videos on NGE it might make your appreciation for it grow, its depressive emotion is something interesting in NGE, but if you can look over all those themes and find the true hidden meaning of NGE I think its worth a try. But I do understand that a lot of people would rather watch something that doesn't remind them of how realism could affect a fictional world scenario, but overall I think its worth a try :). Hideaki Anno definitely gave me a lot of inspiration as a writer.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

@@SyroNagashi Interesting. I need to get back to it. It sounds like one of those stories that clicks once you've seen it in full.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

​@TheStinkyPoopooHeadz Hahaha at least they had the courtesy to congratulate you for suffering through it

[@Elythia]

Maybe I misunderstood the video, but to me it seems to be about how characters solve conflicts. If I am not mistaken, in every example the second choice was the one the character would pick!? I was hoping for tips to come up with difficult (moral) choices and how to integrate them into your story in a way that doesn’t seem artificial or forced.

[@Saucy.Waffles]

Great video!! I think a great example of dilemma’s in stories is from breaking bad. There are so many choices of internal and external problems and positives that carry the show all the way to the end. I’m now raising the stakes in my book from the beginning to give the reader a problem and get them invested in the story.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

The BB dilemma that sticks out to me is the Jane one. Impossible to forget.

[@thornmollenhoff8698]

Thank You for this video. This makes it more clear on how to create a dilemma. I will definitely use this.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thrilled to hear it helped. Thanks for watching!

[@Marek_Blex]

Dilemma between the 2 main characters in Crimso Tide played by Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. To shoot the nuclear weapon first or wait for confirmation after communication failure and risk the alpha strike of terrorists.

[@russellvitranoiii3504]

I really enjoyed the chapter in the Halo book, "The Fall of Reach," in which the officer monitoring the radar has to decide whether or not to report the strange activity he's just picked up. Totally forgot who wrote the book, but he or she did a very good job going through all the pros and cons of reporting the activity up the chain to the military patrols who would check it out... if it was real. The officer debated for a really long time, finally decided it was worth the risk... and inadvertently allowed the Covenant into invasion range. Not all external/internal outcomes have to be intrinsically devastating. Sometimes it's the little things that cause our downfall.

[@dante22723]

The ending choice in tomorrow’s joe is one of the most heartbreaking dilemmas I’ve seen a character be in

[@christinejohnson2839]

Wow! Just wow! This video distills down and communicates information that most books on writing flippantly breeze over - expecting that, as a writer, you already know it. Thank you Brandon (my fellow Jacksonvilleian) for your help. And my favorite dilemma was when Walt (Breaking Bad) was deciding to let Jesse's girlfriend die of an overdose or help her.

[@wolfwatch19]

Walking Dead After Abraham and Glenn are killed graphically by Negan. The entire scene is unbelievable, uncomfortable - they are all trapped, no way, other than to submit, to kneel.

[@markmarkel5120]

New writer, great video as usual. Thanks I was only considering one external option after a lot of my events. It’s good to make two choices and give the reader that insight. The dilemma makes the reader wonder whether you made the right choice

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thrilled the video helped. Best of luck with your story!

[@pscheibmeir]

Spoiler Alert - Sean Connery in Medicine Man. Heal a sick person of cancer, but risk losing the formula or let them die and cure the world. Some days I question his decision.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Haven't watched Medicine Man, so I averted from eyes from this comment. Will have to check it out. Thanks for watching!

[@barbaramarkley43]

Sophie's choice.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Haven't seen it. Almost watched it on Netflix a few years back. I'll add it to my list.

[@thebasketballhistorian3291]

I always thought the Hunger Games two choices were if Katniss or Peter should live but Katniss cleverly thought of a third choice that they die together.

[@JL-ze5qm]

Very clear and to-the-point video. Thank you.

[@lhistoirenimp4537]

One of the best choice in a movie: in kingdom of heaven when balian can become king by killing lusignan. If he does, he prevents a bad person to become king and can save the people but at the same time, he also kills the kingdom of heaven

[@Shka_maru]

Love this video. Hope you make a follow up video with more examples and dive more into this method :) thank you again

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@LizardCrewSweden]

Please keep sharing your nuggets of insight. You provide real value.

[@thegamingwaffle1234]

This video is really helpful. Thank you!

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Glad it helped!

[@travishill3711]

The ending to Darabont's adaptation of King's The Mist

[@The-L-Factor]

Spoiler Alert--- This is an essy one for me. The absolute HARDEST choice I've ever seen in fiction is for Tom Hanks in The Green Mile. Do I try to convince everyone in the city that John Coffee is a miraculous healing entity, and risk public shame and admonition, possibly ending my career from public disapproval and scrutiny, Or do I just give the masses of the blind sheep of people what they want, by executing the innocent because of their preconceived notions?

[@imnotcool9617]

Thank you dhilema is 90 percent of my story fr well not that much but I use it alot

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Yeah, it's good to have tons of dilemmas--big and small--in every story

[@jesusromanpadro3853]

The final chiloice in the Walking Dead video game, because WE, the player, has to make the choise. 😢

[@PhoenixCrown]

I love the Spider Man (1) dilemma because 1) It focuses on Peter Parker vs Spider Man, 2) Spider Man cheats and says he can embrace both of his personas, 3) He's punished for this--and it looks like he'll die, 4) He's saved by the NY citizens, a variable Goblin didn't account for and reflecting Peter Parker's human, intimate relationship and mirroring the NY community.

[@FisherBros]

So here's an interesting setting that might have been done before but not to my knowledge: a character kills an innocent man after thinking they were about to kill their friend, that man turns out to be a son of a politically powerful family, the cops don't find out who killed the guy, but the mc feels terrible for killing the man. I imagine the dilemma going like this: *Option #1:* Simply lie through their teeth about the whole thing Eternal is positive: they simply get off scot-free Internal is negative: they'll live the rest of their lives knowing they killed someone innocent, feeling immeasurable guilt and shame for this *Option #2:* Plead guilty of the murder External is negative: obviously spending potentially the rest of their lives in prison Internal is positive: being honorable and fair, maybe setting a good example

[@antoinelachapelle3405]

I find your spiderman example has more layers than the positive / negative you proposed For exampel, if he choses to quit being spiderman, you point out that the external outcome is positive because he gets to be safe and normal and continue his peter parker life, but there is a double layer to that, where he knows quitting affects the citizens of NY because he wont be there to help catch criminals. Its both positive and negative externally, making the choice even harder.

[@davidaleshire4292]

Aliens. Ripley had a choice between risking her life and the lives of the surviving crew to save Newt, or leave the kid and make a safe getaway. One way she would be safe but feel horrible for the rest of her life, and the other she chances being incinerated.

[@tomlewis4748]

Jack and his friends and the people he loves are constantly being attacked and threatened with death from a gang. His dilemma is to either continue to be reactive and defend against those attacks, or to be proactive and do a preemptive strike in vigilantism to remove the threat, by killing the leaders of the gang. If he continues to be only reactive, the negative external outcome is that he and his friends and the people he loves will remain in peril. The positive internal outcome is that he will maintain his own personal standards. If he decides to get proactive, the positive external outcome will be that he and his friends and the people he loves will be safe. The negative internal outcome will be that he will be haunted for the rest of his life for doing something highly illegal and way below the standards he sets for himself. Yes, as requested, this is from a work of fiction. What do we suppose that the reader will predict as Jack's decision? Well, I guess it might be obvious, bc otherwise, why would the author even set this choice up? For him to remain reactive equates to no change, no turning point. To go proactive indicates significant change, based on a turning point. A story needs change. It needs a turning point. Scenes, sequences, acts, story and character arcs all need those. All righty then. But does a 'thorny dilemma' need to be resident in every scene? Is that required to create significant change and turning points? Or is this just one shortcut to that? (and I believe there really are no shortcuts to writing well-you must instead do the due diligence of doing the hard work, and there are no other options). It seems to me that everything an author needs in the story can be placed there by a number of different means other than by just that, and to shoehorn a 'thorny dilemma' in mindlessly every chance you get would actually dilute, or even destroy, a story. Readers' minds would dull at the monotony and lack of variety, they would question the lack of realism-whether it reflects what is real in their own experience, and they would be exhausted by Act II. That's a hat trick of an epic fail. Try getting that published. A 'thorny dilemma' doesn't seem to be resident in many scenes at all in books by revered authors such as Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, and Jane Austen, or any other author I can think of. And those novels are in the canon. They work just fine without that. I honestly can't think of a story where every scene had a 'thorny dilemma' in it. Can you? Give me an example of one difficult decision Philip Marlowe ever had to make, in all seven Raymond Chandler novels. None really come to mind, yet Philip Marlowe is as iconic a character as there ever was, and is as beloved as it gets, and is written so that the reader bonds very closely with him-without him needing to ruminate over any 'thorny dilemmas'. Even at the very climax of The Big Sleep, Chandler's most-beloved novel, did Marlowe need to think twice before gunning down mortal threat Lash Canino? Hell no! Chandler created Marlowe, and his stories, without really ever feeling the need to go there. And that worked. Once, one 'thorny dilemma' in a story, might just be enough. It typically has been, according to the proof we see in history.

[@joedisonsoriano543]

I hope you increase the volume of your videos,

[@NiraBagoes]

Scent Of A Woman.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

The Al Pacino movie? I haven't seen it. I'll have to check it out

[@matthope6193]

Spoiler alert. The end of the Mist.

[@elshebactm6769]

🤠👍🏿

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks for watching!