The Three Types of Obstacles Your Character Must Overcome in Story

EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Obstacles to your character's main objective and how they deal with them are what drive your story. If you don't have obstacles, you won't have a story. This week, Zena breaks down the three types of obstacles in story to help you add intrigue, connect with your audience, and reveal true character. Come away with a better understanding of what they are and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

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Transcript

THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
S3_E16: The Three Types of Obstacles Your Character Must Overcome in Story
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT 

Published March 9, 2023

00:00
INTRO: Hello, and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.

00:09
RECAP: So for the last few weeks, with the exception of a special episode, we've been talking a lot about characters and how to reveal character through something called the art of negotiation, which is basically power struggles that characters might engage in, in a scene, which naturally allows characters to reveal who they are, but also to clarify their want. And then it forces them to face conflict. 

00:37
TOPIC INTRODUCTION: Now this is a good thing, because it goes back to the essence of storytelling. One of the things I've been saying from the get go is that a story is essentially about a character who has a goal. And then, they pursue that goal relentlessly over the course of the story. But naturally, that brings in a couple of things because the thing is, if they got it right away, the story would be over, which means you have to have something called obstacles. 

01:07
So what I want to talk about today are the three different types of obstacles that a character might face in a story, and then how they might address those things, or how we might actually navigate those things and use them to advance the story. And to make the story richer and better. And bring in all those elements that we've been talking about from the beginning. 

01:29
PRESENTATION: So let's start with talking about how the nature of the obstacle is essential to the work overall because whatever that obstacle is, is going to inform the plot. Right? It's going to inform what the character has to do to achieve his or her objective. So it's really, really important. And I see three different categories of obstacles. 

01:53
There are basically three different categories of obstacles. One would be a physical obstacle, which means it's an actual physical obstacle that exists in reality with matter in that world. And I'll expand on that in a little bit. Then there's the obstacle of another person's will, which is what we just talked about. We've spent a lot of time talking about negotiations and how what you're trying to do is basically overcome somebody else's will. And that's very important. But that means that the obstacle is the other people or the other person in the story itself. And then the final category, which I'm sure you're familiar with, is an internal obstacle. That means an obstacle within the character him or herself, something that they have to overcome internally, to be able to achieve whatever it is he or she has to achieve. And I want to talk about each of these, in turn. 

02:48
Now physical obstacles can manifest in a couple of different ways. One of them would be nature itself, right? If this is a story that's about survival, if it's an adventure story, then there's probably going to be a lot of external objects that exist that that character has to overcome. Maybe extreme cold, or a lack of water, or maybe it's an avalanche that they have to survive, or something to do with natural order of the world. A lot of adventure type stories have to do with that kind of a physical obstacle. If you think about the movie The Impossible—which by the way, I highly recommend. It's about the terrible tsunami that occurred. And this family who is literally swept up in this tsunami, and separated, and they all have to try to find their way to each other and survive the mass devastation that happened. It is a remarkable true story of that event. But very much the obstacles in that are physical things that are in the real world. 

03:54
And they're nature obstacles in a lot of ways themselves. But they're not always nature obstacles. Sometimes an obstacle might be, say, a lack of medicine, or a lack of—some sort of physical obstacle that has to then be solved in the story world. If you don't have something like Novocaine, but you have a tooth that needs to be pulled, that too is a physical obstacle that has to be overcome. The pain of that is a physical obstacle that has to be overcome or the lack of numbing the pain or whatever the case may be. That can also be a physical obstacle that has to be overcome in that moment.

04:35
So a physical obstacle is just something that actually exists in the real world that is preventing that character—that is somehow blocking them from being able to move forward until they work through that obstacle, until they get around it, until that obstacle has been overcome. And those are wonderful things to have in your story. And so you should be thinking about those. 

04:58
The next one, of course, as we've talked about, are the obstacles of other people's wills. But now I want to talk about it in another broader sense because we can look at this in a different way, beyond a negotiation in a scene. 

05:12
Let's say it is a survival story. Well, one thing that we know is that in addition to—in a survival-type situation—trying to scrounge for food, there are inevitably going to be the bands of looters or the bands of people that are going to steal and rob from you. So now that becomes the overcoming of other characters and their wills, and what they want as opposed to you. You know, they're looking out for their interests and you're looking out for yours. But then it also becomes a way to reveal true character because how you handle those other characters becomes essential. 

05:46
So for example, maybe it is a survival story. And there's a band of people that come upon you, and they want to steal your food. Well, if you kill them all, and don't think twice about it, and it's not in self-defense, now that reveals that you are actually worse than the people that are just hungry and trying to get food. So however you handle those situations is key. On the other hand, maybe you can't just leave them as they are. Maybe you have to disarm them. Maybe you have to somehow take their weapons away. But is that going to make it so that they can't survive? I mean, you have to think through those things. What is the right thing to do in that sort of situation? It's an opportunity to reveal deeper levels of character. So again, this falls into the category of an obstacle of another person's will. And that might be something that has to be overcome in story. 

06:43
Well, of course, the third kind is an internal obstacle. And this is an area that is interesting because, once again, I just keep finding this to be the case. We all know that we have to have characters that are flawed, right? We have to have characters that are flawed. Unfortunately, time and time again, we're creating characters that are flawed, I think, in the wrong kind of way. They don't have the right kind of flaws. 

07:12
So what happens then, is we have characters that are intrinsically selfish. I really, really, really encourage you to avoid that. Avoid making selfishness the characteristic that they have to overcome. It is very difficult to do and very few people do it successfully. And it usually takes a tremendously long time for that character to actually change over the course of the telling. So you have to do something else that maybe makes them appear selfish, or whatever. 

07:45
But there are things that you can do, that make the character more noble, more heroic, that I think are valuable. Instead, I think it has to be about the character's weaknesses. It has to be about their weaknesses, in terms of their humanity. Not their moral deficiencies, but their human foibles. If you try to make it about their human foibles, I think you'll go much further. I think it will make your story much easier to write and it will make your characters much more believable and much more likable. We will connect to them better as an audience. 

08:21
Now, what do I mean when I talk about making it about their human foibles as opposed to their moral deficiencies? Well, I'm going to couch it in a different category here. Let's talk about brokenness versus sinfulness. So broken people in real life are those that maybe they're engaged in these harmful patterns of reenactment? Maybe they actually do these things, but their motive is different than somebody that is engaging in an act of rebellion, or someone who engages in them simply because they like it. Right? So the broken person is deceived. The sinful person is engaged.

09:14
And it is often tricky to know the difference. But here's the thing. Sometimes people engage in things that they know are evil. Not everybody engages in sinful behavior because they're broken. A lot of people do. And that, I think, is one of the gifts of discernment that God gives us, is the ability to be able to ascertain whether there is a spirit of evilness going on there, or whether it is a spirit of brokenness. Because there is a difference.

09:44
I think our characters ought to be broken and not evil if they're going to be heroes. I think that speaks for itself, right? Heroic characters ought not be evil. Unfortunately, I think we've gotten really bad at being able to gauge this because we almost don't want to say anything is evil anymore. We want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. We want to love people. I hear this all the time. "Oh, we need to love. We love." 

10:12
In fact, I was told just the other day that my questioning of the whole trans phenomenon, and what is happening in our society is a product of me being afraid of what I don't understand. And that God is beyond gender. God is love. And therefore, if I was on God's side, I would just love everybody and accept them as they are. And these are arguments that we're hearing very much in real life. The problem is that it assumes that everybody has the same brokenness and that none of these things are being done with an act of the will that is contrary to God's will. The motivation matters. Motive matters. Why a person does something actually matters.

11:06
And when a person is trying to finagle something, and take advantage of something, and exploit somebody else, and they know it's wrong, but they can get away with it—it ain't pretty. It ain't brokenness that's at work in them. I mean, there's probably brokenness too. But that's not supposed to entice our sympathies. That should entice our horror. That deserves our rebuke. That deserves discipline, correction, rejection. We should call those things out because some things are evil. And I think we've lost the ability to gauge what is evil in a lot of ways and our society is living the fruits of that right now. We can't just give everybody the benefit of the doubt. 

11:58
So our characters, they ought to be engaged in behaviors that are more akin to their brokenness, and not their moral depravity. A character that is truly selfish, and self-absorbed, and only thinks of themselves is evil. It is evil. They're a despicable, horrible, hateful person if all they care about is themselves and getting their way and "to Hell with everybody else". They can't care about anybody else, if they're truly selfish. 

12:32
Whereas a character who's broken may believe that their presence is harmful to others because there's something so fundamentally flawed about them that they will cause others damage. And so out of concern for their fellows they may go off on their own. They may go off and be alone and push other people away because they don't want to harm that other person. But in that case, they have the other person's best interest at heart. And they may be deceived, right? They may be very much deceived that they're going to cause harm. But nevertheless, the motive is for the good of the other person. And maybe even the outcome, or what it looks like on the outside, might even manifest quite the same. It might look the same to others. But the motive is different. One is good and one is bad.

13:28
So when we're talking about the internal obstacle of the character, I think we need to be looking at what is their weakness. What is the thing inside of them that is preventing them from stepping into the hero that they were meant to be? And it might be a flawed sense of self. It might be cowardice. Now cowardice is a tricky one because cowardice means they're very much afraid. But—

13:57
my dog is in rare form today—

14:00
People can be cowardly and still be redeemed. Cowardice is based on a false sense of self. It is based on lies about our own potential or the capacity of human beings to exact change or to make a difference in a lot of ways. It also elevates the power of others over and against our own. It's a fearful position. It's a fear-based weakness. It also hinges on, underpins on, a false hierarchy of importance. People who are cowards have elevated their own standards of safety over and against things that are good, truly good, noble, holy, right? Just the big things that are above that. And so they are afraid to stand up to others because they see them interfering on the wrong level. They've placed it on the wrong level of importance. 

15:02
And so what they have to learn to do over the course of the telling, is elevate the importance of things like truth. See people right now that are being silent, while all of these horrors are taking place in our society, are cowardly because they have probably elevated this sense of, "Well, you know, I should just keep things to myself, you know, hold my opinion to myself. It has nothing to do with me." They have put it in the wrong order or hierarchy. But God calls us to speak out against injustices. So we have to put it in a correct prioritization. So we have to realign our priorities is what I'm saying. So that's something that can be addressed over the course of a story in a way that is believable, I think, because it isn't based on evilness, it's based on a false sense of priority, of importance, of what's really, truly important in God's economy. 

15:56
And of course, there's lots of other examples of weaknesses within one's character that have to be overcome. A lot of times, this is where trauma comes in. People that have been traumatized have some deficiencies. They have some deficiencies of character, probably, that need to be overcome. But they also just have a primary fundamental brokenness based on the false lies they now believe about themselves because of the trauma that occurred. And so over the course of the story, they have to overcome those lies. They have to replace those lies with truth. And then they can step into the person that they were always meant to become. 

16:36
And by the way, I know this because that applies to me. I know this is true because it applies to me. And it applies to a lot of people that I've been in recovery programs with. 

16:49
So the key is, we have to be able to navigate. What are those internal obstacles that are based on our weaknesses, our human foibles, our broken natures versus what are the obstacles that make us evil? What are those internal obstacles that make a person truly evil? And how do you redeem a person who has evil, right? And it's a tricky thing. 

17:20
And I know there's all sorts of theological issues here. Someone will argue with me and say, "Well, that's what depravity means. We're fundamentally evil." But I'm still trying to separate it in these categories of what is practical in terms of what we can address. And I don't believe that we are evil in the sense that we're as bad as we possibly can be. That's the whole point of also being born with dignity, where God has put on our hearts a capacity for good, when we know what is good, when we are ashamed when we do bad things. People that are psychopaths don't suffer shame and therefore are not capable of goodness, in a lot of ways. Unless they have morally reasoned to a point where they—even though they don't feel the shame, they have reasoned to the point where they're still able to behave in moral ways because logically and reasonably they know what's right. Even if they can't feel the harm of poor actions. It's a very complicated thing, I guess. But in our purposes, we're just talking about internal obstacles that characters might have to overcome. 

17:20
CONCLUCION: So this is just—we're just opening the box here. We're just opening the box. We're starting to look at some of these things. And we'll continue to expand on this notion in the weeks to come. For you, the takeaway is in your story. You want to be looking at the different types of obstacles that your character might have to overcome. 

18:33
And by the way, they should be taking direct action to overcome them. They can't be passive participants as these things are happening. They can't have something happen, like even a natural disaster, and then they just sit there for the rest of the story and wait to be rescued. That is not an active character. That makes them a passive character. When they face these obstacles, they must choose courses of actions that allow them to face those obstacles and overcome them. That's what the story is ultimately about. So we have to choose active things for them to do to overcome those obstacles. 

19:31
CALL TO ACTION: Okay, I hope that this is helpful and gives you some ideas for your current work in progress. And if you happen to be a screenwriter, and you're looking for more such ideas, and you're looking to learn how to execute your stories, well, may I suggest that you look into my course which is currently available. And in fact is on sale for $600 off the regular price. Formatting as an Artform is currently on sale. It's for anybody who is a screenwriter or wants to be. And it teaches you how to use the artistry of the format to write a beautiful and wonderful screenplay from the get go, while also knowing and mastering all of the rules of formatting for screenplays. So if this is something that interests you, please do check it out. You can go to the website, thestorytellersmission.com/formatting-as-an-artform, and you should be able to find out more about this course. 

20:32
OUTRO: All right. I want to thank you again for listening to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, and may you go forth inspired to change the world for the better through story.