Betrayal in storytelling is a powerful tool, capable of evoking intense emotions and driving narratives forward with gripping force. Whether you're aiming for your readers to gasp in shock or shed tears of empathy, orchestrating a betrayal requires careful planning and execution. In this guide, we'll delve into the essential elements needed to craft a betrayal that leaves a lasting impact on your audience.
To Write a Heart-Rending Betrayal, First Understand the Purpose of Betrayal
Before diving into the intricacies of betrayal, it's crucial to grasp its role within your story. Betrayal serves as a catalyst for drama, emotion, and character development. It thrusts protagonists into challenging circumstances, testing their relationships, beliefs, and resilience. Whether intentional or unintentional, a well-executed betrayal can propel your narrative to new heights.
Setting the Stage for Betrayal
The key to a being able to write a heart-rending betrayal lies in its setup. Rather than springing it upon your audience as a sudden twist, laying the groundwork is essential for maximum impact. Drop subtle hints and foreshadowing throughout your story, planting seeds of doubt or intrigue in the minds of your readers. Whether it's through cryptic conversations, ominous warnings, or lingering suspicions, foreshadowing primes your audience for the eventual betrayal, ensuring it feels both plausible and devastating when it occurs.
Differentiating Intentional and Unintentional Betrayals
Betrayals come in two distinct forms: intentional and unintentional. In intentional betrayals, the betrayer knowingly undermines the protagonist, driven by ulterior motives or hidden agendas. This type of betrayal is characterized by deceit, manipulation, and a calculated betrayal of trust.
On the other hand, unintentional betrayals stem from unforeseen circumstances or external pressures that compel the betrayer to act against their intentions. Whether influenced by prophecies, fate, or moral dilemmas, unintentional betrayals add layers of complexity to your characters' moral struggles and inner conflicts.
Executing the Betrayal: Steps for Maximum Impact
When the moment of betrayal arrives, it's essential to deliver it with precision and emotional resonance. Follow these steps to ensure your betrayal leaves a lasting impression on your audience:
Set It Up: Establish the groundwork for betrayal by foreshadowing, hinting at conflicts, and exploring the motivations of both the betrayer and the betrayed.
Show the Risks: Highlight the potential consequences and stakes associated with the betrayal, emphasizing the risks involved and the impact it will have on the characters and the story world.
Reiterate the Betrayal: Upon the betrayal's revelation, revisit earlier moments and conversations, emphasizing the tragic irony of the situation and the shattered illusions of trust and loyalty.
Bonus Step: Tie It to the Theme: For added depth and thematic resonance, integrate the betrayal into the overarching themes of your story. Whether it reinforces themes of trust, redemption, or the corrupting influence of power, aligning the betrayal with your story's thematic core enriches its narrative significance.
Case Study: "The Dark Knight"
To illustrate these principles in action, let's examine Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" and its portrayal of Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face. Through meticulous setup, the film foreshadows Dent's fall from grace, highlighting the risks involved in his crusade against Gotham's criminals. When Dent's betrayal occurs, the narrative revisits earlier conversations, underscoring the tragic consequences of his actions and their alignment with the film's themes of moral ambiguity and the nature of heroism.
Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Betrayal
Crafting a heart-rending betrayal requires foresight, subtlety, and a deep understanding of your story's themes and characters. By carefully setting the stage, exploring the motivations of both betrayer and betrayed, and integrating the betrayal into your narrative's thematic fabric, you can evoke powerful emotions and leave a lasting impression on your audience. So go forth, writers, and wield the power of betrayal with skill and finesse—but remember, leave the real-life betrayals to the realm of fiction.
Thank you for joining me on this exploration of betrayal in storytelling. If you found this guide helpful, don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments below. Happy writing, and may your betrayals be as gripping as they are unforgettable!
****************************************************************************************************
Join the Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprolificauthor
Apply for the 6 Figure Stories Beta here: https://bit.ly/6FSApply
Follow or DM me on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/6figurestoryteller
Stuck on some part of your story or manuscript? Sign up for a free manuscript audit with me and I’ll help you get unstuck! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/manuscriptaudit
**************************
Get the Productivity Planner for Fiction Authors here: https://bit.ly/fictionplanner
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fictionauthorbizschool/
Join the Wait List for Fiction by Design here: https://bit.ly/fictionbydesign
***************************
Get your copy of the Fiction Author Success Timeline Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tuQUK2Qi7AL8c8TonZamFQ9GevXauUDm/view?usp=sharing
****************************
Join the Advanced Waitlist for Fiction by Design here: https://bit.ly/fictionbydesign
****************************
FREE PDFs:
5 Steps to Planning the Beginning, Middle, and End of Your Fiction Story: https://liesel-k-hill.ck.page/15ce876ece
7 Ways to Sell Your Book Every Month Without Breaking the Bank: https://liesel-k-hill.ck.page/6ab8a5aa2e
10 Plot-Thickening Events that Every Fiction Best Seller Includes: https://bit.ly/10Plot
****************************
Leave me an audio review or recommend an episode on Speakpipe: www.speakpipe.com/theprolificauthor
****************************
(Where possible, I use affiliate links.)
Check out CONVERTKIT, the NUMBER ONE EMAIL AUTORESPONDER FOR AUTHORS: https://bit.ly/TPAEmail
****************************
Connect With Me on Social Media:
Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprolificauthor
Instagram: www.instagram.com/6figurestoryteller
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lkhillbooks
Transcript:
All right, so a question for you. Do you want to basically stab your readers in the feels and twist the knife real hard? Do you want them slapping their hands to both sides of their face and just screaming no? Well, obviously there are plenty of ways to do that but one really great one is orchestrating a betrayal in order to create that emotion in your story and of course also to move the plot forward. So today I'm going to be talking about the elements you need to create a great betrayal in your story, what to do and you know exactly how to think it all out and make it really work for you.
Okay, so let's get to this week's topic which is how to create an amazing and by that I mean heart-rending and tragic betrayal. So the point of doing this in a story is to create drama, to create emotion, to take the characters to a really difficult place in the story, right? Betrayal is always really difficult. Maybe you've tried this and it hasn't really worked.
It hasn't gotten quite the emotional punch that you wanted or maybe you want to try it but you're just not entirely sure where to start. If you're hitting walls, it's probably because you're missing one of the elements that you need. And these things, they really do have to be very carefully thought out and orchestrated in your story.
It's not something that you can just, oh, I think I'm going to pop a betrayal in here. No, it's got to be a very integral, very, what's the word, like entangled part of your story. It's just not something you can do at the drop of a hat.
So most people think that the best way to do this is just to spring it on the audience without any prior warning. As in, you know, at the very end, oh, the best friend was working against them all along, something like that. You can kind of get away with that in TV shows and movies.
Even then, it's not great. I don't think that's the best way to do it. But the reason that you can get away with it in a more visual medium is because we're not inside the character's heads anyway.
And so it just works a little bit better in that medium. But in books, it really doesn't work to just drop it like that. Just springing a betrayal in your audience without any forethought or planning is going to feel like it came out of left field and like you just did it for the shock value, okay? And you're going to actually get bad reviews for that.
You have to make it make sense. You have to drop innocuous clues along the way that the reader will remember, but not necessarily pick up on as they're first reading it. So that when the betrayal happens, the pattern suddenly clicks into place and makes total sense to them, okay? So this is a skill for sure.
It's not an easy thing to do. But especially if the reader can pick up a pattern, if they can remember things and go, oh, yeah, that's what that was, it will make the betrayal all that more heartrending, right? It'll pack more of an emotional punch if you can pull that off, okay? So how do we set up a tragic and heartrending betrayal? First of all, before we get to the steps, I wanted to say that there are actually two different ways you can do this, two different types of betrayals, if you will. The intentional betrayal and the unintentional betrayal, which sounds a little wonky, but hear me out.
The intentional betrayal is one in which the person who's doing the betraying was always planning to do it, okay? So you have someone who was working against the protagonist secretly the whole time. They've always been kind of a sinister character. They've always been insidious about it, and we just didn't know it, right? So that would be an intentional betrayal.
They were always planning on betraying the main character. The unintentional betrayal, you see this mostly with fantasy stories that have prophecies or fate or destiny working in them. So it's something where a character is told that they will end up betraying someone and they reject that and say, no, no, I would never do that, you know? And it's kind of like them rebelling against their fate, but then when push comes to shove, maybe they've got something else hanging over their head that is more powerful than them not wanting to betray somebody, and so they end up having to do it anyway.
But that would be an unintentional betrayal. They never planned to, but this is just the way that it worked out. Now, like I said, you see that mostly in fantasy stories, but it can work in other stories, too.
Maybe you have, I don't know, some sort of crime or courtroom drama where, you know, the police or the lawyers are trying to get one character to testify against another, and they say, no, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm loyal to this person. I would never testify against them in a way that would hurt them.
But then things come around. Maybe, you know, someone has something to hold over them, and they end up having to testify. So you can see that it was an unintentional betrayal, but that would still feel very much like a betrayal to the person who is being betrayed, okay? So either one works, unintentional or intentional, but of course, you're going to approach them a little bit differently depending on which one you're doing.
But, I mean, if you're thinking about doing a betrayal, maybe play around with that. You know, even if you were planning on doing an intentional betrayal, could you do an unintentional betrayal, and would that make things more interesting? Just something to think about. Okay.
So in order to illustrate these steps, I've got three steps here, and then I've also got a bonus one, so really it's four. I'm going to use the Dark Knight as an example because that is the first thing that popped up into my mind as a really good example of a really well set up betrayal and how tragic it was, okay? So the first step is that you definitely need to set it up. Like I said, do not just drop in this dun-dun-dun twist, the person was evil all the time at the end, okay? Yeah, that is going to be a little bit shocking for the audience, but it's not going to be anywhere near as powerful as it could be if you had set it up, okay? So what do I mean by set it up? I mean, talk about what's being done, what might happen, generally saying that it won't happen, okay? So what I mean is, again, let's use Dark Knight, and the aspect that I'm using is Harvey Dent turning into Two-Face, right? So the way that they set this up here is it was Batman and Commissioner Gordon and Dent who all came together, and they talked really extensively about how no one had been able to really make a dent in the organized crime in the city, but Harvey had the clout for it, he had the references, he had the career history to where he might actually be the one who was able to do it, and they talk about the risk.
It is a risk. Obviously, the organized crime gurus are going to come after them, but we really think we can actually do it and take them down, okay? That is setting up the betrayal. Now, if you're doing an unintentional betrayal, then I kind of already explained how you would do this.
It's somebody being told that they will betray someone, and them saying, no, no, that will never happen. And see, that automatically creates intrigue, because then the audience wants to see if it's going to happen, and just the fact that there's a suggestion there, your readers are smart enough to know that that's going to play somehow out in the story, whether they do it or not, and they want to see if they do it. If it's an unintentional betrayal, then, or excuse me, that was unintentional.
If it's an intentional betrayal, then, okay, so again, say that you're, you know, you have someone who's supposed to be the protagonist's best friend, and as it turns out, they're going to be working against them all along, and you don't want to show that in, you know, you don't want to give it away to the audience, but maybe you would set it up like having the two of them talk, having them talk about being best friends, having them talk about loyalty to each other, and how nothing could ever turn them against each other, or drive them apart, or you know, whatever the case may be. You're setting it up in a way that will really be emotional when it actually goes down, okay? So make sure that you're setting it up. That's step number one.
Step number two, show the risks or the stakes, and reiterate these at least three times throughout the course of the book. So in The Dark Knight, they show Dent talking about this to people, you know, talking about taking down organized crime, talking about how he thinks he can do it, and how important it is. He interacts with Gordon and Batman, and they all talk about it.
They talk about what the risks are, and then, of course, we see it play out, because there's times in the film where, you know, the Joker takes somebody and tortures them, or kills them, and sends them videotapes, so they know that this is a result of what they're doing. They're trying to bring these people down, and there are some bad things happening, right? So you're going to both talk about and also show that there are ramifications for this, right? And again, that's just going to be based on what your story is all about, and you're going to do that for either an unintentional betrayal or intentional betrayal, just talking about kind of what would happen if they succeed, but also what will happen if they do not succeed, because you also have to balance out the risk. If it's a major, major risk, and there's no payoff, then why would you take the risk, right? But they're showing, you've got to show that it's worth it to take the risk for what the payoff will be, but there are also consequences to it, right? So that's step number two.
Once again, show the risks or the stakes, and reiterate it at least three times throughout the story. And number three, when the betrayal actually goes down, when it happens, restate what was said at the beginning and what a bleak reality it now is, and this is something that The Dark Knight does very, very well. When Dent actually turns into Two-Face, and then they kill him at the end, basically.
They take him down. I'm paraphrasing here, but they say something like, you know, the three of us decided to do this. It was us three that came together and made these decisions.
We risked it all, and we lost big time, because now Dent is going to be a villain in the eyes of the people, and they're not going to trust him or, you know, anything that he managed to accomplish. So people will lose hope because of it. So they restated in a really obvious way.
I mean, you don't have to be coy about this or super clever about this. Just restate what they said. At the beginning, they came together.
They were going to take responsibility for this. They were going to create this campaign against organized crime, and they were the ones who risked it. They were the ones who decided this was worth doing, and then they just restate that at the end, and they say, but now we risked it all, and we lost, and now this is what's going to happen, and it's, we kind of made it worse, even though we weren't trying to, right? So this is what you're going to do with your betrayal, you know, and again, you could, this can take just about any form.
It's the repetition and the restating of it for the payoff that really is going to create the emotion. So let's go over these examples that I've been using. Let's say that you have an intentional betrayal where, you know, you have a friend who in the end betrays them, and it turns out they were working against them the whole time.
At the end, you could talk about the friendship at the beginning and what was stated. You were my best friend. I believed you.
I trusted you. I was loyal to you, and because of that, it's gotten me into trouble, and now it's so much worse because of X, Y, and Z, whatever's happening in your story. If it's an unintentional betrayal, maybe restate the reasons that the person didn't think they would end up betraying them, right? So if it's like a fate or a prophecy, you can say the prophecy told me that I was going to betray you, but I didn't think that was true.
I thought I could rebel against fate. I thought I could, you know, dodge the bullet here, and I'd be able to be okay, and I was wrong. Boy was I wrong, and now things are worse.
So you're just restating again what happened at the beginning, and then showing how it's a kind of a bleak new reality now that the betrayal has happened. Okay, so those are the three main steps. The fourth bonus step that I mentioned is if you can possibly tie this into the story's theme, do that.
In fact, I would really say that if you're creating a massive betrayal like this, and it's a big part of the story, it really needs to be tied into the theme. It doesn't have to be completely the same as the theme, but it needs to, you know, be adjacent to it, or maybe run parallel to it, or it might even be the opposite. So what I mean is if your theme is about trusting people, say, and you have someone who trusted someone they shouldn't have, and they were betrayed, that seems like it runs the opposite of your theme, but then you would probably have some reason that that betrayal didn't work out, or maybe some reason that the, you know, your character goes through an internal arc where they become bitter and untrusting because of that, but they have to learn to trust people again.
You know what I mean? It just needs to tie into your theme in some way, because like I said, doing a big betrayal like this that you're setting up, and that you're making part of the plot, and that you're planning for, and really entangling in an intricate way with all of the arcs and, you know, everything in your story, it's a big deal, and it's a big part of your story, so it needs to be tied into the plot, or I mean to the theme, excuse me. If it's not, it's going to feel random, and like it doesn't fit into the story. So just make sure that it's very, very in alignment with what your theme is, and what the rest of your story is, okay? So let's go over this one more time to set up a betrayal.
First of all, this isn't one of the steps, but decide whether you're doing an intentional betrayal or an unintentional betrayal. They look slightly different, but the steps are the same. Number one, you're going to set it up in some way, state what is going on, what's going to happen, you know, get the emotion in there, that sort of thing.
Number two, show the risks or stakes, and reiterate them at least three times throughout the story. And number three, when it goes down, restate what was said at the beginning, and what a bleak reality it is now, because the betrayal happened. And as a bonus, make sure to tie it into your theme, okay? So that is pretty much what I have for today.
I don't even remember, I got a question about this, and then I was thinking about it, and this kind of came about organically. But I thought it would make a really good podcast episode, because betrayals are always a big deal, and they create a lot of emotion in the audience, as well as in the character. So it's important to know how to do one, and do it well.
If you're gonna, you know, put your character through the meat grinder of betrayal, you know, you need to do it well, and you need to make sure that the audience feels it. So I hope this was helpful to you. Make sure and join the Facebook group.
I will, again, link that up in the show notes, if you haven't joined it yet, because I'm going to be doing a lot more in there, and I have a lot of really fun things planned. In fact, we're going to be doing some contests that'll have some prizes, so you want to get in on those. All right, everybody have a wonderful week of writing.
If you have not left me a review on the podcast, I would really appreciate that. It helps other writers find the podcast, it helps Apple show it to more people who are looking for writing advice, and lets them know, you know, that the podcast is helpful and worth listening to. So if you could take two minutes to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Everyone have a wonderful week of writing. Go out there and write some really juicy betrayals. Just write them, don't do them in real life.
And I will be back next week. Bye, guys. Thanks so much for listening today.