I think you're able to write a story without a focus on a character's beleif, but I truley believe it'll fall flat from becoming a great story. The beliefs of a character really help to string together all aspects of a story together in a cohesive thematic statement, instead of an anthology of scenes mildly related to each other.

You can also make stories on flat characters. Characters who don't develop personally but do develop the world around them. So there is still change just outward change. Flat characters tend to be iconic like Superman or Goku. They don't change. They change the people around them.

Don't want to kill the vibes here but saying that " STORIES " cannot be tell/shown or written without character development is absolutely -1. False. -2. Will lead you to write bad stories because of your lack of understanding of stories. I'll just prove it to you with 1 example than you will not be able to denied and then you'll have 2 options -1. Being dumb and not listening. -2. Being curious about it and start trying to learn more about stories that you already know. So. First you need to make 2 distinctions. -1. Stories vs good stories. -2. Story v Plot. A good story is one that make you leave with 2 things -1. You learning something or reaffirming you knew something like " greed only lead to loneliness " -2. The pleasure of a GOOD IDEA ( even the darkest batman story as to be fun to WATCH or read ) That's all, main idea and theme Main idea: what would happen if humans had to deal with dinosaurus ? ( Jurassic park ) Theme: the lesson the character add to learn or have learn at the end of the story (character arc) (flat arc is not an ARC) -2. The real definition of a " STORY " is that simple: events in chronology. The only link between those events are they chronology 1 is before 2 and 2 is after one that's all. Therefore. Waking up, eating, and go to work IS !!! a story. You have event and a chronology. Now Plot ! Is the arrangement of those events in cause and effect one event needs to be caused by another one and another event need to be the consequence of another event. That's all that is plot. Event that are link in cause and effect. Where people make the mistake is when they says " story " is the character emotional journey. Nope it is not the character emotional journey is not story or the story it is the CHARACTER STORY which is a huge difference. Therefore a NARRATIVE can have no CHARACTER STORY (emotional journey/arc) AT ALL but still have ( A STORY ) which is simply the chronological order of events in the narrative and a plot the sequence of those events. Not trust me ? Well i said i would give you a proof. Here: go watch " GLASS ONION " and come back here tell me what was the CHARACTER STORY ( emotional journey/arc ) there is ABSOLUTELY none. Just plot: events in a cause and effect arrangement. So yeah if you're serious about learning the craft you should make that distinction ASAP ! Peace ! Sorry for my english, french guy here.

Glad you like the video!! Definitely some time in the future I'll go into a deeper dive with the story circle, but not anytime soon I don't think.

Glad it was helpful!

Have fun writing with this new information in your hands!!

When I first learned about the story circle I was very confused because of how a lot of people were explaining it, mainly with people using the shorthand version of it. You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change. It seems very obvious to me now what each one of these things mean in essence, but for somebody who knew next to nothing about writing it was a lot of headache trying to wrap my head around such arbitrary terms like "Go" and "Return". So, I'm glad I was able to break down what each part meant in a more understandable way for others to follow.

Yes, you are correct. This was bad wording on my part. In the video what I meant to say was CLEAR EXTERNAL WANT. However, this is more of a guideline than a concrete rule. Since it's infinitly easier, for both writer and reader, to see when a physical goal/want has been achieved rather than an abstract one. (e.g. Getting the girl vs achieving true love) Ultimately this is setting everything up for making a character realize their external want is just a temporary bandaid fix to their problem. The real "cure" is usually tied to some sort of intrinsic value they've yet to notice or understand.