As human beings, we’re all products of our past; good and bad, our experiences have formed us into who we are. The same should be true of our characters. One way to make them really believable and memorable is to dig into their backgrounds and unearth those defining moments so we’ll better … [Read more...] about Five Reasons to Identify Your Character’s Wounding Event
Search Results for: wound
Personalizing Your Protagonist’s Emotional Wound
Emotional wounds are tricky to write about. Abuse, betrayal, victimization, and the death of a loved one may exist in a character’s pasts and so should be explored, but these are also real life events that cause damage to real people. So as I talk today about personalizing wounds for our … [Read more...] about Personalizing Your Protagonist’s Emotional Wound
Using Wound Categories & Pointed Questions to Identify a Character’s Past Trauma
The wound is a fascinating and vital piece of your character’s past that has lasting, formative effects on who they’ll be at the start of your story. As such, it’s super important to figure out which wound is crippling your character so you’ll know how to write them realistically and consistently. … [Read more...] about Using Wound Categories & Pointed Questions to Identify a Character’s Past Trauma
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Telling the Truth But Not Being Believed
Sourced from The Emotional Wound Thesaurus EXAMPLES:Telling someone that one is being abused (by a parent, coach, uncle, etc.) and not being believedReporting a crime and the police responding with skepticismBeing accused of stealing or lying and all proclamations of innocence fall on deaf … [Read more...] about The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Telling the Truth But Not Being Believed
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Being Stalked
Sourced from The Emotional Wound Thesaurus NOTES:Stalkers are typically obsessed with their subjects, either out of a romantic interest, from the belief that the subjects have rejected or slighted them in some way, or due to another reason they themselves may not completely know or understand. … [Read more...] about The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Being Stalked
Workshop: Brainstorming an Emotional Wound
Hi guys! I hope you found our session on Emotional Wounds helpful. It's such an important piece of information and with it, you'll be able to write character behavior authentically and writing stunning character arcs! Additional resources you might find helpful: Further Reading What Is … [Read more...] about Workshop: Brainstorming an Emotional Wound
Dropping Breadcrumbs: How to Show a Character’s Emotional Wound Through Behavior
Emotional wounds are transformative and have the power to re-shape a character in many negative ways, impacting their happiness, their self-worth, and causing mistrust and disillusionment to skew their worldview. This critical piece of backstory is key to understanding their motivations, and will … [Read more...] about Dropping Breadcrumbs: How to Show a Character’s Emotional Wound Through Behavior
How To “Level Up” Your Character’s Wound
Every writer who has spent time studying the craft writing knows of the character wound, and that they are the foundation of a strong, memorable character. Why? Because they make characters complex, authentic (I challenge you to find me a person that isn’t carrying an emotional wound, consciously or … [Read more...] about How To “Level Up” Your Character’s Wound
Overcoming an Emotional Wound (Character Arc Help)
Of all the pieces of backstory we should understand as authors, none are more important than our protagonist's Emotional Wound. A powerful statement, but here's why. Think about your own life for a moment. The experiences you had in your past, and the people part of those experiences have made … [Read more...] about Overcoming an Emotional Wound (Character Arc Help)
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus Master List of Entries
Root your characters in reality by giving them an authentic wound that causes difficulties and prompts them to strive for inner growth to overcome it. With its easy-to-read format and over 100 entries, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is a crash course in psychology for creating characters that feel … [Read more...] about The Emotional Wound Thesaurus Master List of Entries
A Mother Lode of Resources on Emotional Wounds
Hi everyone! I thought with the release of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma, I'd do a round up of posts on emotional wounds to help with this super-challenging area. Helpful Posts for Understanding, Identifying, and Showing Emotional Wounds What Is … [Read more...] about A Mother Lode of Resources on Emotional Wounds
What Is an Emotional Wound?
If you've hung around Writers Helping Writers at all over the past year, you'll know that Angela and I have been kind of obsessed with character wounds. For the better part of the year, we built our Emotional Wound Thesaurus here at the blog and talked quite a bit in individual posts about the … [Read more...] about What Is an Emotional Wound?