• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • About WHW
    • Press Kit
    • Resident Writing Coaches
    • Contact Us
    • Podcasts & Interviews
    • Master Storytelling Newsletter
    • Guest Post Guidelines
    • Privacy Policy
    • Charities & Support
  • Bookstore
    • Bookstore
    • Foreign Editions
    • Book Reviews
    • Free Thesaurus Sampler
  • Blog
  • Software
  • Workshops
  • Resources
    • List of Resources
    • Recommended Writing Books
    • WHW Descriptive Thesaurus Collection
    • Free Tools & Worksheets
    • Grab A Free Show-Dont-Tell Pro Pack
  • WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

The Resource Mother Lode: How to Write Emotional Wounds

October 23, 2017 by ANGELA ACKERMAN

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.

Today I am over at Jane Friedman’s blog looking at Using Dysfunctional Behavior to Reveal Characters’ Emotional Wounds. This post looks at some of the negative defense mechanisms we can use to hint to readers that the character is struggling with the pain of an emotional wound.

If you want to back up the bus a bit and really go over What Is an Emotional Wound? then Becca’s got this covered. (It’s an excerpt from the book, too!) She’s also written about why it’s so important to identify this negative past experience.

You can find ideas on uncovering your character’s emotional wound here and here, and if you want to understand what “type” of wound your character has, try Understanding Wounds: A List of Common Themes. You can also find tips here on how to personalize a wound to minimize or maximize its effect on a character.

If you want to better grasp how emotional wounds lead to personality flaws and other types of dysfunctional emotional shielding, check out How Your Hero’s Past Pain Determines His Character Flaws.

There’s also a post on How to Show a Character Is Beginning To Heal From An Emotional Wound and How To Write About Emotional Trauma Without Triggering Readers.

Also, swing by the Tools for Writers page because we’ve already uploaded tools from The Emotional Wound book. We think you’ll find the Character Arc Progression Tool and the Backstory Wound Profile VERY helpful!

If you’d like to check out The Emotional Wound Thesaurus just visit this page here.  You can also add it to your Goodreads shelf and view a sample entry: Accidentally Killing Someone.

Finally, if you want to use an expanded version of the Emotional Wound Thesaurus, hop on over to One Stop for Writers, where you’ll find it in the largest fiction-focused description database online.

Why not give the free trial a spin?

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Other Mother Lode Posts

If you found this collection of resources helpful, you might be interested in some of our other compilation posts.

Writing about Character Occupations
Showing (Not Telling) Character Emotions
Creating Phenomenal First Pages
Choosing and Writing Conflict for Maximum Impact

ANGELA ACKERMAN
ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Character Wound, Emotional Wound Thesaurus, Uncategorized, Writing Craft, Writing Lessons

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carol Malone says

    October 25, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    I’ve been following your website and gleaning advice from you for a very long time. You’ve helped make my writing more powerful, more emotional. I can only write when my Emotional Thesaurus is near and if I can’t find something there, I run to your site. Thank you for the in depth study of the writing process and of writing deeply emotional and vulnerable characters. I don’t ever want to hear my editor tell me again my character is flat, not spark. Thanks to you I won’t. I just ordered the Emotion Wound book.

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      October 25, 2017 at 1:16 pm

      I hope you find it very helpful, Carol–thank you so much for the kind words. <3

  2. Mona AlvaradoFrazier says

    October 24, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    A mother lode of tips is right!

    Whenever an editor, beta reader or critique partner says “What’s the character arc?” you can bet this area wasn’t developed or communicated effectively. (Trust me, I’ve been there).

    The writer can’t answer this question (the arc) unless they know the Wound the character has in the first place. I believe it’s part of the foundation of creating a good story.

    Thanks for sharing!

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      October 24, 2017 at 3:17 pm

      Exactly! If you are writing a change arc, your character can’t transform UNLESS he or she moves past the fear and pain holding them back…which is caused by the backstory wound. 😉

  3. Mary Van Everbroeck says

    October 24, 2017 at 2:15 pm

    Yes. I second Donna’s comment. Looking forward to learning more.

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      October 24, 2017 at 3:18 pm

      Thanks Mary!

  4. :Donna says

    October 24, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    WOW, Angela!!!!!!! Amazing!!! Thank you 😀

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      October 24, 2017 at 3:18 pm

      Thank you Donna!

Trackbacks

  1. Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 10-26-2017 | The Author Chronicles says:
    October 26, 2017 at 1:01 pm

    […] discusses using dysfunctional behaviors to reveal characters’ emotional wounds and shares the mother lode of links on writing emotional wounds. Diverse characters are good, but Mikki Kendall urges writers to make sure your portrayal of the […]

Primary Sidebar


Welcome!

Writing is hard. Angela & Becca make it easier. Get ready to level up your fiction with game-changing tools, resources, and advice.

Follow Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Subscribe to the Blog

Check your inbox to confirm! If gremlins tried to eat it, you might have to check your spam folder.

Read by Category

Grab Our Button

Writers Helping Writers

Software that Will Change the Writing Game

One Stop for Writers

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® · Copyright © 2023 · WEBSITE DESIGN BY LAUGH EAT LEARN

Cookies are delicious and ours help make your experience here better. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with our cookie use. Cookie settingsGOT IT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. More on our Privacy Policy here.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
 

Loading Comments...