The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma
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APPENDIX B: CHARACTER ARC PROGRESSION TOOL
Once you have a basic understanding of how the wound will impact a character, you’ll need to know how those aftereffects should play into his or her arc. This graphic provides an overview of how everything fits together. You can find a blank copy on the next page, which can be printed out and filled in for different characters.
APPENDIX B: CHARACTER ARC PROGRESSION TOOL
A printable version of this tool is available at Writers Helping Writers.
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APPENDIX C: WOUNDING EXAMPLES FROM POPULAR STORIES
An author may not always reveal all the details behind a wounding experience, and so some of the inner turmoil left in the trauma’s wake is only hinted at. In particular, the resulting fears and lies from a wound are rarely stated outright; however, this allows readers to get involved and use their imaginations to visualize the aftereffects. To help you see how the pieces can fit together successfully, we’ve profiled some popular characters and their wounding events. If any of the elements are implied rather than clearly defined (such as the lie, for instance), it won’t be included here; still, these examples should help you see how the wound can lead to a greater fear, what emotional shielding might be donned, and the unmet need that will play a large role in the character’s present story.
Daniel Kaffee (A Few Good Men)
Wound: Growing up in the shadow of a highly successful father
Fear: Never being able to live up to his father’s reputation and distinguish himself as a lawyer
Emotional Shielding: Kaffee, a lawyer, is afraid that if he tries a case in a courtroom, people will compare him to his father and he’ll be found lacking. So he plea-bargains all his cases. He’s living short of his true potential and the life he really wants. His character traits support this goal: he’s disorganized, flippant, superficial in most of his relationships, and doesn’t dedicate much time or thought to his cases.
Unmet Need: Due to this emotional shielding, Kaffee is lacking Esteem and Recognition. He knows he could be a great trial lawyer but is settling for less in his career. As a result, people don’t respect him as a lawyer and he doesn’t respect himself.
Jack Torrance (The Shining)
Wound: Growing up with an abusive and alcoholic parent
Fear: That he will be just like his dad
Emotional Shielding: Jack is a recovering alcoholic with rage issues who struggles to banish the demons of his past. Though he recognizes his long-dead father’s negative influence over him, he doesn’t fully refute the resulting insecurities and self-doubt, which undermine his efforts to become a better parent and husband.
Unmet Need: Ultimately, Jack is lacking Esteem and Recognition because he doesn’t respect himself. He knows his father’s words are toxic, but his inability to separate himself from them makes him second-guess himself and his capabilities. Though he finds redemption in the end, the insecurity resulting from his wound eventually leads to his physical demise.
Will Hunting (Good Will Hunting)
Wound: Being abandoned by his birth parents and forced to live in a series of abusive foster homes
Fear: Being rejected or abandoned again
Emotional Shielding: Will is a classic underachiever, purposely ignoring his potential and sticking with the only people in his life he knows he can trust. He has anger issues, is cocky, and lashes out when threatened. Though he seeks out romantic relationships, he sabotages them before they get too serious.
Unmet Need: In part, Will is missing Love and Belonging; he has friends, but his pursuit of Skylar shows that friendship isn’t enough to satisfy him. However, his biggest unmet need—the one at the root of his inability to obtain the belonging he desires—is that of Esteem and Recognition. Like many abuse survivors, he blames himself in part for the violence he suffered growing up. He also likely fears that because his parents rejected him, there’s something in him that will make others reject him too. Once he faces the possibility that he wasn’t responsible for the traumatic events from his past, he’s able to accept himself for who he is: someone with value and potential who is worthy of being loved.
Marlin (Finding Nemo)
Wound: The violent loss of his wife and children
Fear: That he will lose his remaining son, too
Emotional Shielding: Marlin was the definition of a helicopter parent before anyone knew what it was. He assumes the worst about the world, constantly hovers over Nemo, and allows his son to make few important decisions for himself. He also lives in constant fear, believing that everything and everyone poses a threat and cannot be trusted.
Unmet Need: With the loss of his wife and children, Marlin’s Safety and Security has gone out the window. Ironically, his over-the-top efforts to protect his son drive him further away, putting Nemo in danger and creating exactly the kind of nightmare situation Marlin most wants to avoid.
Zack Mayo (An Officer and a Gentleman)
Wound: Finding his mother after she committed suicide, then being sent to live with a father who was too busy drinking and whoring to raise him properly
Fear: That he will never truly belong anywhere
Emotional Shielding: Mayo has grown up with a caregiver who told him he didn’t want to be a father. As such, he’s pretty much raised himself and is now completely self-reliant. He doesn’t work well with others, is self-serving, and has understandable issues with authority. While he has friends, they are secondary to his own needs and him getting what he wants.
Unmet Need: Mayo’s decision to enter Aviation Officer Candidate School seems like a strange one for an independent character who is uncooperative and doesn’t like taking orders. But his real reason for pursuing this particular goal is that he needs Love and Belonging; he wants to belong and be part of a group—something he’s never been able to do before.
General Woundwort (Watership Down)
Wound: Witnessing the death of his siblings at the hand of a farmer and seeing his mother killed by a fox
Fear: That he will be victimized by those more powerful than him
Emotional Shielding: Forced to raise himself alone in the wild, Woundwort has become shrewd, savage, and controlling, forcibly taking over every community he’s encountered. Anyone questioning or threatening his authority must be dealt with immediately. This is where we find him in Watership Down, viciously ruling his warren with an iron thumb without a shred of mercy for anyone.
Unmet Need: While his need isn’t stated outright, readers can assume that Woundwort’s behavior springs from a missing Safety and Security need. The fear of succumbing to his family’s fate has driven him to adopt the goals, behaviors, personality traits, and habits that have made him one of literature’s most memorable villains.
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APPENDIX D: BACKSTORY WOUND PROFILE TOOL
A printable version of this tool is available at Writers Helping Writers.
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RECOMMENDED READING
Understanding a character’s inner landscape allows you to effectively show what drives him or her throughout the story. To read further on character motivation, wounds, and how these play out within character arc, try these excellent books.
Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure helps you look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. (K.M. Weiland)
Writing the Heart of Your Story: The Secret to Crafting an Unforgettable Novel will teach you how to mine the heart of your plot, characters, themes, and so much more. To write a book that targets the heart of readers, you need to know the heart of your story. (C. S. Lakin)
Story Genius will take you step-by-step from the first glimmer of an idea to an expansive, multilayered cause-and-effect blueprint—including fully realized scenes. (Lisa Cron)
Writing Screenplays That Sell,
New Twentieth Anniversary Edition teaches all writers to think deeply about their characters’ motivations, story structure, and the art of selling. (Michael Hauge)
If you have enjoyed The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, why not check out the other best-selling volumes in our Writers Helping Writers® descriptive thesaurus series?
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression is a writer’s best friend when it comes to conveying emotion. Armed with a list of the body language, thoughts, and visceral sensations for a comprehensive list of core emotions, you’ll never struggle with the “how do I show this feeling?” problem again.
The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes is one half of the character-building puzzle to help you create a memorable story cast. With an arsenal of positive traits and their defining characteristics, you will be able to create authentic, rich characters that fascinate readers.
The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws looks at your character’s dark side and the realistic flaws that hold him or her back while complicating your plot. Believable characters have both positive and negative qualities, and understanding their disagreeable aspects is a pathway to understanding their insecurities and fears, both of which must be overcome to achieve their goal.
The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces offers the sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and textures for 120 urban settings, and lists the possible conflict options for each. Comprehensive lessons on descriptive techniques will help you use the setting to characterize the members of a cast, power up a story on multiple levels, and pull readers into every scene.
The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Places partners with the urban setting book to provide 100 sensory settings in the natural world. This volume will help you layer in conflict, steer emotions, and master description through mood building, symbolism, and various techniques geared to enhance the story on multiple levels.
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