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)
PRAISE FOR…
THE EMOTION THESAURUS
“One of the challenges a fiction writer faces, especially when prolific, is coming up with fresh ways to describe emotions. This handy compendium fills that need. It is both a reference and a brainstorming tool, and one of the resources I'll be turning to most often as I write my own books.”
~ James Scott Bell, best-selling author of Deceived and Plot & Structure
THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRAIT THESAURUSES
“In these brilliantly conceived, superbly organized and astonishingly thorough volumes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have created an invaluable resource for writers and storytellers. Whether you are searching for new and unique ways to add and define characters, or brainstorming methods for revealing those characters without resorting to clichés, it is hard to imagine two more powerful tools for adding depth and dimension to your screenplays, novels or plays.”
~ Michael Hauge, Hollywood script consultant and author of Writing Screenplays That Sell
THE URBAN AND RURAL SETTING THESAURUSES
“The one thing I always appreciate about Ackerman and Puglisi's Thesauri series is how comprehensive they are. They never stop at just the obvious, and they always over-deliver. Their Setting Thesauri are no different, offering not just the obvious notes of the various settings they've covered, but going into easy-to-miss details like smells and tastes. They even offer to jumpstart the brainstorming with categories on potential sources of conflict.”
~ K.M. Weiland, best-selling author of Creating Character Arcs and Structuring Your Novel
THE EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS
“This is far more than a brilliant, thorough, insightful, and unique thesaurus. This is the best primer on story—and what REALLY hooks and holds readers—that I have ever read.”
~ Lisa Cron, TEDx Speaker and best-selling author of Wired For Story and Story Genius
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are best-selling authors, writing coaches, and international speakers. Their books are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. They also co-founded the popular Writers Helping Writers® site as well as One Stop for Writers®, both of which contain innumerable resources for writers looking to hone their craft.
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus Page 44