Dropping Breadcrumbs for Readers: Your Character’s Emotional Wound

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 impact their individual character���s arc, so knowing what
it is, and how to show the fallout it generates is vitally important.

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Regardless
of whether you choose to show the emotional wound overtly during the story or
merely hint at it, it will always be necessary to reference the event in
smaller ways throughout. It���s a piece of the character���s past that holds vital
significance; someone who���s endured the
loss of a loved one, physical torture,
or a messy divorce can���t simply
forget it���especially if it hasn���t been dealt with. It will haunt her, and continue
to hold her back in the story until it is dealt with.

Mastering
the art of obliquely referencing what has happened in a way that reads
naturally is an important skill to master as it pulls the reader deeper into
the story through the art of subtext. There are many ways to seed ideas in the
reader���s mind about the type of emotional trauma a character has suffered,
including showing
it through defense mechanisms. Here are three additional
ways you can feed information about the event to readers without using info
dumps or giving the whole thing away.

Use the Character���s Greatest
Fear

As
we know, wounding events beget fear as the character seeks to avoid a repeat of
what she���s suffered through. Building scenarios into your story that showcase
her avoidance will provide clues as to what might have befallen her in the
past.

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For
instance, let���s say your character experienced a failure, one that resulted in
major fallout for a lot of people. As a result, this character ���we���ll call her
Jess���may avoid being in charge because she doesn���t want to risk repeating that
experience. You can hint at this by creating situations that show her shunning
responsibility. At work, she might be offered a chance to lead an all-star team
in a bid to bag a wealthy client. To the reader, the decision seems like a
no-brainer. But Jess cites lame reasons and declines, or she accepts, then
fabricates an excuse to back out. This avoidance raises questions. Why would
she pass up such an amazing opportunity? What is she afraid of? And why has she
chosen a career that affords opportunities like these if she���s going to
sidestep them when they come along?

Avoidance
is great for referencing, in a roundabout way, a character���s fear; when this
by-product is combined with other clues, readers can figure out what���s haunting
her. It���s also good for the character arc. In the case of our irresponsible
lead, she is allowing her fear to keep her from true happiness, and she won���t
be whole until she faces and overcomes it

In a well-structured story, this won���t happen immediately. She���ll need many chances to triumph (and fail) before she realizes that her fear is holding her back. Building these scenarios into the plotline will provide the chances she needs to move along that character arc toward eventual success.

Showcase the Character���s Self-Doubt

Characters,
like real people, are complex. No matter how popular, attractive, or
accomplished they are, they will still experience self-doubt and uncertainty.
And these areas of insecurity often relate back to the wounding event.

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Look at
Jess. She might be confident and self-assured most of the time but feels
insecure in certain situations: when she has to lead, when people are depending
on her, or when an important decision needs to be made. Her self-doubt may also
be tied to specific circumstances surrounding her past failure. For instance,
if she goofed up in a TV interview, she may become a nervous wreck in a public
forum or anytime she has to go on the record.

Once you���ve
decided on your character���s wounding incident, ask yourself some questions to
better understand her insecurities relating to it. When does she doubt herself?
In what scenario does she not trust her intuition? When does a simple decision
paralyze or turn her into a second-guessing mess? The answers to these questions
will let you know where her uncertainties lie; you can then show the contrast
between her normal self and the circumstances where her personality changes.
Done consistently, this can shine a spotlight on your character���s doubts,
hinting at her wounding event and showing how it���s impacting her even now.

Let Overreactions and Under-reactions Do the Talking

When you
know your character well, you���re able to write her consistently. Readers get to
know her and what to expect from her in the various situations that arise. If
she reacts in a way that���s either understated or overly dramatic, it���s like a
red flag for readers, telling them that something isn���t quite right.

Let���s
imagine that Jess is typically an outgoing, bigger-than-life kind of girl.
She���s always up for a party, so when her company throws a celebratory bash,
she���s there in all her extroverted glory���until she���s asked to field questions
from the local news crew. We���d expect a person like Jess to respond with
exuberance at the chance to ham it up for the cameras. Instead, the animation
leaves her face. Her body goes still, and the pitch of her voice drops. With a
stricken smile, she declines, suggests someone else as a replacement, and
excuses herself.

This
response is way too subdued for the Jess we���ve come to know. It���s a sign that
something about this interview scenario is freaking her out. We���d be similarly
alerted in a situation in which a run-of-the-mill response was expected but she
went ballistic.

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If you���ve
laid the foundation for your character���s personality and have remained true to
her emotional range throughout the story, contrary reactions will warn readers
that something is wrong while allowing you to hint at trouble from the past.

For more ideas on how to dole out information about your character���s past and show the aftereffects through behavior shifts, take a peek at The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer���s Guide to Psychological Trauma or visit the Emotional Wound Thesaurus at One Stop for Writers.

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