A Wound and A Shame

I think it is useful when writing a character’s backstory to think of both a wound and a shame in the past that have brought this character to the present day of the story.

A wound is something that the characters has had inflicted.

A shame is something that the character has inflicted on someone else.

Think while you are building this backstory about what this character would be wounded by. It could be a physical wound, but far more often, it is a psychic wound. In fact, physical wounds that persist are never only physical. Physical wounds heal and may or may not leave scars. But it is the psychic scars that really linger.

What words would wound your character? What insults flung would stick? What words of disappointment would never be gotten over? What wounds does this character fear are still weaknesses?

On to shame, what is this character ashamed of? It will tell you a lot about where a character is headed if you know what he still carries around. A character who is ashamed of the words he flung at someone else, knowing that they really applied to him, is interesting. A character who hurt someone smaller and vulnerable and knows it, and vows never to do it again—this character is heroic. A character who stood by and did nothing while someone else was hurt—this character, too, may turn out to be a defender of the weak later in life.

My sister told me a story about my older autistic brother standing up for her and my younger brother when they were being brutalized. She felt guilty that she had allowed this situation to happen because as a normal person, she thought she ought to have been able to protect my autistic brother and my younger brother. I listened to the story and was filled with pride with all the characters in it. My older autistic brother got to be the hero for once, after so many times of being the victim. And my sister, who never had anyone in the family stand up for her, finally got to be the one who was protected.

Think about stories like this, and the different points of view of the people in it. Stories of our past and the ways in which we tell them say so much about us. And it can be really useful in telling a story to let the reader know how other people who experienced the same thing see it completely differently.