The Mirror of Fiction: a Reflection of Life and Our Deeper Selves
To ensure that our writing connects with readers, we need to acknowledge that storytelling resonates deepest when it provides them with something they are always searching for: context.#691•
Human desires, needs, beliefs, and emotions are all areas to explore, but one of the most potent real-life reflections that should steer a story from start to finish is the character's emotional wound.#672•
What Is an Emotional Wound?
We call this type of trauma an emotional wound: a negative experience (or set of experiences) that causes pain on a deep psychological level. It is a lasting hurt that often involves someone close: a family member, lover, mentor, friend, or other trusted individual. Wounds may be tied to a specific event, arise upon learning a difficult truth about the world, or result from a physical limitation, condition, or challenge.#696•
Wounds damage our characters' self-worth, change how they view the world, cause trust issues, and dictate how they will interact with other people. All of this can make it harder for them to achieve certain goals, which is why we should dig deep into their backstories and unearth the traumas they may have been exposed to.
This is especially important because within each individual wound there is a darkness that has the power to not only lock the character's mind in the past so he can't move forward but also embed an untruth that will sabotage his happiness and leave him feeling deeply unfulfilled.#710•
Emotional trauma is terrible to experience, but in a cruel twist of fate, the trauma itself is not always the worst part . . . it's what hides within a wound: the lie (also known as a false belief or misbelief). The lie is a conclusion reached through flawed logic. Caught in a vulnerable state, the character tries to understand or rationalize his painful experience, only to falsely conclude that fault somehow lies within.#686•
The lie affects his level of self-worth and how he views both the world and himself. It causes him to hold back, making it difficult for him to love fully, trust deeply, or live life without reservation.#726•
While most lies center on a perceived personal failing due to self-doubt or guilt, not all of them do. In cases where a wound isn't as deeply internalized, the person may become disillusioned in another way. Using Paul's situation as an example, he might apply his pain to the world at large by adopting a jaded outlook on life: Everyone lies.
No one is who they claim to be.
Or even: Love doesn't last.
Sooner or later, people always find an excuse to leave.#669•
However, as in real life, using avoidance to solve problems will result in blowback. To the character, this shielding seems like a protective layer, but in reality it encases him in his fear. Always kept close and never forgotten, a spotlight stays trained on what he's afraid of, and it becomes a constant sore spot, a reminder of what will happen if he drops his guard or lets people get too close#685•
Wounds and the lies tied to them can influence the core aspects of a character, which in turn will dictate how he'll behave in your story, so let's take a closer look at the changes these negative experiences can produce.#682•
The lie a character believes is critical to her arc because it dictates what she must learn in order to achieve a balanced, healthy view of herself and the world. When a character changes how she views herself, she gains new insight. This not only encourages self-growth but can also underscore the theme of your story.#684•
For example, a character who fell victim to fraud may discard her helpful, friendly ways and instead embrace mistrust, miserliness, and apathy so she doesn't get suckered again. Ironically, these negative traits become a blind spot because she doesn't view them as flaws at all. Instead, she rationalizes that they are strengths, keeping her alert to scams and scammers alike.
It is only when these flaws start to mess up her life later on that she begins to see their true nature.#683•
Positive attributes also form when the character is coping with the wound in a healthy way, so if you want to incorporate them, pay attention to where you are in the story. For instance, when your character is in a dysfunctional state due to the trauma, her flawed behaviors should come to the forefront.
But if she's starting to move past the wound through change and growth, the emergence of these positive attributes can be a strong signal to readers that her mind-set is shifting and she's on the path to recovery.#725•
To uncover what's most important to your character in the story, examine the past wounding event. Was there someone or something your character was trying to protect during that terrible time? What did she lose that cut her so deeply she would rather go without it than risk having it stolen from her again? What is she sacrificing that is now leaving her unfulfilled?#711•
Several things can cause him or her to act: regret, anger, guilt, or even a moral belief, such as fairness or honor. But above all, the primary motivators in life are fear and need#697•
universally admired (esteem) or financially stable (safety), he'll choose the latter. Or his goal to become a doctor (self-actualization) may be set aside if his wife is diagnosed with a terminal disease and he must leave school to care for her (love).#721•
Character Arc: an Internal Shift to Embrace Change
Every narrative has a series of events that provide a framework for the character's journey throughout the novel. This is the outer story. Most works of fiction also contain an inner story: the character's arc, which is the transformation he undergoes from start to finish#680•
This inner story, or character arc, comes in three forms.#727•
In most works of fiction, the same four dinner guests have a seat at the storytelling table:
An unmet or missing need that creates a deep longing or sense of urgency (Inner Motivation)
A tangible goal that represents the fulfillment of this need (Outer Motivation)
People or forces that oppose the character's mission (Outer Conflict)
Any fears, flaws, wounds, or misbeliefs that block personal growth and diminish the character's self-worth (Inner Conflict)#673•
Provided your protagonist successfully navigates the change arc and achieves his goal, the wounds of the past won't disappear. That pain will always sting. The difference is that the character, embracing empowering beliefs, has an inner strength he lacked before that will keep him from allowing the hurt to fester.#678•
Problems to Avoid
An info dump occurs when the author interrupts the flow of the story to impart information via a chunk of narrative or exposition. This trap is particularly common when the author believes it's necessary to reveal backstory, especially in the opening pages. But large passages of exposition are undesirable on a number of levels.
Info dumps are a form of telling because readers are forced into the passive role of listening to the author relate what has happened instead of being able to experience it along with the protagonist.
Not only does this create distance between the reader and the character—with empathy being sacrificed as a result—it kills the pace.#689•
Empathy isn't formed by a wounding event; it's formed when the reader cares about who the event is happening to#688•
A wounding event should be a haunting experience. If the character's choices aren't being driven by what happened, it usually means you haven't fully examined the wound and its impact on her.#722•