Emotional Wound Thesaurus

I have to pass on how helpful this book is to me when it comes to character formation and development!

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Several months ago, I plotted a novel for a proposal. That proposal was just contracted (yay!) so now I am getting down to business. That means I re-plotted some elements to that initial synopsis and divided it into tentative chapters.

Now I'm layering how my characters develop as the plot goes along. Sometimes this is obvious to me, and sometimes it isn't. This book by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi offers me guidance on where my characters come from and how that might shape their reactions to events.

Characters must have wounds, because frankly, we all have wounds. A perfect character would be boring and impossible to relate to.

My current characters have numerous wounds, just like real people, but their greatest wounds shape how they view the world. The hero, for example, has a learning disability in an age when the concept was unheard of: you were either smart or stupid when it came to book-learning.

The heroine was betrayed by both her father and the hero. She doesn't trust anyone anymore.

Both will struggle with their viewpoints of themselves and grapple with particular fears associated with their wounds.

Both will find their wounds triggered by something that happens in the plot, and both will have opportunities to overcome how they relate to their wounds.

And hopefully, both will find they are stronger together.