Heart of Writing S2 E2 Writing Wounded Characters

Hello friends, my name is John Edward Nickerson, author and writing coach. Welcome to another episode of Heart of writing. Today we will be talking about writing characters who bleed and still stand.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear scars inside and out. They don’t save the day because they’re flawless, they rise in spite of what the world has done to them.
These are the wounded heroes, the ones who break the mold of the perfect protagonist, the ones who show us something real, pain, survival, and reluctant strength.

They’re defined by their pain, and how it shapes their journey. When you write this kind of character, don’t be afraid to let them break, because sometimes that’s where the healing or the meaning begins. Trauma shouldn’t just be an exercise.

Trauma shouldn’t just be an accessory. Something pasted on to make your character edgy. Instead. instead, it should be the engine that drives their choices, the way they act, the way they protect themselves, the way they connect or struggle to connect with others.

And here’s the key. Even in their brokenness, they’re still capable of empathy. They may carry scars, but those scars can shape a strong moral compass.
If you want to bring your wounded hero to life, ask yourself these five questions.

1. What trauma shapes your character’s worldview?

Did they survive? a war, abuse, betrayal, abandonment? Loss of someone they cared about?
Let this define how they see the world under pressure.

2. How do they protect their pain?
   Do they shut down? Do they lash out? Do they mask it with humor, anger, or control?
3. What triggers their wounds in the story? Let their past collide with their present. Give them moments where the scars resurface physically or emotionally.
4. Is there hope for healing? Not all wounds need to be fixed by the end of the story, but there should be growth, even if it’s just a spark of insight, connection, or quiet strength.
5. How does their trauma shape their moral compass? What lines won’t they cross?
   What lines will they cross? What will they fight to protect or avoid at all costs? Final thought.
   Some of the most powerful heroes in story telling aren’t remembered because they always won. They are remembered because we saw ourselves in them. This is very important.
   Your audience wants to see themselves in the characters that you create. This will not only humanize your characters, but it will draw your audience closer to your characters, closer to yourself story, and it will make them more memorable in your audience’s mind. So what exactly is your audience going to see in your characters?

Will they see the pain that your characters are going through, the isolation, the fight to hold on to some part of who they were before everything fall apart, before everything fell apart, let your heroes bleed, let them hesitate, let them question everything. And yes, let them fail. Failure is part of life.
It’s how we learn. When your characters fail and then try again, they come back strong stronger. They learn things about themselves that they couldn’t learn otherwise.

Those are the heroes who feel real. Sometimes the most broken ones, the ones who have gone through the most in your story, are the ones who show your audience how to survive. Thank you for join joining me for another episode of Heart of Writing.

Keep practicing the techniques we have discussed in this episode. Keep believing in yourself.. Keep growing as an author.

I believe in you. Keep writing from the heart.