Character Developing Your Characters' Emotional Wounds with Romy Sommer

Emotional wounds lesson plan:

• Introduction – Overview of the class and introduction to the instructor.
• Exercise – Participants introduce themselves and the story they’re working on.
• Lesson – Why do characters need emotional wounds?
• Lesson – What creates an emotional wound?
• Exercise: Brainstorm as many emotional wounds as you can think of. What limiting beliefs can each of these wounds create? What lies might characters tell themselves because of these wounds?
• Lesson – Different types of emotional wounds.
• Assignment – Apply what you’ve learned to your own story. What emotional wounds do each of your main characters have? Write a short back story for each of your main/POV characters explaining how they came to have these wounds.
• Lesson – How emotional wounds affect behavior.
• Assignment – Apply what you’ve learned to your own story. How have your character’s personality, behaviors and attitudes been influenced by their wound?
• Lesson – How emotional wounds link to GMC and create internal conflict.
• Lesson – Linking your character’s wound to their transformation arc.
• Lesson – Techniques to create emotional wounds.
• Assignment – Apply what you’ve learned to your own story. What triggers will your main characters encounter as the story progresses, that will force them to face their wounds? How will they react to these triggers initially? What will eventually force the character to choose between continuing to believe their “lie” or to change their thinking?
• Conclusion – Summary, final notes and questions.

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