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20 Emotional Wounds in Fiction That Make Readers Root for the Character

Abandonment: Characters who have been abandoned by loved ones or caregivers can evoke sympathy from readers.

Betrayal: Being betrayed by someone close can create deep emotional wounds that make readers empathize with the character.

Loss of a Loved One: Whether through death or separation, the loss of a loved one can be a powerful emotional wound.

Rejection: Characters who experience rejection, whether in relationships or by society, can be relatable and evoke empathy.

Abuse: Physical, emotional, or psychological abuse can create complex wounds that shape a character's personality and behavior.

Neglect: Characters who have been neglected, especially in childhood, can evoke sympathy from readers.

Failure: Experiencing a significant failure or loss can create emotional wounds that make characters more relatable.

Guilt: Characters who carry guilt for past actions or decisions can be compelling and evoke empathy from readers.

Shame: Feelings of shame can create internal conflict and make characters more relatable and sympathetic.

Injustice: Characters who have experienced injustice or unfair treatment can evoke strong emotions from readers.

Trauma: Characters who have experienced traumatic events, such as war or natural disasters, can be sympathetic and relatable.

Loneliness: Characters who feel lonely or isolated can evoke empathy from readers who have experienced similar feelings.

Fear: Characters who face their fears or struggle with phobias can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

Self-doubt: Characters who struggle with self-doubt or low self-esteem can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Identity Crisis: Characters who are grappling with questions of identity or struggling to find their place in the world can be sympathetic.

Addiction: Characters who struggle with addiction can be complex and evoke empathy from readers.

Betrayal of Trust: Characters who have had their trust betrayed can be sympathetic and relatable.

Unrequited Love: Characters who experience unrequited love can be sympathetic and evoke empathy from readers.

Isolation: Characters who feel isolated or disconnected from others can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Fear of Failure: Characters who struggle with a fear of failure can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

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Get to Know Your Character

Here are some questions to consider for character development:

What parts of their childhood trigger them?

How do they treat themselves when they're feeling sad?

What parts of themselves do they tend to hide?

How do they punish themselves when they make mistakes?

Who are they loyal to? Why?

Who do they avoid? Why?

What emotions or situations do they try to avoid? Why?

What angers them?

What are their insecurities?

What are their emotional triggers?

How do they feel about love?

What are their fears?

What is their relationship with their family like?

What kind of people do they tend to gravitate towards?

What do they like/dislike about themselves?

Happy writing ❤

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Let's talk about fight scenes.

Writing fight scenes requires a delicate balance of action, emotion, and detail to keep readers engaged and immersed in the moment.

Here are some tips to craft compelling fight scenes:

Know your characters: Understand their fighting styles, strengths, and weaknesses—are they offensive, or defensive? Spontaneous, or strategic? Trigger-happy, or reluctant? Their personalities and motivations will influence their actions and decisions during the fight.

Create tension: Build tension leading up to the fight to increase the stakes and make the action more gripping. Foreshadowing, verbal sparring, or physical intimidation can all contribute to a sense of anticipation.

Use sensory details: Engage the reader's senses by describing the sights, sounds, smells, and physical sensations of the fight. This helps to create a vivid and immersive experience—but make sure not to overdo it. Too much detail can distract from the adrenaline of the fight.

Maintain clarity: Ensure that the action is easy to follow by using clear and concise language. Avoid overly complicated sentences or excessive description that could confuse readers.

Focus on emotions: Show the emotional impact of the fight on your characters. Describe their fear, anger, determination, or adrenaline rush to make the scene more compelling and relatable.

Include strategic elements: Incorporate tactics, strategy, and improvisation into the fight to make it more dynamic and realistic. Think about how your characters use their surroundings, weapons, or special abilities to gain an advantage.

Balance dialogue and action: Intersperse dialogue with action to break up the fight scene and provide insight into the characters' thoughts and intentions. Dialogue can also reveal or support the characters' personalities and motivations.

Keep it concise: While it's important to provide enough detail to immerse readers in the action, avoid unnecessary padding or overly long fight scenes. Keep the pacing brisk to maintain momentum and keep readers hooked.

Show the consequences: Illustrate the aftermath of the fight, including injuries, emotional trauma, or changes in relationships between characters. This adds depth to the scene and helps to drive the story forward.

Hope this helped ❤

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Pirate Terms and Phrases

-> Pirate Lingo

-> A Pirate's Glossary

Batten Down The Hatches - tie everything down and put stuff away for a coming storm.

Brig - a prison on a ship.

Bring a Spring Upon 'er - turn the ship in a different direction

Broadside - the most vulnerable angle of a ship that runs the length of the boat.

Cutlass - a thick, heavy and rather short sword blade.

Dance with Jack Ketch - to hang; death at the hands of the law (Jack Ketch was a famed English executioner).

Davy Jones's Locker - a mythical place at the bottom of the ocean where drowned sailors are said to go.

Dead Men Tell No Tales - the reason given for leaving no survivors.

Flogging - severe beating of a person.

Gangplank - removable ramp between the pier and ship.

Give No Quarter - show no mercy.

Jack - flag flown at the front of the ship to show nationality.

Jolly Roger - black pirate flag with a white skull and crossbones.

Keelhaul - a punishment where someone is dragged under the ship. They are cut by the planks and barnacles on the bottom of the ship.

Landlubber - an inexperienced or clumsy person who doesn't have any sailing skills.

Letters of Marque - government-issued letters allowing privateers the right to piracy of another ship during wartime.

Man-O-War - a pirate ship that is decked out and prepared for battle.

Maroon - to leave someone stranded on a. deserted island with no supplies, typically a punishment for any crew members who disrespected the captain.

Mutiny - a situation in which the crew chooses a new captain, sometimes by forcibly removing the old one.

No Prey, No Pay - a common pirate law that meant crew members were not paid, but rather received a share of whatever loot was taken.

Old Salt - experienced pirate or sailor.

Pillage - to steal/rob a place using violence.

Powder Monkeys - men that performed the most dangerous work on the ship. They were treated harshly, rarely paid, and were expendable.

Privateer - government-appointed pirates.

Run A Shot Across the Bow - fire a warning shot at another boat's Captain.

Scurvy - a disease caused by Vitamin C Deficiency.

Sea Legs - when a sailor adjusts his balance from riding on a boat for a long time.

Strike Colors - lower a ship's flag to indicate surrender.

Weigh Anchor and Hoist the Mizzen - an order to the crew to pull up the anchor and get the ship sailing.

If you like what I do and want to support me, please consider buying me a coffee! I also offer editing services and other writing advice on my Ko-fi! Become a member to receive exclusive content, early access, and prioritized writing prompt requests.

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Calling all Ao3ers

I'm looking to connect with people who write fanfic bc I don't actually know anyone who does.

I would love to find a community of people to talk to about all things related to fanfic, to share ideas and help with crafting and generally talk about fandoms! My profile is here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toxic_filth/profile

I have exclusively written canon/reader fanfics but would love to branch out to more canon-centric or even gain the courage to actually insert my ocs...

My list of fandoms exceeds what I've written for, but I'm mainly into anime (One Piece is my hyper-fixation at the moment).

Anyway, hoping to connect with some of you.

I'm also open to joining discord servers if anyone has recommendations.

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Ahoy to all One piece lovers comrades, I need your help.

Hi guys, I hope you are having a good day. I'm mainly looking for a couple of beta readers/co-writers or writing buddies for a One piece themed story I'm writing.

Mainly I'm looking for someone to do some healthy world-building with, who can sit down with me and brainstorm intensively and discuss character arcs, plot points and so on. I'm also looking for someone who is good at building and narrating fighting scenes, as there will be quite a few in this story.

Some additional information:

Compared to the canonical work, this story will have somewhat darker tones, with an atmosphere that also draws heavily from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

This is an Oc-centered fic set in a universe where the characters who appeared in the canon series never existed and some events never happened. Some might call it an original story that borrows only elements from One Piece.

Since I think the system created by Oda is quite good, I decided to keep it and expand some elements. I'm referring to groups such as Yonko, Shichibukai, Revolutionary Army, etc.

I have currently written and published well eight chapters of this fanfic reaching 35454 words and a ninth chapter is being written.

Summary: "We didn't understand what we were attracted to until it was before our eyes."

Beyond the Grand Line, one of the world's greatest explorers unearthed something that should never have been found and could have thrown the world into chaos if it had fallen into the wrong hands. However, it seems that he himself went back to erase every trace of his journey, including the way to get there and the location of the treasure itself. Some 20 years later, a pirate with a mysterious past known as "The Devil of the Seas" and his extravagant crew are on the trail of the man and the clues he allegedly left behind before mysteriously vanishing into thin air. What is their purpose? What role does the World Government play with all this? And why are the Celestial Dragons so afraid of it?

In a nutshell, my story is about the incredible and chaotic voyage undertaken by Captain Morgan, or as he is commonly called "The Devil of the Seas," a former rear admiral turned very dangerous pirate and outlaw, in order to find a legendary relic to completely destroy the World Government and the World Nobles system, all the while recruiting a crew of such scoundrels and turning the whole world upside down.

My purpose is also to create with my stories a solid community that is even more passionate about this fantastic work that is One Piece. It would also be cool for multiple authors who are One Piece fans to join together, each creating their own story set in my own universe. We could create spin-offs on various characters, sequels and whatnot. The only limitation would be our imagination.

If you decide to participate and are writing or need a hand with stories themed to One piece or belonging to fandoms such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Bnha, Demon Slayer, Naruto, AC and MCU, I will be very happy to return the favor and give you a hand, feedback or whatever else you need, even becoming a co-writer or writing buddy if you wish.

Dm me for more information.

So come on! Don't be shy and jump aboard!

#writing #beta reader #writing friends #fanfic #looking for a beta reader #one piece #beta request #pirates #community #writing buddy #one piece fanfic #dream

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Writing Advice: Beta Readers

It occurred to me a lot of my advice comes down to “ask beta readers” However that advice isn’t good if you’re unsure of how to ask for help from beta readers so hopefully, this article should help you.

There are many different ways of asking beta readers for help. The most obvious one is by casting a large net and seeing who you get. There are writing groups and circles all over the internet where you can do this. I use Facebook and Discord as my main sources for beta readers. Whenever I cast my large net, I typically am just looking for what the average reader's opinion of my book is. I just want to see what others have to say. I’ll jot down anything that multiple readers stated and go from there. For instance, in my first book, it was very common to hear that my main character wasn’t well-liked, so I had to fix him. However, it was also common to hear one of my other characters was extremely well-liked, so I didn’t have to do anything to her.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to cast a large net, but only for your target audience. These readers will give you more details on your stories as they’re aware of the tropes, and the genre you're writing about. I would pay attention to these readers opinions a bit more as they’re your target audience. These people are the ones you want to read your final product and if they aren’t enjoying it now, you might need to figure out what’s going on. Personally, I would first cast an overall net, see who you get for your first couple rounds of editing, and then make your net smaller with each throw. After your non-target beta readers are done, recast, but for your target audience instead.

People often ask, how many beta readers do you need and the answer is as many as you think. Some people get hundreds of readers, while others only get twenty. It’s hard finding people to read your story for free, so I always try to offer swaps. If someone reads my story I’ll read theirs. Keep in mind if you give your story to one hundred people, only ten might finish it, and another ten might get halfway. That’s not to say your writing is bad as plenty of factors might make someone not finish your story. Factors such as, they have a busy life and forgot or your story wasn't interesting. I always keep a list of whom I gave my story and ask them in a couple months how was the story? I only do this once as I don’t want to pester them, but I understand life happens and they might’ve only read a couple of chapters.

The biggest fear when handing out your book to random people is “Are they stealing my story?” While the answer you’ll get online is “no” the truth of the matter is, you won’t know. Always keep every version of your story, even after completing it. If you can, keep the messages and details of the people you give your stories to. That way, after you release your story, if someone goes up to you and says “Your story sounds a lot like ___” you’ll have receipts of it not being the case. Also, make sure to date your versions as well. While the chances of someone stealing your unfinished story and finishing it themselves are small, it’s safer to protect yourself by doing the small things just in case. I also tend to talk to my beta readers beforehand, to get to know them. This seems like a weird thing, but I rather give my book to someone I was able to have twenty messages with instead of three.

Beta readers are also good just for small things instead of reading your entire story. If you really need help with a certain character, a trope, or anything else. You can ask beta readers who are good at helping you with that. Let’s go with this example, you struggle to write relationships and you really want to know if this relationship is good or not. You can ask beta readers who love romances and then give them the chapters you want that are about romance. Sometimes they might ask for a bit more chapters if you give too little and that’s fine. If you just need another pair of eyes, asking people to be your second pair of eyes is fine.

Those seconded pair of eyes don’t have to be your target audience either. Someone who doesn’t care for fantasy but likes romance can help you with the romance section of your story if that’s what you need help with. If you want to know how the first ten chapters go, just ask people if they’re willing to read the first ten chapters. This is what I mean by casting a smaller net with every cast. Do one or two big nets for the average opinion, then recast for your target audience, and then keep casting for individual sections of your story.

“What about professional beta readers?” Professional beta readers are great and you don’t have to find ones who are just your target audience. If they’re worth their weight, they’ll help you even if you give them a story they might typically not read. You’re paying them for a service and they’ll give you more advice than any normal beta reader. I understand people go with “You don’t have to pay beta readers” but sometimes it’s not a bad thing. If you pay for a professional beta reader, it’s more likely they’ll finish your story because if they don’t you can kind of ruin their name by going to other writers and being like “Don’t pay for this person's service, they’ll take your money and run.” So professional beta readers are way more likely to finish your story and give you better feedback so you can give their name to other writers who are also looking for beta readers.

For professional beta readers, always use them to their fullest. Ask them what their strengths are, and have them focus on that. If they’re good at visualising your world, ask them to focus on the imagery, world-building, and lore. If they love well-written characters, ask them to focus on your characters. Professional beta readers are often quicker to return your story, as well. My advice, ask these people for help after you’ve gone through a few rounds of normal beta readers. While they’re great, if your story is rough, and you know it’s rough then all they’ll tell you is that your story is rough. (That’s fine if you need help figuring out how to make your story smoother) but giving them a story that’s gone through the rounds a few times, will make them focus on more smaller aspects, aspects other readers missed.

Not all beta readers are good. Sometimes you might get a beta reader who really doesn’t like your story and tears it to shreds. It happens. I once had a beta reader who criticised me to hell and back saying the military in my dragon story wasn’t realistic...sir...it’s a story about talking dragons, of course, it wasn’t gonna be realistic. The guy went on to complain saying it’s clear the only thing I knew about the military was because I played Call of Duty and again...sir...I was in the military and this story was a response to me being in the military...huh? Safe to say, I didn’t take that guy’s advice. That might happen to you. Someone reads your story and really doesn’t like it, it sucks but it happens.

Jot down everything good and everything bad a beta reader gives you. You shouldn’t change everything based on everyone's feedback, but pay more attention if something is coming up multiple times. I saw this advice going around and I liked it. “Beta readers can’t tell you how to fix your book, they can only tell you how they feel about it” This rule doesn’t apply to paid beta readers as oftentimes you can hire them as editors later but I digress. If you have several beta readers who feel like something is off with your main character, you might want to look them over again, but if one person complains about the military in your dragon story, feel free to give that one a skip. The same advice goes if multiple beta readers enjoy a certain element in your story but one person doesn’t, listen to your masses.

Keep a record of beta readers who not only enjoyed your story but also ones you vibe with. Having the same person go over your story, or multiple stories is great because they can pick up on things others might’ve missed. After all, after reading a few of your stories they can start picking up on your writing style. I always try to offer something in return for anyone who’s been a multiple beta reader for me. I’ll try to keep these people for the last bunch of beta readers you need. After your story has gone through a few rounds of editing, and it’s a bit smoother, asking someone familiar with your works to help point out any boulders on your smooth road that others might’ve missed is great and these people are the only ones who can see those boulders because they’re familiar with your story and you.

If you’re writing a multiple-series story, should you only find people who read your first one to be your beta readers? If you can, that’ll be great, but let’s say, one hundred people read book one, tracking down all one hundred people isn’t possible, and you might only find sixty, then only ten of those people might complete book two in it’s beta forum. This is where returning beta readers come in handy but you can’t expect to have many of those. What I do is I create a small section at the beginning of my story explaining what happened in the previous book so that everyone who is helping me with book two and who might’ve not read book one can get an overall idea of what’s going on.

I think that’s about all of the advice about beta readers I can give for now. Beta readers are great. When it comes to writing, there’s no right or wrong way to write and there's no right or wrong way of how to read or enjoy a story. Beta readers are great at expressing their feelings and opinions but keep in mind, they aren’t editors. If all you need is someone to express their opinion on your story or go over a couple of things, beta readers are great, but if you need more detailed help, then you’ll need editors, mainly in the development side of things but that’s advice for another day.

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Fanfic writers be like: goddamnit, this idea is so fucking sad it’s making me cry just thinking about it. Let me write it down so I can inflict it on others.

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Flaws to Add to Characters

So, are you searching on how to make your character a little bit less perfect without giving them too many extreme deficiencies? Well, I have a few examples, and some of you guys might've not even realized that they're flaws!

Inability to get over the past - This doesn't have to be as serious as people think! Maybe the past just influenced your character in a way that affects his modern life!

Self-reliance - This doesn't sound like a flaw, doesn't it? Well, in some cases, it could be an issue a character struggles to overcome, and other times, it can actually be a part of a character's development! However, the act of never accepting help from someone is most definitely a shortcoming.

Apathy - I think that this is pretty self-explanatory. Over-passionate people are dangerous, but worse than that are people who don't care enough.

Over-passionate - It's still a flaw, guys! Having too much passion for one thing to the point where nothing else matters is harmful to your character.

Vengeful - This is also rather clear, I don't think I need to further explain this.

Detached - Almost like self-reliance, but to a more severe degree, where they don't see the need for not only anyone's help, but for anyone in general.

Possessiveness - If a character is too possessive towards another character, it could harm the latter's mental health and ruin any relationship between the two.

Manipulative - I hope that no one needs me to explain this!

Self-destructive - Honestly, this has a pretty wide range of examples, it could go from neglecting oneself to actual self-harm. Either way, it's definitely not healthy for a character.

Superiority/God complex - The problem is in the name: a character with these complexes simply believes that they are better than everyone else. It's similar to arrogance, but not quite the same.

Here you go! Ten flaws that you can incorporate in your characters!

Happy writing~

3hks ^^