 Hello, hello writers! I'm Kristin Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources, and you are listening to the Well-Sturried podcast, where I share insights, encouragement, and actionable advice designed to help you craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, always in 30 minutes or less, so you can get back to writing of course. Ready for the show? Let's get talking! Hello writers and welcome or welcome back to another episode of the Well-Sturried podcast. Today is Friday, March 13th, 2020, and today we are talking about how to define your character's ghost. Don't know what that is? No worries, we are going to break it all down for you in today's episode. If you would like to read along as you listen in, simply head on over to well-sturried.com slash ghost. That link will be there for you in today's episode description as well. Now, without any further ado, let's dive in. How to define your character's ghost. The events that took place in your character's pasts should affect who they are when your story begins. Backstory provides insight into your character's personalities, values, beliefs, and motivations, all of which hold the potential to impact your character's behavior and the decisions they make. Backstory also lends your characters a sense of history, of lives that extend beyond the confines of the story you're telling, ultimately helping readers view your characters as fully realized. As evidenced, taking time to develop your character's backstories is essential to your novel success. We've discussed this before in another episode of the podcast that I will link for you in today's episode description. But with that in mind, I'd like to take an even deeper dive into backstory with you today, exploring the aspect of your character's pasts that holds perhaps the greatest potential to impact their present stories. Writers, it's time to discuss your character's ghosts. What is a character's ghost exactly? No one escapes life unscathed. A character's ghost is an emotional injury from their past that haunts your character into your story's present timeline. It's an internal scar that has never fully healed, an experience they bear as an ongoing burden. When well developed, a character's ghost dredges up strong negative emotions that create conflict in their journey. Though this conflict is internal in nature, it can also spill into words and deeds that cause external harm. A character's ghost also feeds into the lie that they believe, the false belief that stands between them and the peace, happiness, or satisfaction they crave. If you would like to read more about the lie your character believes or any of these story elements that I discuss in today's episode, make sure to check out the links included in today's episode transcript at well-storied.com slash ghost. In many ways, your character's ghost holds the potential to permeate every aspect of who they are and how they experience life. This internal wound can influence your character's story goal, motivate them to action, interfere with their relationships, shape their identity, and otherwise impact the way they walk through their world. So let's talk about defining your character's ghost. A character's ghost typically falls into one of three categories, guilt, grief, or grievance. Let's talk first about guilt. In instances of guilt, your character carries with them a sense of shame, self-reproach, cowardice, or failure for the way they acted at some point in their past. Their decisions at that point in time resulted in terrible and potentially long-lasting consequences, which could be of a personal or external nature. Sometimes a character will wrongfully blame themselves for a past event. Other times, characters should feel a sense of remorse for the pain they've caused. In either case, guilt often leads characters to believe the lie that they're unworthy of love, forgiveness, or opportunity. Next, let's talk about grief. Some characters are haunted by the ghost of grief, often mourning a death or personal loss. In some cases, a character's grief might commingle with guilt, for example, an accidental killing, or a job or marriage lost to negligent behavior. In other cases, a character might find themselves unable to heal from the loss of a loved one, or struggling to accept a difficult or unexpected turn their life has taken. Finally, let's talk about grievance. Characters who bear grievances believe they've been wronged and cannot forgive or forget this real or supposed injustice. A grievance can lead some characters to simmer with resentment, which can affect their attitude, actions, worldview, and relationships. Other characters seek vengeance for the injustice they've suffered, though fulfilling this goal rarely offers the sense of peace or satisfaction they desire. It's not uncommon for a character's grievance to summon feelings of guilt or grief. In fact, very rarely does a character's ghost not touch upon several of these internal moons in some way. For example, a character might seek vengeance for the murder of their child, or grieve the loss of a limb suffered in a car accident while driving drunk. Granted, a character's ghost needn't be so horrifying to be effective. Many of us live with the scars of unhappy childhoods, failed romantic relationships, the loss of coveted job opportunities, or words that were better left unspoken. These, among similar instances, can also impact the way your characters move through life. Some characters' ghosts will prove a driving force in their stories, shaping their goals, motivations, and internal growth. Other internal wounds might simply serve as a quiet obstacle or low-lying source of tension in your character's journey to find love, achieve success, or become the person they long to be. Whatever the case, a character's ghost needn't make them an inherently negative or unhappy person. While some characters are defined by their ghosts, others are only haunted by them when placed in circumstances that trigger unhappy memories. The Power of Connection in Shared Suffering No matter how your character's ghosts manifest on the page, this key backstory element is worth considering not only for the vast impact it can have on your characters and their stories, but for the emotional connection it can forge with readers. As I mentioned earlier, no one escapes life unscathed. We all bear the scars of the lives we've led, and no matter how well we handle those scars, they doubtless still ache from time to time. This suffering is something we all share. No matter the varied sources of our pain or the differences in our life experiences, the reality of our suffering connects us. This potential for connection is important to bear in mind when crafting stories. Characters are the backbone of plot. If readers don't first care about our characters, then they won't care about our stories. It's therefore vital to encourage readers to connect with our characters, and these ghosts from our characters' pasts can prompt this connection. By allowing your characters to suffer emotional wounds, you encourage readers to empathize with your characters and invest in their stories. You play your role in forging the reader-character connection that keeps readers churning pages. Thank you for listening to today's episode of The Podcast Writer. I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey. If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode, and to give the podcast a quick rating and review. Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers, and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating. You can also give me a shout-out directly on Twitter at christen underscore keeper. For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses, and other helpful resources for writers. Again, that's W-E-L-L-S-T-O-R-I-E-D.com. Thank you again for tuning into today's episode, my friend. Until next time, happy writing!