This second P of premise prep helps you create relatable, gripping characters for your pieces.
What is Pain?
Your Person’s Pain is all about the major internal struggle that they are dealing with on a daily basis in their lives. While someone may have a lot going on externally, such as raising children and going to school, their Pain is something that sits with them throughout most of their lives. Every human being I know has a Pain like this. That’s why it can help make your character more relatable and compel your readers to empathize with them and root for their success.
What does Pain look like?
Pain is generally something I view as being part of a Person’s personality. It’s often a trait that could have been temporary, but your Person clung to it so long it became part of who they are instead of just a transient stance that they took.
For instance, someone might be considered aloof. There are many situations in our daily lives where it makes sense to behave this way. When we’re interacting with an ex-spouse, dealing with a hotheaded professional rival, or riding a subway car in an area of the city we’re new to. Being cool and distant helps to keep us safe in these situations. We don’t want to give the ex the impression that they have a chance of dating us again. We don’t want to give the rival any ammo to use against us. We don’t want any predatory people to read how lost and uncertain we are about where we’re going.
But, if we have to behave this way for extended periods of time, such as months, years, or decades, we can start to lose the ability to take off that mask. This may happen if we have to live with a narcissistic parent for over a decade, for example. Now, everywhere we go, no matter what we’re doing, we aren’t warm to people, even when we’re being polite to them. When it comes to romantic relationships, family bonds, and close friendships, being aloof all the time becomes problematic. We may not even realize it’s an issue. Now we have a Pain that can be resolved, creating a foundational character arc for your Person.
Learn more in the Pain lesson!
