This week, Alida and Robert discuss capturing your character’s shadow side. We all have aspects of ourselves that a little bit dark. When your character’s dark side surfaces, how do you keep it real without disengaging your reader? What is the role of the shadow in story? How do we discover our character’s shadow side and play it out in story, when the character’s not aware of it him or herself?
VIDEO
AUDIO
SHOW NOTES
What is the shadow side? And how should we use it in our stories? How do we develop a shadow side? And how does it humanize our characters? Remember that you must get into your characters head, show their motivations, and make a change throughout your story! So use that shadow side to help you craft a character readers want to live vicariously through.
What we talked about:
What is the shadow side? (0:20)
When do we develop this part of our characters? (0:58)
How does a characters shadow side drive the reader? (3:18)
Definition of “shadow”. (6:00)
As writers, we have to be conscious of the characters shadow side. How do we develop that? (8:00)
How do you show the shadow side on the page? (13:40)
Humanizing your characters. (16:35)
How to get into the head of your characters, no matter who they are! (19:38)
Showing your characters shadow side and unlikable characters are two different things! (21:40)
Literal versus Essential action, and where your shadow side plays out. (22:05)
How to work backwards into your characters shadow side. (23:25)
How to make a true change in your character. (24:30)
LINKS
Things we mentioned:
Carl Jung and the Shadow
Stronger
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 028 Emotional Wound Thesaurus
SWRT 029 Emotional Wounds & Character Arcs
SWRT 047 Unlikeable Characters
SWRT 061 Character Motivation
SWRT 074 Nicey-Nice
SWRT 076 Character Agency
