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11 months ago

What is the most common trauma you give your characters? The one that most/many of them have. For example abandonment issues, survivor's guilt, something along those lines

Thank you so much for the ask, @an-indecisive-nerd!!!

Sorry for the late response btw - these past two weeks were really tough on me due to the fact I was anemic AND had a really bad flu, but now that I'm 100% back to health I'm ready to catch up with my asks and tags lol

I think a few of the most common traumas my characters face in my books are the following (mostly because I'm a whump enjoyer but also because those things are really plot relevant too):

Familial Loss - Most of my Main Characters have suffered some kind of familial loss in their past. A lot of them don't have their parents and if they have the good one is usually dead and the bad one is hunting them. Examples of this in my stories include: the Millihan siblings from WLITH lost both of their parents at a young age, Savvy Hahn from WLITH lost her half-brother to a brutal kidnapping when she was six, Adahm Ryker from Scrapyard Boys lost his childhood best friend when he was 12, Kaelan Brimcaste from Arrows of Nightfall lost his older brother and only guardian he ever had to an execution, and so on.

Poverty and Oppression- Many if not most of my MCs have suffered poverty in their past. In Grim City Chronicles Willem and his brother are street urchins in a Victorian Era-inspired city, Vince became a common prostitute to pay the bills and his cousin Peggy is a thief, and Ilya is a conman renowned for swindling nobles. Most of the characters from Scrapyard Boys suffered from various forms of poverty plus they live in a cyberpunk dystopian regime that is infamous for its oppresive and murderous tendencies. In Supernova Initiative, before Jack and Cassie Tithus became the richest and most wanted intergalactic thieves in the galaxy, they were just common street urchins in a backwater moon that was swamped by crime of all kinds. Even in WLITH - though NOT to the same extent as the other books, since the MCs in this book do have some stability - the Millihan siblings aren't exactly well off and Dylan often has to have 3 jobs just to pay the bills and settle their grandmother's debts that are still in their name.

Torture and/or Major Injuries: Many, many, many characters in my medieval high fantasy stories (Arrows of Nightfall, Realms of Loss, The Last Wrath, Crooked Fable, etc) AND in my science fiction stories (Scrapyard Boys, Plague of Tomorrow, Supernova Initiative) at one point or another of the story undergo some form of torture or continuous injury at the hands of their enemies.

Abandonment Issues & Betrayal - Though not as prevalent as the other traumas above, a lot of the cast from many of my WIPs has some form of abandonment issues. Erin Niemand from WLITH has very much unresolved abandonment issues due to her mother blatantly walking out on the family after cheating on Erin's dad. Adrien Rosetrom from Scrapyard Boys was literally kicked out from home and abandoned by his grandparents when he was 15. Victor Moreau in Grim City Chronicles was betrayed and shunned by his best friends when he was turned into a vampire at the age of 20, and lost his son to a monster hunter his so-called 'friends' sent after them a few years later.

Sexual Harassment: To a lesser extent (this time probably as some form of catharsis for my inner child 😭lol, but I'm fine btw) but still there, a few, specific characters in my WIPs have suffered some form of harassment or even, unfortunately, assault. Dylan Millihan in WLITH is stalked by a 50-year-old cougar (Mrs. Adelaide Draycott) who is disturbingly enamoured with him and wants to get the 23-year-old to fall in love with her or at least sleep with her at all costs, which she luckily fails at everytime but is still harassment. Adrien Rosetrom (Scrapyard Boys) has been catcalled, received inappropriate touches/groping or even snide comments from multiple men in clubs throughout the years due his job as a stripper - and the same applies to Vince in Grim City Chronicles but to a worse extent. (Also in Scrapyard Boys) It is implied Adahm Ryker suffered some form of assault by Dr. Gladys from the PHANTOM Labs when he was a teen, though any details are unclear. In the same WIP Karima Sallow offhandedly mentions that Caroline Tarych and her husband James both had a grooming-like attitude towards her before the Tarychs massacred House Sallow.


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