↓ Skip to main content
DRAFT ZERO
§ RESOURCES / TOPICS / Character Wound

Character Wound

A wound is a negative past experience or series of experiences that causes extensive emotional pain. It could be a devastating moment (a life-threatening accident), repeated traumatic episodes (living with an abusive caregiver), or an ongoing damaging situation (growing up in poverty).

References

"He’s still self-interested. He wants to find out what’s wrong with her son to make up because he felt like he came dangerously close to shattering his world and shattering his routine so now he’s in my mind he’s been away not thinking about what’s wrong with her son but how can I make up for crossing the line and he doesn’t know how to do it because I still think you know he’s still incredibly self-interested and is not at this point in the film doing anything with love for her but it is a huge step from what we’ve seen 20 minutes into the film is the first time that he’s showing interest in any person other than himself even though it is ultimately for himself."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

Start here

DZ-44: Marvel - First Acts and Establishing Characters

How can your first act effectively establish your character journey?
AI✦The episode treats character wounds as foundational to MCU first acts, using Iron Man, Guardians, and Doctor Strange to show how psychological damage drives the character journey from the opening.✦
⏱ 2h 7m
17 SEP 2017
Listen if your first act exposition feels clunky--the MCU has a schema for burying backstory inside character introductions.
▶ More Info
First Acts are hard. They have to set so much in motion, especially setting up characters. To help them understand how to write effective first acts better, Stu and Chas turn their analytical gaze to a franchise that has been refining and reiterating its first act “schema” for over a decade... THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE… →

KEY IDEAS

The Wound Behind the Motivation

"To me, the pilot specifically is really setting up that he may be a good person and be incapable of actioning that because of how damaged he is by losing his wife. And how he lost his wife is a big part of why he's broken the way that he is broken."

— Mel Killingsworth (00:58:04) · DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation

Small Acts Of Care Signal The First Change

"He's still self-interested. He wants to find out what's wrong with her son to make up because he felt like he came dangerously close to shattering his world and shattering his routine so now he's in my mind he's been away not thinking about what's wrong with her son but how can I make up for crossing the line and he doesn't know how to do it because I still think you know he's still incredibly self-interested and is not at this point in the film doing anything with love for her but it is a huge step from what we've seen 20 minutes into the film is the first time that he's showing interest in any person other than himself even though it is ultimately for himself."

— Chas Fisher (00:44:47) · DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

Even More

DZ-74: Midsommar & Folk Horror

What can we learn from folk horror?
AI✦The deep dive into toxic relationships and grief reveals how Dani’s underlying psychological pain drives her choices throughout the film and makes her vulnerable to the cult’s manipulation.✦
⏱ 2h 1m
1 DEC 2020
Listen if you want to understand how folk horror works as a genre and how Ari Aster uses it to explore grief and toxic relationships
▶ More Info
Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas are joined by previous guest (and successful screenwriter) C.S. McMullen for a deep dive into MIDSOMMAR! We analyse the film through the lens of Folk Horror, but tackle broader topics such as horror vs dread, rising tension, transgressions, unfilmables, and portraying toxic relationships… →

DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation

What does it cost a character to find something out, or to say it?
AI✦In Shrinking, Mel observes that Jimmy’s broken state--how he lost his wife and why--is the wound generating his inability to act on being a good person, making that loss the engine of the entire pilot.✦
⏱ 1h 51m
27 MAY 2026
Listen to learn the emotional impact of revealing secrets vs discovering them.
▶ More Info
In this episode Stu, Chas and Mel apply the Landmark–Hidden–Secret framework (from DZ-126) across two very different genres: the thriller SIDE EFFECTS (2013) and the tragicomic pilot of SHRINKING… →
Shows: Shrinking

DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
AI✦Easy’s realization that the system is out to get him--not just failing to serve him--becomes the psychological wound that drives his survival-based decisions throughout the film.✦
⏱ 1h 10m
30 JAN 2026
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
▶ More Info

DZ-70: Joker & Melodrama

How does Joker use melodramatic techniques to elevate its storytelling?
AI✦Joker’s entire narrative architecture turns on Arthur’s accumulated trauma and psychological damage, which Stu and Chas examine as the foundational material that melodrama draws from and amplifies.✦
⏱ 1h 36m
23 JUL 2020
Listen if you're writing a character whose trauma becomes the engine of your entire narrative.
▶ More Info
Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas take a deep dive into JOKER and analyse the film through the story paradigm of melodrama. Is it a melodrama? Why or why not does that matter? And does that influence how it has been written on the page… →

DZ-50: Antagonists! 2 - vs Self

How can characters be their own antagonist?
AI✦Understanding the psychological damage underlying a character’s self-antagonism is essential to how Chas and Stu parse stories where internal pain generates external conflict.✦
⏱ 1h 47m
19 APR 2018
Listen if you want to understand how protagonists can serve as their own antagonist and how antagonistic forces shape a character's journey
▶ More Info
In Part Two of our Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonists, Chas & Stu take a look at “vs self” stories. Stories where the protagonist (or main character) serves as their own antagonist as well as the antagonist for those around them… →

DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

How do you keep an audience watching a character everyone in the film hates?
AI✦Chas notes that in As Good As It Gets, the screenplay uses big print to reveal Simon’s gothic upbringing as the trauma that produced his decent nature, explaining the psychological origin beneath Melvin’s behavioral patterns.✦
⏱ 1h 20m
30 MAR 2014
Listen if you want to make audiences care about deeply flawed protagonists!
▶ More Info
Stu and Chas tackle the first 20 pages of HOT FUZZ, AS GOOD AS IT GETS and GROUNDHOG DAY and try to work out what stops these a-holes protoganist from pushing the audience out of the movie… →