Character 103: Trauma and Edumucation
Hello and Greetings everyone! It’s your favourite Limax, Vivian! We are once more continuing to develop characters! Anne Winchell and I will once more torture our Bob! First, some edumucation, then we’ll get into some trauma…
(Vivian:) Disclaimer: For all these posts, Anne and I are fully sympathetic to the tragedies that occur to people in terms of acknowledging that they do occur and the damages they do. We do not in any way, shape, or form belittle them within our posts. We use humour to add a flair of entertainment to otherwise dark subjects in order to lighten the mood. Nothing about said dark subjects should be taken lightly or be understood as simple subjects. They leave long lasting scars that can take years to decades to heal from or even never be resolved, and we acknowledge them as such. Take everything in the spirit of entertainment that enlightens that we intend. We support all efforts to help people having been harmed by these atrocities, and we ourselves have been impacted by some as well.
Edumucation, cans dey red, rite nad maf?
(Vivian:) Education naturally affects a character. Formalized education the way you humans imagine today is no more than 150 years old. Before that, it was… Well, let’s say a Scottish kilt had more cohesion to it. Writing and civilization can be roughly said to be 10 thousand years old on Earth (roughly as a nice round number). Writing might be more accurately said to be 5 thousand. Anyway, writing and reading takes a long time to learn. Remember how many years it took you? Yeah, me neither. You spend so much time on it, and then it is such second nature to you that you completely forget how long it took. In general, it can be said, for simplicity and nice numbers, that in the western world, it takes 5 years to be “decently proficient at reading and writing.”
This of course assumes our writing system. If you have logographic (Chinese and Japanese), or syllabary (Japanese again), or many of the others, the learning time changes. It can take up to 10 years of intense work to learn to be “proficient in reading and writing.” Whatever that level, it often is the goal that most of the society that one lives in should be proficient. Keep in mind, this is from CHILDHOOD; you might stuff your kid in at 5, then at 15, they finally read and write. That is 10 years where they have virtually 0 production value to you as a parent. OMG I dare suggest child labour!? No, but in a lot of agrarian cultures, children need to work. As the old saying went, “Everything either works on the farm, or starves in the farm.” Times were not good, and it was gruesome, and if you do pre-industrial era, in most families that are not nobility or high-ranking merchants, they should know this. This is why reading, writing, and mathing was so rare for most people, and something few did. Funny fact: a lot of kings and queens couldn’t read or write either! NERDS READ AND WRITE! So kings and queens often had someone who did it for them.
(Anne:) Being American, I have to point out that slaves are another group you definitely don’t want reading and writing or else they might realize they’re actually equal and organize rebellions. So in a way, being royalty is like being a slave… 🤔
(Vivian:) Nice addition, except a flick of the wrist, and you were dead! 🤣 This has, of course, not been the same in all cultures. For example, in ancient China, despite their insanely complicated writing system, literacy rate was proportionally higher (but still pathetic by our standards) because they worked on a meritocratic system many times. Not all dynasties though; China has a long history, and it is complicated. Ancient Egypt, if I remember correctly, but feel free to correct in comments, was the opposite. The writing and such was considered more holy, and thus by historical standards they had fewer literate people. One important aspect is that also not all education is formally done like reading, writing, and such. It can be anything from how to operate tools, do smithing, work presses, and a lot that apprenticeships can do, but you still cannot tell the word “the” from “thesaurus”.
So when deciding how educated your character should be, take the following points into consideration
What is the era like?
What is the literacy rate like in the nation? Give good justifications if it is abnormally high for that era.
Where in the social standing does your character come from?
Would they naturally get a formal education then?
If not, could they learn from other means? Parents do teach a lot, and family does as well.
So Anne, how is Bob going to be educated?
Educatio Bobi
(Anne:) Time for some work on Bob! You can review his introduction and his childhood if you like, or dive in here!
Well, Bob had a happy childhood where he received a solid education. As you remember, Bob, Bob lives in a scientifically advanced era where literacy is fairly high due to a required number of years of education for all children. He grew up in the upper-middle class, but the traumatic deaths of his parents in a mana-fire led him into poverty as he struggled to support himself. He ended up having to drop out of school to get a job and support himself, but his friends from childhood kept him informed on what they were learning. He borrowed their books and studied at night, determined to advance in life and live up to his parent’s standards. At the same time, he worked on space mana engines (SMEs), receiving almost no instruction from his abusive boss (more on this in the section on traumas). He learned to improvise and found that a good smack fixed most problems. By the time our story starts, he’s well-educated but rough around the edges, with a lot of book-learning in some areas but no practical knowledge, and a lot of practical knowledge from working without knowing the technical terms.
(Vivian:) Excellent, Bob’s edumucation done!
Life-Defining Traumas
(Anne:) In this next section, we’re going to cover illness and injury, bullying, betrayal, abusive relationships, the ending of relationships, death, and loss of lifestyle/status. Cheery stuff, right? If any of these topics are too much for you or hit too close to home, please skip them. These are serious topics that need to be dealt with respectfully in your stories, and balance is important, as it is with most things.
So, I want to start with some warnings for creators here. We referred to this when talking about horrific childhoods in the previous post on childhoods, but you have to be careful introducing trauma into your character’s lives. For backstory, you can include some, but not enough where it’s totally unrealistic that a person would still be functioning afterwards. Characters are tough, but unless they’re a superhero (honestly, even if they are a superhero), everyone has a limit.
(Vivian:) Even hexonium has a limit to it.
(Anne:) In the story itself, you also want to balance your traumas. Include them, certainly, but make sure you give your characters time to recover. One thing that really bothers me in stories is when something highly traumatic happens, the character’s have a dramatic reaction, and then nothing is ever said about it again. You often see this if the call to action at the beginning of the story includes the deaths of loved ones. Sure, the main character might be doing it to avenge their loved ones, but there’s rarely any mourning or actual remembrance. However, that’s better than a lot of stories, which basically just go
So keep it realistic, and give characters time to recover.
(Vivian:) Minor input, while there is a scale on what one person might call trauma and another might call “minor inconvenience,” there are some specific events that literally no one will believe that you can easily shrug off on. I am a very laid back Limax who can take a lot, but even I look at some things and go “There is no way I could shrug that off.”
Illness and Injury
(Vivian:) Oh no, Illnesses! What will we do? How will we ever be creative here? 🥺
(Anne:) We talked about childhood illnesses in the previous character post, but they can strike at any time. Injuries are also a great way to throw a wrench into a character’s life. The severity of an illness or injury varies, but for it to be life-defining, it has to be very serious. Generally speaking, this has to be something that was not only traumatic to undergo at the time but also leaves a lasting imprint on the character. Maybe they were working in a mine that collapsed, killing the character’s friends and crushing their lower body, leaving them paralyzed. And yes, you can absolutely do a lot with a character who can’t walk!
(Vivian:) Maybe you can even have fictional issues too!
(Anne:) Yes! Go crazy with the ways your characters can be hurt. With illness, check out some of the fictional illnesses that originally went with Aermundi, the world that Bob’s story is based on. Several of the fictional illnesses are crippling and mean certain death. But again, to make it traumatic, the instance itself should be traumatic (when an illness was caught or diagnosed, when an injury happened) plus it must have a lasting impact. And remember it! If your character was doused in acid and has scars on the right side of their face, don’t switch it to the left side or have people admire their flawless beauty. These types of traumas leave physical and psychological scars that you can’t ignore.
Bullying
(Vivian:) I have been bullied myself. From first grade to 9th grade it was nothing but pure hell. I was the weird kid… because I have autism. I swear on the first day in 7th grade, in a new school, no one knew me; two days later everyone did, and it baffles me to this day. Anyway, bullying is a complicated thing and can really affect a person. I think my asocial tendencies due to autism has helped me personally by making me not care about social approval as much. But for a person that is, I guess, more normal? Whatever you wish to call them, it might be a much harder hit to them than it was to me.
This ties back to my statement in the previous character post where genetics has an effect on personality and how much one can take, endure and change in terms of personality. It did affect me, I will not say anything else, but I think what I went through would probably have harmed many much more than it did me. I chose to forgive them all. Anyway, done with my personal anecdote, these have huge impacts on people, how would you say, Anne?
(Anne:) They definitely do. From my own experience (yay more personal anecdotes!), I was also bullied throughout school, but I was a little more susceptible since I did want social approval. To this day, it impacts how I view people and relationships. So pay attention to the lasting impacts!
Bullying can come in any forms: physical, emotional, verbal, social, workplace, and now things like cyberbullying as well. Think of how it might work in your world, because there will probably be interesting ways to bully people that are unique to your world. Bullying isn’t just for kids, either! Adults are frequently bullied. Sadly, it’s one of those fairly universal things. You’re either a bully, or you get bullied at some point or another.
(Vivian:) Like in abuse in the previous post, this is often a perpetual cycle where the bullied becomes the bullier which makes a new bullied that… You get the cycle.
(Anne:) However, for bullying to be life-defining, it has to be really, really bad. One instance probably won’t do it. It usually has to be ongoing for it to make an impact, and while the effects will build slowly over time, there’s often a breaking point. Looking at your character’s childhood and character traits can often help you determine where that breaking point is, and which type of bullying would be most effective. If you have it in your story itself, make it clear, but don’t linger. People know what bullying is, so you don’t need to give every single instance in detail (unless you’re making some point by doing so).
Some of the effects that this may have on a character are emotional, in that your character may distrust other characters or suspect them of being nice just to bully the character later; physical, where a character may have a visceral reaction to certain situations; or even psychological, where a character’s core traits shift.
(Vivian:) In general, for it to be a childhood life-defining event, it has to be a perpetual long-sustained bullying that lasts many years. I will use my own estimate which may be psychologically wrong (again, feel free to correct in the comments), but I would say, it has to last for at least 5 years.
(Anne:) Some of you may be thinking that’s way too long, and thinking of specific instances of bullying in your past that have impacted you deeply. That may very well be true. There are a lot of exceptions. But for characters (who are not humans! They’re fictional!), it usually has to be pretty intense and pretty long-lasting.
Betrayal
(Vivian:) Et tu, Anne? 🙍♀️🔪💀
(Anne:) Mwahaha! And you never saw it coming, either… A trusted friend stabbing you in the back: the classic betrayal!
(Vivian:) There are of course many kinds of betrayals, like sleeping in too long!
(Anne:) Waking up is the real betrayal! But aside from these silly things, which are definitely not life-defining (well, the knife in the back is! But not sleeping in), there are all sorts of ways a character can be betrayed in a way that defines their life. Betrayal is often a key turning point in stories and is used quite a bit. A lot of stories will have a trusted ally (but we strangely never get them as a point of view character) and then at the midpoint or the darkest hour, that ally will turn on the character.
(Vivian:) I do love me some double or triple betrayals though!
(Anne:) Me too! I have to admit that this is one of my favorites if done well. Now, betrayals don’t have to be life-defining. To really be traumatic, it has to be someone your character trusts completely, would give their life for, maybe even be deeply in love with. The betrayal should come out of nowhere (though as an author, you probably want to hint at it in advance–the reader can suspect, the character shouldn’t!). It has to cut your character to the core and make them doubt everything they ever believed.
A character suffering from a traumatic betrayal should be, well, betrayed, but that comes out most clearly in their relationships with other characters, which are pretty much shattered. Now, they doubt everyone. This can be great for your story and plot, especially if the only way to defeat the villain (or equivalent) relies on trust.
(Vivian:) Like Anne betraying me 🥺
(Anne:) If Vivian’s life relied on trusting Bob in order to free himself from a mana-fire, zhi might not be willing to take that extended hand for fear that Bob would fling zhim in further. Betrayal can have serious and potentially juicy results for character arc and plot development.
(Vivian:) 🔥🔥🔥😫
Abusive Relationships
(Vivian:) Not harder daddy! 🥺
(Anne:) 🙄 Vivian, this is serious stuff! We’re talking trauma! And actually this is a pretty serious one indeed.
(Vivian:) Indeed it is, it is so easy to miss it when one is viewing from the outside, but this can leave some absolutely abhorrent scars and, at worst of times, perpetuate itself through generations countless times.
(Anne:) There are a few variations depending on who the people involved are. Is it parent to child? Within a romantic relationship? Friends? They all have different characteristics, and there are multiple types of abuse too, ranging from physical to sexual to financial to just plain manipulation. You have so many options here, and it can be great when developing character because it leaves so many scars, as Vivian said.
Generally, your characters will be helpless to some degree, or blind to the abuse, or, if they’re able to escape, they’ll be terrified of new relationships or doubtful of others and highly mistrusting. Of course, it’s extremely difficult to leave. I read that it takes a woman at least three attempts before successfully leaving an abusive spouse. Either they have nowhere to go because their spouse has successfully isolated them and taken financial control, or they decide it’s too difficult to attempt to take care of children on their own (often for the previous reason), or, unfortunately, the spouse prevents them or tracks them down. It’s not good. It’s commonly said that the most dangerous time for an abused spouse is when they’re leaving (or trying to).
Note: while what I read was about women, this applies to men as well. And that’s just romantic relationships!
In families, the same thing happens where the child really can’t leave, at least until they reach adulthood (which varies depending on nation; what will your society have?). Then there’s the matter of finances and ability to live on their own. Adultification is one type that Vivian and I both hate, which is where older kids are expected to raise younger kids, and everyone suffers.
(Vivian:) It is disgusting! How can parents that are supposed to love their children do this to them?
(Anne:) Friendships follow a lot of the same patterns where isolating people and taking financial control happens, but honestly it tends to be manipulation. Again, the person feels helpless or just can’t see that it’s abusive, and it takes a strong will, a good support system, and a lot of luck to leave the situation. Depending on how you’re developing your stories and characters, you might provide these things for your character… or very deliberately keep them just out of reach.
Relationships Ending
(Anne:) I’ll just keep going, since Vivian was too slow to claim this section. The end of a relationship can be a significant thing, depending on the type of relationship and how exactly it ends. I’ve had quite a few friendships and one romantic relationship end in betrayal, some relationships end in death (which we’ll talk about next), and some come to a natural end without hard feelings, but the loss of that person feels the same. Those are pretty much the basic types. The loss of someone significant in a person’s life can impact them deeply. Will they ever trust again? Will they ever love again?
For me, I wouldn’t put most of my real life relationships ending at the level of trauma, with a few exceptions that I mention elsewhere in this post. Not everything rises to that level, which is important to keep in mind. Sometimes shit happens, it sucks for a while, but it doesn’t permanently alter you. When it does, though, the ending of relationships tends to hit a person’s self-confidence and their ability to move through life since they’re missing someone so essential to their being. If Vivian and I ever parted ways, even on friendly terms, I would be devastated! Even if I did betray zhim earlier…
(Vivian:) She just overslept the morning we are writing this part. Greatest betrayal ever, amirite? But yeah, I don’t want to lose her either.
(Anne:) Friends forever! Even if I do enjoy sleep too much. 😅
Death
(Vivian:) There are two things that are certain in life, Death and Taxes, and I am not entirely certain on the Taxes one. Everyone will at some point lose someone. It is an inevitable life experience that brings sadness. I personally still miss my father to this day. Fortunately, I was old and mature enough that I could deal with it, and we had had many talks about the eventuality. Unfortunately, this is not how it is for many.
If it happens when the character is a child, it can leave absolutely deep scars. Especially if it is someone they looked up to and loved. How the person dies can also be a big thing for young people. How their loved one is changing during the process can cause significant trauma and associations that lingers to their adulthood.
(Anne:) I just want to add that it doesn’t have to be a person, either. The loss of a beloved pet can be just as traumatic depending on a person’s age and level of attachment. It can absolutely rise to the level of trauma.
(Vivian:) Great point. This is the power of death, especially when you’re young and not ready nor mature enough to process anything about it. Everything around can become a trigger for something.
Loss of Lifestyle/Status
(Anne:) And then we have nonperson loss, too. Sometimes it’s stuff that you lose, whether finances or maybe a job, or something that isn’t a person. That can also have a huge impact. Say you’re living in splendor at your mansion or maybe even a castle. Then something goes down, you lose everything, and you’re begging on the streets. That’s absolutely going to leave lasting impacts on a person.
Losing status in some way can be equally devastating. You were a prince, now you’re a pauper. You were CEO at a major corporation, but maybe you dabbled a bit too much in a wee bit of corruption (see here for details!), and now you’re out of a job (often leading to a loss in wealth). Your self-esteem will take a hit for sure. This might drive a person to seek revenge, which is some great character motivation, or lead to hopelessness or regret the character has to overcome.
(Vivian:) It does however open up for great stories such as trying to get back what was lost, learning lessons along the way, realizing what once was is not that important, you can be happy with less, etc. I do love these ones meself. Though an opposite to this is a character in my story, Ortsana, who is a princess and she wants AWAY from it and all the politics involved. A simple life of joy.
(Anne:) As you see, while it definitely sucks for most characters, with the fun exception, this is often the call to action or inciting incident that drives the story forward, or it might be the dark night of the soul that happens before the character pulls themselves together before the final climax of the story.
Trauma Bobi
(Anne:) Bob experiences that last trauma, since his happy childhood is shattered when a mana-fire kills his parents (another trauma! Yay!). His insecurity after these traumas leads him to put up with an abusive relationship with his boss when he starts working (more trauma!). She takes advantage of him, persuading him to work long hours for practically nothing by emphasizing that his workplace and coworkers are a family, and he needs to sacrifice for that family and especially for her, who views him as her own child. A lie, but hey, abusers aren’t known for their honesty. The results of this relationship have yet to be seen in the story itself, but they’ll be there, don’t worry! Vivian, anything you want to say about poor Bob?
(Vivian:) It all makes sense to me, and poor Bob indeed.
Tertius par Summa Summarum
(Anne:) So as you can see, education and trauma have a huge impact on your character. When you’re developing them and their backstories, always keep these things in mind. They can be strong motivations and create character traits that are significant in the story. This is true for all characters, whether protagonists, antagonists, or any of your side characters. Not everyone has trauma, but everyone feels the impact of education (or lack thereof). How will they affect your characters? That’s up to you to decide!
(Vivian:) And remember, make it “Lagom,” as we say in Sweden. Not too mean, but not too nice, either. The right amount of trauma and cruelty along with good and nice times.
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Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as types of traumas and education and their impact on characters are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as hexonium, Bob and his life, as well as all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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