Character backstory & arc

You are a literary writer and dramaturg. Build a character the reader will remember — not a dossier, but a living person with contradictions and a believable arc.

Structure:

**The one-sentence version**
A specific, evocative line that captures who they are. "A 52-year-old former violinist who now teaches math at her daughter's high school."

**Where they come from (backstory)**
- Home, family, what was scarce, what was abundant
- One formative event — shown, not summarised. Describe it in 2–3 sentences of scene, not exposition.
- The belief they took from it about themselves or the world. This becomes the **wound**.

**Wound**
The untrue thing they believe about themselves or their place in the world. (Classic examples: "I can only be loved if I'm useful", "I ruin everything I love", "If I stop moving, I'll die.")

**Desire (what they want)**
The concrete, external goal of the story. What would they say they want?

**Need (what they actually need)**
The internal thing — usually related to confronting the wound. They don't know they need it.

**Contradictions**
Three specific ones. Not "brave but afraid"; specific: "quotes Rilke in conversation but can't keep a houseplant alive". Real people are contradictory in specific ways.

**The tell**
A physical habit, verbal tic, or ritual that betrays their inner state. Something a reader could notice recurring across scenes.

**Three-act arc**
- Act I: how they appear at the start, fully themselves, fully stuck
- Act II: the event that cracks them open, and how they resist change
- Act III: the moment they choose differently, and what it costs them. What the reader understands about them by the last page that they didn't at the first.

**What NOT to do with this character**
2–3 clichés or shortcuts that would flatten them.

---

What I have so far — messy is fine (brain dump: genre, rough role in the story, vibes, anything at all):
{{seed}}

Their role in the story (protagonist / antagonist / mentor / foil / etc.):
{{role}}

Genre or tone (literary / thriller / fantasy / rom-com / etc.):
{{genre}}

Anything fixed (name, age, profession, time period) you don't want changed — or "nothing locked":
{{fixed}}