This post is part of my 'Building a Second Chance Arc' series—where I share how I craft redemptive character journeys filled with wounds, growth, and grace. If you love stories about healing and emotional transformation, you’re in the right place.
Second chances are a recurring theme in every story I’ve written; the five I’ve published and two more that are waiting in the wings. It is easily my favorite theme because it’s something we all need at least once in our lifetime, which makes it common to everyone, central to many, and deeply human at the core. Whether in romance, faith, or personal growth arcs, second chances offer hope, redemption, and the belief that failure doesn’t have to be final.
There is nothing so sweet in life as a second-chance, whether it’s for an animal, a relationship, or an individual. You might call them a “do over.” Another shot. Clean slate. Starting fresh. Hitting reset. Take two (or three or four) In short, a second chance is a call to ‘try again.’
The life reboot calls on other basic themes like forgiveness, perseverance, healing, and following our dreams. This gives an author a fertile ground for character development and story lines.
Begin with trauma
Second chances start with the character receiving a life altering trauma (physical or emotional), realizing they’ve made a mistake whether it was a moral failure, a broken relationship, or a lost opportunity, or a cataclysmic life event over which they have no control. This is the fertile ground where a second chance story thrives.
Consider the reaction
For me, the story lies not only in the trauma but in the character’s reaction, the moral weight they carry for their perceived part in their downfall. This makes a story powerful because it’s not just about what happened to the character, it addresses what they believe about themselves afterward. What is their emotional baggage?
Second chance stories mirror real life.
We don’t just grow—we adapt. We become who we are because of how we perceive ourselves, especially in the aftermath of failure or pain.
Often, it’s not the trauma itself but the lie we believe afterward that shapes our path. “I’m not worthy.” “I ruined everything.” “Love isn’t safe.” These false beliefs lead us down roads we never intended to travel.
A second chance story meets the character on that road—not to erase the past, but to scatter breadcrumbs toward redemption.
Sometimes all it takes is one moment, one person, or one truth to turn everything around.
The way a character copes with their wound or failure will vary.
Rylie (Remember Not,) Katy Rose (Many Lives Ranch,) and June (Last Wish,) blamed themselves for personal moral failure after becoming pregnant. Rylie covers her failures first with lies and then through building protective walls against anything but surface level business relationships. She tries to hide the truth about her real self under hyper-competence. She believes she blew her one chance at love.
June and Katy Rose both believe they’ve protected the man they love by hiding the results of their indiscretion.
Hiding, lying, walls, protection, martyr complex, and over achievement in their fields.These heroines try to overcome their mistakes with competency and control when what they need is self-forgiveness and the ability to allow others to help carry their load. Their mantra? I should have known better.
Bob in Where the Wild Ones Roam and Grey (whom you’ve yet to meet) had fathers who shamed and tried to control them. Their real personalities were dismissed an unimportant and not living up to dad's expectations, which is a betrayal of identity. Their responses are to turn away from the things they love and to find another way.
Bob uses humor to mask pain. Sensitive and creative, his rough rancher father considered him “too soft” and tried to force him into the tough cowboy mold. To save himself Bob turned away, and now he hides behind charm to avoid further rejection. He's everyone's friend. His identity finds an outlet in tech.
Grey walked away from a life of privilege because it was full of lies. His disillusionment with his father, his marriage, and his career left him unwilling to trust anyone again. He hits the road on his motorcycle. If I can’t believe the people who raised me, who can I trust?
Charli (whom you’ll meet with Grey) left behind her passion—horses—after grief and family pressure overwhelmed her. She chose a career in marketing and let her true identity grow quiet. If I stay, I’ll lose myself again.
Wounds, failure, regret, disappointment or heart wrenching circumstances out of their control either stop lives or create the foundation for clawing their way to a future, pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, redemption, and a future.
Often my heroines believe they are safer when they maintain control of their lives. Giving in, relinquishing anything to another person has nearly derailed them in the past, so they become hyper-responsible.
What do these wounds cost the characters?
Shame from moral failure causes walls, secrecy, and compartmentalization. These cost the character the ability to be intimate, make true connections, or trust.
Betrayal by a family or lover results in detachment, avoidance, and withdrawal The cost is loss of stability, legacy, and the feeling of being rooted. When a character experiences betrayal, they may become a boat without a rudder.
Loss of passion and identity is covered by distraction through career and performance resulting in the loss of authenticity and self-trust.
The belief they’re 'too much' will cause a character to cover his truth with humor or sarcasm, or cause them to become a people pleaser, which costs them the ability to be vulnerable and to have true self-expression.
In a second chance story, a character must experience a significant trauma, failure, or moral turning point. They should feel a sense of responsibility for what happened, even if it’s unjustified. To avoid future hurt, they develop protective mechanisms while simultaneously retaining a longing—however buried or unconscious—for what was lost or might be redeemed.
And here’s the key:
A character’s trauma story is built before the one you write even begins. Using strong backstory is how you create emotional depth in characters. Everyone has history before their current story, even in real life. Considered what occurred in your life to bring you to your current state. That’s your backstory. Your new story begins today. Backstory helped to develop who you are today.
Before they can grow and love or heal, they must acknowledge the impact of their trauma, begin to understand how it shaped them, and face the truth that the protections they have developed are also their prison. This is the first step in a second chance journey and without it the redemption arc has no foundation.
This is why I spend time getting to know my characters before I start on the manuscript. I learn more about them as their story progresses and consequently, I write many drafts. Some are for deepening the plot lines or correcting the course, but most of them are for adding layers to my characters.
The more time a writer puts into knowing their character, the richer the emotional depth of the story. Wrong thinking on the character's part enhances their emotional wound. Unlike physical trauma, emotional wounds don’t usually happen with one event, except for romantic heartbreak or sudden trauma such as the loss of a loved one. The failure of a parent, the trauma of moving from foster home to to foster home, or the loss of self worth usually builds over time.
Weird trauma
A character’s trauma doesn’t have to make sense to you at the beginning of your writing. It may not even seem possible or logical. The sense of how he sees things, how it’s changed his view of the world and of himself, needs to develop over time to where even if it is unlikely, the character embraces the trauma in a convincing way. As an example, Randy Quaid in Independence Day was a washed-up crop dusting pilot who believed he’d been taken and abused by aliens. At first we laugh at his inane story but as the movie progresses we wonder, even his kids wonder, could this actually be true? By the end of the story, the only thing that matters with this character is that he believes his truth so strongly, he becomes a hero.
On the horizon
In my next post, we’ll explore the moment everything changes—the catalyst that disrupts the status quo and opens the door to change. It’s where a second chance doesn’t just become possible. It becomes necessary.
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Thanks for reading,
Barbara
BarbaraEllinFox.com
