Character Profile: Who is Justin DuChamps?

In writing Been Loving You Too Long and then Have A Little Faith In Me, little brother Justin DuChamps was on the periphery. Affable, easy on the eyes, but kind of vague, like he didn't really connect with people.

I hinted around a little that Justin had a past, and in Have A Little Faith In Me, I let it slip that Justin's past was a pretty dark one, but I realized that he wasn't a fully fleshed out character the way so many of them are. Then I realized why. Justin was hiding, even from me.

Justin avoids relationships because relationships lead to drama and drama is a trigger… He's fought hard to regain control of, if not his life, at least himself. Unwilling to let anything jeopardize that, he's a very solitary figure. He experiences life through and channels all his emotions into his photography, because it's safe. No one gets hurt, including him.

Justin is a good man, but he hasn't always been. He did a lot of things and he hurt the people he loved most, over and over again. There's a lot of self loathing there. He might have forgiven his parents, he's forgiven Claude even though he didn't deserve forgiveness, but he hasn't been able to forgive himself.

Justin is alone because there's a part of him that feels he deserves to be.

Right now, I'm working on "I'll Take Care of You".  I'm putting Justin in a situation where being alone isn't an option, forcing him to face his demons and just maybe find the happiness that we all deserve, in spite of our flaws and sins.