Albert Einstein once said that Darkness does not exist.
Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness.
What are the aspects of your personality that represent the light? And the darkness, the part of us that doesn’t light up, what’s happening there? Can you split it and examine it and create two characters from it. Give it a try…
What has fiction got to do with writing for wellbeing? A lot actually. It gives form to wandering thoughts and helps with perspective. Being too close to your emotions and experience and placing it at a distance can bring about creativity and healing you never knew possible.
Begin by creating two lists, one with all the traits and strengths you admire about yourself. Then ask yourself what’s on the other side. Can you call it the negative aspect of your personality, the shadow or the growth that has yet to come, bearing in mind Einstein’s words?
Build a life around these two characters. What kind of a job do they have, place they live in, food they eat, how do they spend their time.
Finally, have them meet in the story, somewhere, anywhere, the details aren’t important yet. What’s hurting the shadow character, is he fearing or hurting, figure it out from the lighter side. How can the light character learn from this darker figure? What conclusion have you come to?
It helps to view our personalities from a higher perspective, the eagle’s perch. To break us apart and put our good and not-so-good parts into fictional characters.
If you enjoyed this exercise why not try our WriteWell double fiction course coming online this March and April.
It has a range of creative and practical writing activities designed to help you stretch and strengthen your writing muscles.
