Author Voice
Part 4: Creating a Character Who Can Heal You and Others
Author Voice
Part 4
Creating a Character Who Can Heal You and Others
As we write, we slowly open up our emotions on the page. This helps us feel safe, and as we build confidence in our abilities to be safe, we explore more of what we’d closed off in our hearts, minds and bodies in the name of survival.
Notice I didn’t say you were gaining confidence in your writing. The writer’s technique isn’t the point. It certainly helps if you end up wanting to share the story, but its not a mandate. There are plenty of books and internet resources which can help you with technique, I want to focus on story and healing.
Safety is our main goal. It is in safety that healing occurs.
Last week I talked about creating a character who can respond. I’ve also mentioned that we’re used to telling stories through worry and fear.
This week, or when you feel safe enough in your storytelling journey, let yourself feel a little bit. You’ll feel some of the wounding, but your protector character will be there. Your protector character is going to react and respond, giving you the opposite of what your mental highways and rotten life experiences gave you.
They are going to give you the safety to show them your wounds, and then they are going to respond with the things you need. You can let yourself feel them - or you can give the character that is you, a different name, if you don’t feel safe enough exploring the emotions yourself. Or you can tell the story as if you’re watching it from outside the character’s interactions.
There are two ways of telling a story:
First person and Third person
First person uses ‘I’ and stays in a limited viewpoint of just that one person. Everytime I tell a personal story on this blog, I’m using first person. Red Trouble is told in first person with Hawk Morrison. Bo McCarren’s series Snake Catcher is also first person.
Third person uses a viewpoint that can see all the events from any of the scenes or characters. Most movies are told in third person. You are ‘watching’ or interacting with the story and can see everything. The Sidenstrasse Tapestry and The Seven Swords of Diya are told in third person.
Mist Walker is told from multiple viewpoints… including first person events from several different characters, and sometimes the chapters are in third person.
It’s your story. You can tell it however you’d like - the only catch is that you have to make sure when using multiple viewpoints that its clear which viewpoint the reader is ‘seeing’ or experiencing the story through.
You can use any way of a telling a story that you’d like. There is no right or wrong way to do this. What matters is that you start to feel safe in this story and that safety opens the door to feeling things and healing them.
Do you have to feel things?
No. Your character can feel things and react the way you were not allowed to. And then your healing or protector character can step in to help comfort and restore. You can even have them start a conversion. The only rules are - it has to be safe and it has to be healing.
Remember, you can put the project down at any point and return to the picture that you’ve established as your safe space. You can steady yourself in that image by imagining what your five senses are experiencing there.
Is it helpful to feel things?
Yes and no. That depends on how much you can handle. There are some emotions that are so awful I take them like medicine… one dose at a time. But I’ve learned that letting myself experience that emotion is better than allowing it to be bottled up.
The next piece is more secondary level, but I’m sharing it to be helpful. When you are ready, create a different character, one who is like you, who has been through the same or similar traumas you have been and then bring them to face your healing protector character.
I’m suggesting this, because that different character can create a buffer zone between you and the emotions, because the emotions are about the character - not you. You can hide yourself in this other ‘not you’ and get healing.
This is because emotions are the same, whether you’re writing about you and your experience - or someone else and their experience.
Perpetual Disclaimer for this series:
I am not a counselor or a mental health professional. I am going to attempt to avoid things which will cause alarm or harm, but I can't know what will trigger each individual. If you need to speak to a mental health professional please know that there are resources available.
Your stories are amazing!
Chronic Writer