Characters with Contradictions
Exercise #189 Exploring Conflicts in One's Writing Process
You have the power to create entire universes—time for the Big Bang!
I have a hard time finishing projects. One reason can be found in step five of today’s exercise. While I crave admiration, I am also terrified of being seen. As a kid I would hide under the bed covers so the witches wouldn’t see me. Today, I worry about hitting PUBLISH on anything I write. Believe me when I say that publishing this newsletter required a lot of work on myself and my mindset.
Strategy:
This exercise challenges writers to explore common creative contradictions through the lens of fiction. By embodying these struggles in characters and scenarios, writers can gain insight into their own process and identify areas for growth and balance.
Instructions:
Perfectionism vs. Productivity: Write a short passage about Lila, a call-center employee struggling with the contradiction between perfectionism and productivity. Show how she struggles to balance her desire to handle each call flawlessly with the need to efficiently manage a high volume of calls.
Planning vs. Spontaneity: Write a brief scene featuring Ethan, an illustrator torn between the structure of planning and the freedom of spontaneity. Explore how he struggles to bring together structured plans and spontaneous creativity into his design work.
Inspiration vs. Discipline: Craft a vignette about Mara, a grade-school student grappling with the balance between inspiration and discipline in her studies. Show how her bursts of motivation makes it difficult to consistently complete her homework and projects, or alternately, how self-discipline leads to creative burnout.
Ambition vs. Execution: Write a short passage about Nikhil, a long-distance runner whose ambitions aren't matching his ability to execute. Describe how his grand training plans conflict with the realities of his daily schedule, energy levels, and physical limitations, or how his underestimation of current abilities leads to a lack of ambition.
Admiration vs. Exposure: Pen a brief scene featuring Jasmine, a singer caught between her desire for admiration and the fear of exposure. Show how her longing for recognition and praise clashes with a fear of being seen and criticized.
Personal Reflection: After exploring these five contradictions through fictional characters, consider which one most closely mirrors your own struggles as a writer. Reflect on how this contradiction manifests in your writing process and what insights or strategies the corresponding character's scenario might offer.
Tags: writing process, contradictions, fiction, characterization, reflection, insight
Category: Manage Projects > Cultivate Your Audience
Example:
Perfectionism vs. Productivity:
Lila's fingers hovered over the keyboard as the seconds ticked by. She had reread the email several times and adjusted the wording, but she couldn't bring herself to type out the response just yet. It had to be polite, informative, and concise. When she finally hit send she felt like something had just gone irrevocably wrong.
Her supervisor walked over and stood beside her desk. “Why are you logged out of the phones?”
“Sorry, I was trying to concentrate on something.” She reached over and punched a button on the phone which immediately started ringing.
Planning vs. Spontaneity:
Ethan stared at the sketches laid out before him. The lines were fluid and rhythmic. The color scheme popped. The style was rich with detail but immediately recognizable. Moreover, he’d had fun drawing the sketches, and they were better than anything he’d ever produced.
So why had the client rejected the sketches? He decided to reread the design brief. He found it along with the contract in a drawer. “I probably should have looked this over a couple more times.”
Inspiration vs. Discipline:
Mara's eyes sparkled with excitement as the idea for her history project took shape in her mind. She couldn't wait to dive in and bring it to life. But as the days passed and the deadline loomed closer, her initial burst of inspiration faded. She found herself dragging her feet, putting off the work until the last minute.
Her mother found her the next morning asleep at the kitchen table with construction paper glued to her cheek, and her hand stretched out toward a half-finished diorama.
Ambition vs. Execution:
Nikhil's heart raced as he pictured himself crossing the finish line of the upcoming half-marathon. For some reason his imagination had him dragging in at last place while an elderly couple waited to cheer him. Such a nice couple, he thought.
“You didn’t make it,” the old man said.
“You died 10 miles back,” the old woman said. “It’s time to cross over, Nikhil.”
“So, I ran the last 10 miles without my body?”
“Yes,” said the man. “And you still came in last place.”
Nikhil realized his imagination was running away again, but he had lost all will to put on his sneakers.
Admiration vs. Exposure:
Jasmine slipped onto the bus, her heart humming with the secret thrill of last night’s applause still ringing in her ears. She sank into a seat, her gaze catching a man's steady stare. Did he recognize her from her performance, or maybe the videos she’d been posting online? Her stomach knotted with tension.
She tried not to glance his way, but she couldn’t stop checking again and again, noting every time that he still had his eyes on her.
As the bus jolted to a stop, the man stood, unfolding a white cane with a practiced flick. Jasmine’s breath caught as she realized he was blind. His eyes, which seemed to bore into her, were simply fixed in the space she had occupied.
A wave of relief washed over her, mingled with an odd pang of disappointment.
Personal Reflection: Lila's struggle with perfectionism resonates most strongly with my own writing process. I often find myself agonizing over every word and phrase, revising and editing endlessly instead of moving forward. Seeing how Lila's perfectionism hinders her productivity and ability to meet the demands of her job is a stark reminder of the costs of this mindset.