Could your Character Have a Projection Problem?

Frances G. Wickes, in her "The Inner World of Choice", has sparked a possible flaw I could write for one of my characters in "Hada's Fog". She explains how projection is another enemy of choice. So I got to thinking about another relationship interplay for my novel.

One character, the projector, is unable to take responsibility for his actions and the consequences in his life. He blames others and projects on his brother what he cannot accept in himself. He, the projector, is having a personality meltdown but tells his parents that his brother is going crazy.

I have not written that he will realize his wrongdoings by the end of the novel. I'm saving his transformation for the sequel. But what is interesting in what Wickes explained is that the interplay between the projector and the object (his brother)involves the object opening the door to the "projected image". She says "When we see two people caught in this confusion of unconscious interrelatedness we know that each has left a door unlocked: for if the projection encountered a locked door, it would, like a boomerang, return to the projector."

I have made the brother the perfect person but now I have his flaw. He opened the door for the projector to inflict the projection upon him. Hurray, he will be more believable now.

Wickes has helped me see how to bring about the projector's change in the sequel. She says that when one, either the projector or the object, "has the courage to cut himself free, the other may, through a strange synchronistic happening, find that the bond is mysteriously broken in himself also." The brother will break free from the inferiority dominance of the projector and then, the projector will have an opportunity to redeem himself.

Thank you, Frances!

Reading isn't What It Used to Be

Thanks to Patrick Von Wiegandt, conference recorder extraordinaire, I listen to speakers from the San Francisco Writers Conference on the CDs he sends me in record time. I miss half of the conference presentations because I work the registration desk.

Lolly Winston's key note on Saturday is one I didn't hear until Friday in the car on my way to observe a teacher intern. Mesmerized by her talk, I had to have her book, GOOD GRIEF, as soon as possible. I had just enough time to stop at my favorite book store where I found one copy was left on the shelf. I pounced on it and couldn't wait to begin reading it.

I've marked it up already but realized I have to have a code:

Mem meaning good for reference in my memoir

Blog obviously good tips for this blog

Class to squeeze into the handouts for the two writing classes I teach. And BD Class is to put on the board for discussion with the class.

Sometimes I draw a smiley face for my reader self to remember to stop worrying about the codes and enjoy the book.

Enemies of Choice

In Frances G. Wickes' book, "The Inner World of Choice", she writes in Chapter Four, "As we enter the country of the enemies of choice, we find ourselves in gray mists where ghosts wander over the waters of unconsciousness."

She tells of a child's dream in which a Tall White Ghost held magnets that "lured his conscious energy away from the tasks of the day into a world of daydream" until he was saved by a God that "takes you and cleans away all your ghosts". Later she explains that "It was the crocodile god, Inertia, who gave the magnet to the Tall White Ghost." Inertia is a powerful enemy of choice.

Wickes had the advantage of a long, successful career as a psychotherapist with "micro parables" as they're called in the Foreword written by Henry A. Murray. She uses those "micro myths" with metaphors to illustrate conflict-settling decisions. Each example she gives could be a story prompt, a tempting distraction from my memoir.

Do you Underline, Highlight, Circle, Make Margin Notes?

When I read, I have a pencil ready to underline, circle, and make margin notations. I've left my mark on every book I've read. Currently, I'm underlining Frances G. Wickes' "The Inner World of Choice". There's very few sentences I haven't indicated as important.

Her book is one of several I'm collecting concerning theories about the main topic in my memoir. My working title is "The End of Choice". Ideas float in my head and I capture them in my notes. I have a recorder in my car for spontaneous insights, yet how to compile them into a page turner is the trick. So, I make sure I meet with Wickes for an hour most mornings to read, to mark, and to absorb. She was eighty-seven years old when she wrote this book in 1963 and updated in 1988. Every page is poetic, heartfelt, and valuable to my topic. She intersperses dreams she analyzed for her clients and uses them to build a multi-layered concept that makes total sense. And, best of all, I look forward to reading the next chapter in the treasured time I've scheduled with her.

Tips for Writing Essays

Dinty W. Moore in "Crafting the Personal Essay", gives quick tips for writing essays.

One is "to explore those areas that you truly don't understand. If you already firmly believe that something is wrong, then you will discover very little putting your convictions into an essay. (Write a letter to the editor instead.) If you know that you are entirely in favor of something, then why put forth the effort to dissect and explore?"

Later he gives a second tip. "Before writing, make a list of all of the common points-the cliches and usual turns of discussion--around the topic you are exploring. Then write an essay using none of those common points."

His third tip is "Tackle something so vexing that in the end you wind up surprising yourself."

Conference Inspiration

My memoir percolates now and then, but since the San Francisco Writers Conference, it's boiling, demanding attention. I have four novels in various stages and a Dublin Class Anthology in progress,but trepidation sets in when I think of doing a book length memoir.

I'm researching "how to" while I carry a large Mark Hopkins Hotel writing tablet up and down the two stories in my house, taking notes as they flash in my mind. For a week after the conference I stayed up until midnight working on it. Now the notes wait to be combined into links between the short story excerpts that will be interspersed to make my point. But honing the point is the problem.

Maybe I should create a character to help me. Since I rely on my characters to write my novels, maybe they can write my memoir too.

Good Advice

Dinty W. Moore says,

"Most writers, beginning and accomplished, are just too hard on themselves...Be hard on your sentences, be hard on your paragraphs, be ceaseless and unrelenting in your revisions, but stop questioning your ability to be a writer."



P.S. Members of the Dublin Writing Class, what rhetorical device did he use?