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Categories :: Advice Articles |
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 Category :: Advice |
Author :: Steven Barnes  |
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| Article Title :: Calling All Writers--It's Party Time! |
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"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I
am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
The dedicated writing student must continually search for tools
to explore the core balance of plot, character, and poetics,
multiple ways of climbing the great, misty mountain called
story. But the major difference between Lifewritingâ„¢ and other
systems is that we concentrate on the tools from writing that
also help us understand our lives...or the tools from psychology
or spiritual disciplines that help us understand our craft.
With that in mind, the Parts Party from Ericksonian hypnosis is
worth exploring. The "Parts Party" is a powerful tool created by
Carol Erickson, the daughter of Milton Erickson, the master
hypnotist largely responsible for legitimizing hypnosis in the
therapeutic community. Basically, the Parts Party technique is
used with a client who lacks access to her own internal
resources, or is dealing with values conflicts. Placed in
trance, the client is invited to imagine a cocktail party. Each
"guest" is a personification of a different aspects--or
"parts"-- of her personality. In other words, "Ambition"? Meet
"Compassion." "Passion"? Meet "Self-Respect." The therapist can
then engage in what is called "Zero Content Therapy" where a
client is led to heal herself without specific intervention.
An example would be a client of mine who was terrified to
perform in a singing competition, despite months of practice.
The competition would begin in mere hours, and I was brought in
as a last-ditch emergency effort. I placed her in a trance, and
established a communications signal--raising the right finger
for a "yes" and the left for a "no." Then I invited her to
imagine a party, at which among the guests she would find
Ambition, Fear, The Artist, Her Younger Self, and Her Future
Self. I impressed upon her that the nausea and shaking she
experienced when contemplating her performance was just her own
inner guardians trying to protect her. And yet, there was
another part of her that truly, deeply, wanted to prepare for a
singing career. I suggested that if there was a way for her to
satisfy the need for safety and also enjoy performing, that that
would be a desirable outcome. Then I asked her future self--the
one who was a professional singer (her goal) to hostess the
party, to introduce the various aspects to one another, and then
to let them talk it out.
After ten minutes, she signaled that the conversation was over,
I brought her out of the trance--and she jumped up and said
"let's do it!" with a verve I'd never seen from her. She blew
the roof off at the recital! I never asked her exactly what
conversation had gone on...in fact, it was none of my business.
A story is much the same. As one famous writing technique says,
"A story is an argument in a story mind." In other words, every
secondary character exists as a shadow aspect of the main
character's personality. If the conflicts between them can be
resolved, the character gets to move to the next level of her
life. Seen this way, in The Godfather, various characters
represent Michael Corleone's ambition, love for family,
spirituality, venality, passion, homicidal nature, and so forth.
Watching these different aspects "work out" their differences is
a fascinating process, leading ultimately to Michael's utter
defeat and destruction at the end of the third film.
As you craft a film, book, or story, looking at it as a "Parts
Party" can be an extremely useful tool. It also allows you to
enter the realm of the most primal and powerful story, the
Therapeutic Metaphor, where a story is structured to create a
change in the mind of the reader or viewer. Here is the
suggestion: write your first draft with no concern for anything
but story and character.
Then, in the process of re-write, search for meaning. Try to
gain a sense of what your unconscious mind was up to, what you
were trying to say. What is your thesis and counter-thesis? Once
this has been determined, look at your characters again. Who is
the main character? What aspects of her personality might the
other characters represent? Now the conflicts between them can
be seen as external versions of the internal struggles we all
endure as we try to change, grow, and heal. Those actions and
words can provide the lessons necessary to grow (remember the
gathering of Allies and Powers on the Hero's Journey?)
Your character may succeed, or may fail. Or may fail to get what
they want, and instead get what they need. These are your
choices, based upon your beliefs about human nature and the
ethical structure of the universe. Controlling the secret
meaning of your subsidiary characters can be an incredibly
powerful way of creating meaning and emotional depth to your
work...and speaking to your reader's deeper consciousness
without being polemical.
When you do this, there is another wonderful result. You are
also speaking to yourself, your own inner wisdom. And you
develop sensitivity to the multitudes within us all. During
quiet moments of meditation, or in the "hypnogogic" state
between waking and sleep, you will hear voices within you. How
powerful it can be to identify the voices as aspects of our
personalities as well as positive or negative figures from our
past! This approach is perfect for Lifewritingâ„¢ because it
allows a writer to strengthen the connection between the inner
and outer worlds. When you look at your craft in this fashion,
everything that you do to improve and heal yourself
automatically makes you a better writer...and everything you
write automatically increases your integration as a human being.
And that is a worthy goal. THAT is Lifewritingâ„¢.
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