The Universe Experiencing Itself

I've heard it said that "you are the universe experiencing itself." It was always an interesting thing to hear, but it took quite a while before it finally sank in. When I finally 'got it', it was an amazing realization.

As an individual, we are intimately familiar with ourselves. We hear all of our thoughts and know all of our secrets. But more importantly, we cannot hear anybody else. We are deaf to the rest of humanity, which makes us feel separate and isolated from the universe.

The universe, though, is quite literally everything. Every atom is part of the universe, as are all the things that make up atoms, and all the things that atoms make up. I am as much a part of the universe as a squirrel or a flower or a comet (and so are you). In this context, we are quite literally the universe experiencing itself.

Even in a more simplistic sense, people have a habit of considering themselves separate from the world around them. They work for a company, but they are not part of the dynamic system that is the company. They live in a city, but the city exists whether or not they live there.

Oddly enough, despite how hardwired people are to create communities, humans seem to struggle to see themselves as a crucial component to the make-up of the communities they live in.

You Can't Feel Loved If You Hate Yourself

A common trope I see in stories is a person who hates themselves and really believes that they're worthless, and somehow a dreamy hunk/babe tells them all the right things and everything turns around and is great forever. For the record, this trope annoys the crap out. 

People who really hate themselves have crossed into depression. And as I've said before, depression is an all-consuming negativity. Believing that you are unworthy of happiness is a serious issue, and no single conversation will magically make it go away.

You can't feel loved if you hate yourself. Characters need to have significant experiences and major revelations before they can truly accept another person's love. Otherwise, the all-encompassing negativity of their depression would convince them that nobody else really likes them. And that is the ultimate question: how do you convince a negative person that they do deserve love?

How Would You Spend Your Money?

A simple way to get an idea for a character's motivation is to ask them what they want. This is a question that gets to the core of them as people. If they can tell you what they want out of life, you can keep moving them toward that goal. 

One downside to this question is that a lot of people say "money". Too many characters, especially antagonists, have the desire to acquire money, but that isn't really an answer. Money is a means to an end. If a character wants a lot of money, then ask them, "what would you spend it on?" If they can answer that, then you have their real core. 

Fiction Affects Reality

I think one of the most amazing things is that stories about people who never existed doing things that never happened  actually affects what real people really do. 

There's something special about fiction in that regard. It shows the supreme power of human creation. The things we make change real life. It's easy to understand that when looking at tools or furniture or major inventions like the printing press. But imagine cartoons like Looney Tunes. They changed the world in a massive way, too. 

And beyond that, you don't need to change the world to affect lives. You could write a poem or a short story that one person ever reads, but it will affect that person. Maybe it won't even cause a permanent change, but it will have some effect. They may have a new thought, or understand an old one in a new way, or it may reinforce what they already know. They may use a new word or say something uncommon to them. 

Characters that only exist as ideas in our own heads can change us as much as flesh and blood human beings, sometimes even more. It is an incredible power to be able to wield. Use it responsibly. 

Method Writing

In Method Acting, actors create a powerful bond between themselves and the characters they play. In doing so, the actor can be lost within the character. The same can happen with writers and their characters. 

It can be a powerful and intense experience writing characters. You spend a great deal of time inside people's heads during the most pivotal times in their lives. To spend so much time and energy creating them and making their lives and adventures, it can be easy to lose yourself in those characters. 

It may not necessarily be a bad thing as far as writing goes. It's certainly a sign of a thorough understanding of your characters. Just make sure that when you put your pen down, you can return to being yourself. 

Everything Can Be Positive Or Negative

In my last post, I talked about how depression is a mental state where everything is seen negatively. This sheds light on a larger concept. Everything can be positive or negative. And, more accurately, everything can be looked at positively or negatively. 

This means that happiness is an outlook. It's how we choose to see the world. And it explains how we have sayings like "every cloud has a silver lining." How you choose to see the world affects how it is. 

Explore the differences that occur when people have the same experiences, but approach them with different outlooks. 

The Power Of Depression

Depression is an all-consuming negativity. This is not something to say lightly. It's more than being sad. And it's more than being negative. People in a bad mood can be turned around. Sad people can be made happy. People feeling negative can be shown positivity. But depression is a whole other entity. 

Turning negativity around can be as simple as getting somebody to laugh at a stupid joke or reminding them of all the happiness in their lives. But when somebody is depressed, they are immovable. Your jokes aren't funny to them. Their happy memories are illusory and fleeting. Reminding them of good times only makes then harp further on bad times. 

Depression is some seriously scary shit. It is a mental block, or perhaps a filter, and it is certainly not how the mind should operate. And because of all of this, it is something that should be explored, both from a person experiencing it, and from an outsider looking in and seeing it happen to somebody else.