Darkside has nothing to do with evil or morality. It has nothing to do with ethics or lack thereof. Darkside is a label attached to psychological material that lies in the shadows of consciousness and even deeper, buried in the unconscious. Your darkside material holds some of the most fertile ground for your writing.
When you deny your darkside, you might well be denying the best parts of you.
When you deny your darkside, you might well be denying the best parts of you.
"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious." ~Carl Jung |
You can call the darkside by a variety of names, including shadow material or disowned material, which means those parts of self that the Inner Critic, deeming them unsuitable for the face that you show to the world, has shunted off into the shadows. In so doing, the Inner Critic has forced you to “disown what could be the truest part of you. For your disowned, shadow or dark side holds some of the most vital parts of what makes you you. In this light, then, you might call your darkside or shadow material your True Self.
This True Self holds a lot of your instinctive, primal material.
It is the part of you that Clarissa Estes says has been “starched out". It is the part of you that knows your creativity is the most passionate part of yourself. It is the part of you that knows how to get down and dirty, the part that has no interest in merely surviving but instead wants you to flourish with the mad abandon of a rose bush flowering with the sheer pleasure of being. It is the part of you that isn’t afraid to claim your body and the passions that lie within.
This True Self holds a lot of your instinctive, primal material.
It is the part of you that Clarissa Estes says has been “starched out". It is the part of you that knows your creativity is the most passionate part of yourself. It is the part of you that knows how to get down and dirty, the part that has no interest in merely surviving but instead wants you to flourish with the mad abandon of a rose bush flowering with the sheer pleasure of being. It is the part of you that isn’t afraid to claim your body and the passions that lie within.
Everyone's darkside is different. You know you are nearing yours when you feel afraid of what you are writing, or you hear you Inner Critic tell you that you what you are writing is bad, stupid, hurtful to others, etc.
Learning how to work with your darkside in fiction writing is challenging and immensely liberating. Explore my coaching programs to find out how I can help you explore your darkside and liberate the writer in you!
Learning how to work with your darkside in fiction writing is challenging and immensely liberating. Explore my coaching programs to find out how I can help you explore your darkside and liberate the writer in you!