National Opposites Day!

Opposites! What a great tool to use in writing. I love utilizing opposite personalities in writing; they bring depth in the duality of criminals, lovers, landscapes, and friendships. With characters, opposites allow for tension, conflict, layers of growth, emotion and, inevitably, uncontrollable spirals into disaster, romance or both.

Thinking and writing about opposites is, I think, easier than writing about similarities. Similarities in siblings, twins, triplets, even similar best friends requires concentration and nuance that is difficult to find, create, tweak and also continue the interest of the reader. Opposites allow you to go bigger and to show the vastness of potential in characters, offering the ability to dig deeper with layers of tension and release, controversy, storied relationships, betrayal, forgiveness and paths to redemption. Adding these layers allows us to craft more nuanced criminals and to better develop the psychology behind their crimes. In civil rivalries, friendships, even romance, there is greater potential for playing with the fine line between love and hate, friendships and rivalries. It allows us to bring discontent, deceit, betrayal, infidelity, disloyalty and other situational devices to add change to the landscapes, locations, actions, development and challenge to relationships between characters.

Let's look for opposites in art and literature!

For me, opposites allow the exploration of different views, opinions, perspectives, and a number of possible outcomes with varying futures and successes to each character and to every story. Most of all it allows us, the writer, to get into the world of our characters and to explore or inhibit the view of the reader by crafting the story's complexities of character growth, failures, successes and relationships in a way that cultivates and shares the joy of the quest.

I love opposites. Both in life and in writing, they open doors for potential and exploration in all areas of life and in writing. So today, on National Opposite Day, embrace and treasure the opposites that you find in life and in reading. Try something new! Wear opposite colored socks. Do something incongruous in your daily routine. Pack your kids an "opposite lunch" where they have half breakfast and half lunch. Instead of milk chocolate, try white chocolate. Instead of serving dinner, have breakfast! Do something outlandishly opposite today and make it fun!

Until next time

M. G.