WEBVTT

1
00:00:31.270 --> 00:00:46.210
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome everyone welcome. We will begin in just a moment if you can see and hear me. Please drop your name and location in the chat. Oh, thank you. Everyone's already doing that

2
00:00:46.350 --> 00:01:02.390
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: great. I see some repeat names, of course. and people from all over the globe. We just love seeing that I'm gonna drop some special links into the chat for you now.

3
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:25.569
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Alright. So I just have a few quick housekeeping items to go over with you first off. I'm Michelle. Welcome to Science Fiction writers Week. We are so happy to have you here for another session, and we're super excited about this session today. Just a few notes before we begin

4
00:01:25.710 --> 00:01:46.419
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: your replays. So these can be found on the Hub page with all of your other links slides any available special offers from our speakers will be on the Hub page, and the replays will be available to watch until September 20 eighth, so feel free to watch those as many times as you'd like.

5
00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:51.430
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: After that date they will be removed and will be housed in prorating Academy.

6
00:01:53.060 --> 00:02:17.249
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Our offer for you for attending Science Fiction writers. Week with us is 40% off pro writing aid premium yearly plans. So if you have been thinking of upgrading, now is a great time to do so. Not only is it a great deal, but it also helps us continue to put on events like these for free, which we really love being able to do for our community. So if you would like to take advantage of that offer.

7
00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:26.049
you can find the details for that in the hub as well, and that is also good until September the 20 eighth. So be sure to check that out.

8
00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:55.349
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: If you would like to keep the Science fiction, writing, conversation, going. We'd love to have you over in our private online writing. Community joining is super simple. You log in using the link provided with your pro writing aid account details, and it lets you write in, and then you can find us over in the live event chat. Talking about the sessions that are happening this week talking some fun science fiction things, and more. So please join us over there and check out those threads

9
00:02:55.830 --> 00:03:04.730
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: reminders for this session. If you have a question for our speaker, please use the QA. Box, as you can see, the chat moves very quickly.

10
00:03:04.770 --> 00:03:21.429
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and we it's hard to keep up with the questions in the chat, but if you put them in the QA. We have them all ready to go, so we will hopefully have a nice little chunk of time for questions at the end. So, as our speaker is presenting, please feel free to drop them there.

11
00:03:21.610 --> 00:03:32.929
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: If you'd like to chat with other attendees. Please feel free. Be sure that the drop-down menu above your text box, says everyone, otherwise your messages will only come to the hosts.

12
00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.849
So with that being said.

13
00:03:36.490 --> 00:04:06.819
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: we are ready to begin. Thank you again for joining us, and I am so happy to introduce our speaker today we have Eileen Cook. Here she is a multi published award, winning author with her novels appearing in 9 languages. Her books have been optioned for film, and TV. She spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is a great training for a writer. She's an instructor and mentor with the Creative Academy and Simon Fraser, university writers, studio program.

14
00:04:07.970 --> 00:04:12.479
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Oop my screen. Just went away. Hold on everyone. So sorry.

15
00:04:15.190 --> 00:04:16.670
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Okay, we're back.

16
00:04:17.170 --> 00:04:29.030
Michelle @ ProWritingAid:  where she loves helping other writers find their unique story to tell. Eileen lives in Vancouver with 2 very naughty dogs, and we are so happy to have her here. Welcome, Eileen.

17
00:04:30.330 --> 00:04:46.509
Eileen Cook: thank you so much. I had so much fun actually watching the chat window go by, and being like I visited that place, or I have family there. So it's really exciting to see people from so many different locations. That's incredible. So I'm really excited to be here.

18
00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:50.399
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: I will just be hanging out in the background and take it away.

19
00:04:50.490 --> 00:04:51.640
Eileen Cook: Alright.

20
00:04:51.770 --> 00:05:19.599
Eileen Cook: I'm really excited to be here, and I think, partly because I find the topic of setting really interesting. And I think in a lot of forms of fiction setting is overlooked. And that almost never happens in Science Fiction, because many of you are in it in part for that world building and the chance to sort of create those brave new worlds. I know there have been some really great workshops on here. There was one earlier today by world annual

21
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:37.260
Eileen Cook: that talked about sort of world building in space. So you'll be able to check that out and I know there's another one coming up on Thursday as well. So you're gonna wanna check that out. So what I wanted to do was talk about something in a little bit of a different perspective. So I wanna talk about setting as it relates to your character.

22
00:05:37.910 --> 00:05:51.239
Eileen Cook: So to give you some background. My educational background is in counseling and psychology, and I actually worked for 20 years as a therapist, specializing in people with catastrophic injuries or illness.

23
00:05:51.420 --> 00:06:01.689
Eileen Cook: And one of the things that they drive home when you work as a therapist is that it's not what happens to people. It's the story that people tell themselves about what happened.

24
00:06:01.700 --> 00:06:14.759
Eileen Cook: and it's that internal narrative, that sort of drives them forward in fictional terms. What that means is, it doesn't necessarily matter what happens to your character. It's the story they tell themselves.

25
00:06:14.940 --> 00:06:29.400
Eileen Cook: and in terms of setting what I'm gonna try and convince you over the next hour that we have together is that it's not the world building that you're doing. It's how your character fits or doesn't fit into that world.

26
00:06:29.420 --> 00:06:58.150
Eileen Cook: So when we talk about space. And by space, I mean just actually physical space, not the final frontier is whether or not we feel comfortable or not comfortable in that space what we assume about people who are in different types of spaces, how our view about those spaces can change. And it's going to sort of give you hopefully some grounding that you can use to make some prompts and some ideas for your story.

27
00:06:58.520 --> 00:07:20.120
Eileen Cook: Now, because I work as a therapist, you'll see that I'm going to give you a lot of questions that I want you to think on now, because we only have an hour together. I'm not going to leave you a lot of time to be doing any writing but I hoping that you're going to write down some responses, and I'd love to hear from some of you. Whether or not those are helpful for you as you go forward.

28
00:07:21.750 --> 00:07:34.429
Eileen Cook: So this is what I was talking about. It's not what happens to the character. It's the story that they tell themselves, and it's going to be the interaction about how people fit into their setting around them.

29
00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:52.389
Eileen Cook: So there's 4 different levels of setting that I'm gonna talk about and just sort of give you some insight into. So the world, the community personal space and someone's mind. So I just wanna give you a brief understanding of each. And then we're gonna dig into each one of these.

30
00:07:52.390 --> 00:08:16.749
Eileen Cook: So when I talk about world, I'm talking about the biggest global universal on the case of Science Fiction. That your story is set within. So it may be a dystopian future. It may be a fantasy world. If we're just talking about playing Earth. Then that would be the world that we're talking about. It's that largest level.

31
00:08:17.190 --> 00:08:32.989
Eileen Cook: The community is the spaces where your character hangs out. So this is the local canteen. It's where they work. They may have a tiny bit of control over this space, but it's a little bit more limited. It's where they're spending a lot of time

32
00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:54.059
Eileen Cook: personal spaces, exactly what it sounds like. So that is their private space. But I want you to keep in mind that private space has even levels within it. So if you think of your own home? There's your living room where you have a space that you are focused on, that you might invite other people into.

33
00:08:54.060 --> 00:09:05.400
Eileen Cook: And then there might be a even more private private space, or if you grew up with siblings, even your room may not have been your space individually right.

34
00:09:05.530 --> 00:09:08.030
Eileen Cook: So all of that will go into it.

35
00:09:08.290 --> 00:09:22.180
Eileen Cook: And don't worry actually at all. I saw in the question in terms of like, What if you have more than one protagonist. We're going to be talking about each one of these characters and how they intersect with that space, and we'll be giving you some hopefully, some jumping off parts to go with.

36
00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:37.750
Eileen Cook: Also, when I talk about personal space, I'm going to get into things that are some things you might not think of as setting so often times some secondary characters, or the people around us are a part of that personal space. They make up sort of that backdrop

37
00:09:38.140 --> 00:10:01.240
Eileen Cook: clothing is another thing that I sort of talk about in terms of setting dealing with personal space, because it is a part of how we present ourselves to the world. And then the last sort of personal space that we talk about is actually within our minds. And now this is all because I come from a therapeutic background. So my interest is always how

38
00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:03.319
Eileen Cook: how we see the world

39
00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:17.640
Eileen Cook: colors, how we interact within that world. So that's where that's coming from all right. So now let's get into some of these and have some sort of fun with it. Now, when we talk about the world

40
00:10:17.930 --> 00:10:28.170
Eileen Cook: this is often what we think about. Most often when we talk about world building. So certainly, when people are sort of diving into doing some science fiction writing. This is part of the

41
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:32.309
Eileen Cook: fun that you have, which is, what is this world look like

42
00:10:32.790 --> 00:10:40.520
Eileen Cook: now, the thing to think about in terms of your character's perspective is that this is the world that they inhabit.

43
00:10:40.720 --> 00:11:01.279
Eileen Cook: They pretty much have to live within this world. This isn't usually a chance of something that you you can't leave Earth. Some of us may want to depending what's happening in terms of your own personal corner of it. But we don't at least at this point, have much of an option to get out of this global situation.

44
00:11:01.470 --> 00:11:12.580
Eileen Cook: Now it is a little bit smaller in terms of you can also think of terms of what country? In terms of you know, our current earth that we were looking at. You're gonna have to

45
00:11:12.780 --> 00:11:21.879
Eileen Cook: expand that to make sense within your world. But it's it's the place where you live that you have very little choice about.

46
00:11:23.110 --> 00:11:29.259
Eileen Cook: So here's the fun that starts to come when we start talking about this in terms of character development?

47
00:11:29.310 --> 00:11:35.969
Eileen Cook: Right? So what does your character think of the larger world that they live in.

48
00:11:36.130 --> 00:11:49.750
Eileen Cook: So if I use a Star Wars example because I am of that era, and that's what I grew up with. The original 3 movies. Is is this someone who is on the side of the Empire? Or is this someone who is on the side of the rebellion?

49
00:11:49.950 --> 00:11:55.639
Eileen Cook: We all exist within. What world we have, and where do we fit into that

50
00:11:57.070 --> 00:12:07.570
Eileen Cook: now? Where did your character come to that belief about the world? So let's go back to that whole idea of the Empire versus the Rebellion.

51
00:12:08.350 --> 00:12:14.320
Eileen Cook: Part of where we get those views is the old nature. Nurture thing is what we grow up with.

52
00:12:14.390 --> 00:12:24.840
Eileen Cook: So if you grew up as a kid who was the child of one of the generals in the Emperor, you would be saying.

53
00:12:24.910 --> 00:12:34.999
Eileen Cook: This is a good thing, because that's everything that you're hearing about. This is a great, the Empire's fantastic. The Emperor does a great job. Those rebels are horrible.

54
00:12:35.390 --> 00:12:40.149
Eileen Cook: right? You can certainly think in terms of your own politics that you grew up within your home.

55
00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:44.849
Eileen Cook: There's a period of time where you then may start to question that

56
00:12:45.400 --> 00:12:49.350
Eileen Cook: so? Is that something that's going to happen in your story

57
00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:59.900
Eileen Cook: is your character, whether that's one or multiple protagonists having a moment where their perspective of the world that they live in

58
00:13:00.040 --> 00:13:01.560
Eileen Cook: is changing.

59
00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:20.859
Eileen Cook: So I'm gonna give just a personal example. I grew up in the Us. I now live in Canada. I grew up in the Us. And I grew up with a military dad. Long term military family, and everything was America is the best country in the world. I grew up with that I had 0. Doubts of that. I actually assume the rest of the world thought that.

60
00:13:20.870 --> 00:13:34.880
Eileen Cook: And it wasn't until I actually moved to Canada. And then eventually, I lived in Europe for a period of time that I started to understand that not everybody saw things from the perspective that I had.

61
00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:38.409
Eileen Cook: that the world was a little bit different.

62
00:13:38.810 --> 00:13:39.810
Eileen Cook: Right?

63
00:13:40.550 --> 00:13:56.889
Eileen Cook: Is something happened, maybe, before your story even opens that has changed the perspective of your character. So maybe they were someone who thought that the Empire was fantastic. And then, before something happened, their family was carted off

64
00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:09.710
Eileen Cook: right, and now their world is suddenly like, wait a minute. That has changed. Right? So what is that shift that has happened that might have changed their belief about the world?

65
00:14:10.870 --> 00:14:24.199
Eileen Cook: Here's some fun things to think about when we get back to as Neoc was talking about having multiple different protagonists is. are they? Suddenly maybe meeting people who see different parts of the world.

66
00:14:24.210 --> 00:14:31.569
Eileen Cook: So someone who is saying to them, Hey, actually, the Empire! Isn't that great right? It's not

67
00:14:31.900 --> 00:14:46.979
Eileen Cook: sorry to tell you that, Chris, all right. So it's not the best. And here's something that you may not be aware of. Did you know that this is happening? So there may be something of the world that your character sees that other characters don't see.

68
00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:57.279
Eileen Cook: And that's where you're gonna have some wonderful conflict, because when we don't see the world in the same way, something that I take for granted that is 100% fact and true

69
00:14:57.350 --> 00:15:00.499
Eileen Cook: may not, in fact, be fact and true.

70
00:15:01.510 --> 00:15:05.979
Eileen Cook: this may be part of the arc that you have in your story.

71
00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:26.599
Eileen Cook: Right? So your character may be going from someone, and I promise I will have other than Star Wars references. But your character may be going from someone who is the child of a general in the Empire, and who is 100%. The Empire is the best when the entire world Galaxy's case may be, and then maybe shifting and changing that perspective.

72
00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:32.509
Eileen Cook: right? So there's going to be a shift that happens for them. That may be part of it.

73
00:15:34.540 --> 00:15:56.350
Eileen Cook: In most cases most of us don't have a lot of control over the larger world now depending on your character, especially in Science Fiction, you may have a character who has that kind of world-changing kinds of situations, but most characters starting off rarely. Well.

74
00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:00.379
Eileen Cook: alright. I just want to go one level down here.

75
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.060
Eileen Cook: and we're going to talk about community.

76
00:16:04.590 --> 00:16:15.639
Eileen Cook: So when we go from the world now, we're just narrowing down a little bit, right? So we're narrowing down into the places that your character hangs out.

77
00:16:15.700 --> 00:16:35.519
Eileen Cook: so the town that they live in the neighborhood that they do the places where they spend time? Right? So where do they work? Where do they socialize? Where do they go shopping? Do they any kind of sporting events. Right? What are those spaces that they inhabit?

78
00:16:35.650 --> 00:16:40.600
Eileen Cook: Now, this is where you might actually start to have a little bit more control? Right?

79
00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:50.429
Eileen Cook: We have some decisions about where we spend our time, and so, understanding that the reader is going to make some judgments

80
00:16:50.640 --> 00:16:56.650
Eileen Cook: about your character, depending on where they spend their time

81
00:16:57.110 --> 00:17:02.210
Eileen Cook: right? And what do we assume about them, based on where they're spending that time?

82
00:17:04.089 --> 00:17:15.649
Eileen Cook: Now, this is often a place where you're seeing a lot of change over the arc of a story, and by that what I mean is, you have a situation where a character may be starting off in one place.

83
00:17:15.760 --> 00:17:24.989
Eileen Cook: and then transporting and going to different places. So again, going back to our favorite here, our Star Wars, Luke starts off on Tatuine

84
00:17:25.050 --> 00:17:33.669
Eileen Cook: right? This is really the only world that he has ever known. Right, and he is going to. Suddenly one get off the farm.

85
00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:57.549
Eileen Cook: which is always a good idea, in my opinion, get off the farm. He's gonna go into town. He's gonna start going to places like the cantina. He's gonna start to expand his world. And then, obviously, after this point, he's actually gonna leave this planet altogether and travel to different places. So that whole idea of a fish out of water right? But someone is going to go from where they are to a new place.

86
00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:03.450
So really fun things to think about under this heading. When you think about your character

87
00:18:03.520 --> 00:18:15.429
Eileen Cook: is, where is your character? Happy? And where is your character? Feeling relaxed versus what spaces do they not feel comfortable or relaxed within?

88
00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:30.229
Eileen Cook: So I pull here, obviously a slide from the cantina scene that happens in that Star Wars movie. And you can look at sort of the differences between how those characters interact within that. So if you look at Luke

89
00:18:30.250 --> 00:18:44.090
Eileen Cook: when he's coming into that scene, he's looking all around. He's sort of his mouth is hanging open. He can't quite believe what he's seeing. He feels uncomfortable. He feels out of edge. All of that is happening for him.

90
00:18:44.280 --> 00:18:55.990
Eileen Cook: Then you shoot over and you're looking at Han Solo. He's having a very different experience, right? This is a place where he feels comfortable and relaxed. These are his people

91
00:18:56.210 --> 00:19:01.460
Eileen Cook: right? And then, if you look at ob one, it's again even a little bit different.

92
00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:09.250
Eileen Cook: So I want you to think and make yourself a list of what spaces, your character hangs out.

93
00:19:09.630 --> 00:19:15.910
Eileen Cook: and are they comfortable in those spaces, or are they uncomfortable in those spaces?

94
00:19:16.490 --> 00:19:20.160
Eileen Cook: Are there spaces that are going to change?

95
00:19:20.830 --> 00:19:25.120
Are there places where they hang out. But now they're going to go to different places.

96
00:19:25.850 --> 00:19:30.889
Eileen Cook: Are their views of those places going to change

97
00:19:31.290 --> 00:19:41.159
Eileen Cook: right? So if you are someone who is very comfortable in this hive of scum and infamy, as Casey so wonderfully put it.

98
00:19:41.300 --> 00:19:44.999
Does that change by the end of your story?

99
00:19:45.340 --> 00:19:52.429
Eileen Cook: Would Han Solo feel as comfortable in this space, once he has become a part of the rebellion.

100
00:19:52.470 --> 00:20:03.519
Eileen Cook: So at 1 point he felt very comfortable and at home in a very morally flexible hanging out kind of socializing place. But that may change.

101
00:20:04.100 --> 00:20:16.330
Eileen Cook: You can certainly think in terms of also your own spaces, where you might have hung out, or a place where you spend time when you are a high schooler.

102
00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:18.810
Eileen Cook: or when you were younger

103
00:20:18.890 --> 00:20:22.439
versus where you would spend time now

104
00:20:22.710 --> 00:20:36.580
Eileen Cook: anyone who ever became a parent knows that they might go from that space to like being totally freaked out being in around a bunch of small kids, and then suddenly finding themselves at home and comfortable in that space.

105
00:20:36.840 --> 00:20:50.300
Eileen Cook: So the biggest thing isn't so much the space. But what does your character. Think about that, because the reader is going to be taking a lot from that right. They're going to be making assumptions about your character.

106
00:20:50.700 --> 00:21:02.849
Eileen Cook: and you can show the changes that your character is going through by showing how they feel comfortable or uncomfortable in a particular space.

107
00:21:03.050 --> 00:21:08.319
Eileen Cook: So that's where we get this idea of showing that character arc

108
00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:20.399
Eileen Cook: exactly. I saw in the chat when it goes by that first day of school versus the last day of school. There's been a change in who you are. The setting is the same, the school is the same.

109
00:21:20.430 --> 00:21:31.329
Eileen Cook: I don't know if anyone has ever had the experience of going back to. Maybe I went back to my high school to do a school presentation. I hadn't been back there, and let's just say some amount of time.

110
00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:40.820
Eileen Cook: and the school was in so many ways exactly the same. The building was the same. but I was so different

111
00:21:40.840 --> 00:21:44.980
that suddenly I remembered the school as being huge

112
00:21:45.220 --> 00:21:56.839
Eileen Cook: and large like. I remembered. The walk between my locker to the cafeteria was miles long, and it it really wasn't. So. The building didn't shrink.

113
00:21:57.120 --> 00:22:03.930
Eileen Cook: I've changed. My perspective of the world has changed. So, thinking about

114
00:22:04.050 --> 00:22:07.469
what spaces your character inhabits.

115
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:20.240
Eileen Cook: you can also have some fun. I love conflict, right. So thinking about, is there a space where someone feels very comfortable? Do you need to take that space away from them?

116
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:28.989
So speaking of burning bridges, if we go here to Star Wars you have Luke Skywalker. He's in tattooed. He lives on a moisture farm.

117
00:22:29.180 --> 00:22:41.899
Eileen Cook: You think he couldn't wait to get off this farm. He talks a lot about how he wants to have this adventure. but the first time that he's asked, Hey, do you want to go do this thing he's like, I can't. I have to stay here.

118
00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:52.879
Eileen Cook: and that's about fear. When we talk about the idea of the hero's journey and the refusal of the call when you hear that term the idea that most of us like our space.

119
00:22:53.280 --> 00:23:10.010
Eileen Cook: certainly during the pandemic, did anyone have a weirdness? Or hopefully, it wasn't just me that when the pandemic sort of started to wane and we could go out again, I felt actually sort of anxious outside of my home space because I had become so ingrained with it.

120
00:23:10.090 --> 00:23:31.529
Eileen Cook: Right? So do you need to take space away from your character? Right? So what happens to Luke Skywalker, of course, is, they actually just set his family on fire. It's like Legit burning the bridge behind him, so he has no choice but to now go out and go out into the world, so you may have to

121
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:36.419
Eileen Cook: launch your character out of a space that they feel comfortable in.

122
00:23:36.770 --> 00:23:50.330
Eileen Cook: or you may have a character who's ready for adventure, who can't wait to get out and go and explore something and do something, so getting them out of their home spaces may not be as difficult because they're ready to go.

123
00:23:50.840 --> 00:24:03.350
Eileen Cook: And then the real question by the end of your book is, is it a space that they want to return to? Or is it that you know you can't go home again, that the space itself is different and has changed?

124
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:10.630
Eileen Cook: Someone may have to leave a space in order to grow. So that's part of it.

125
00:24:13.180 --> 00:24:27.179
Eileen Cook: Now we are going to get into some of my favorite stuff to talk about which is our personal space. So personal space is space that we tend to have much more control about.

126
00:24:27.340 --> 00:24:31.230
Eileen Cook: As I said earlier, it may or may not be completely private.

127
00:24:31.260 --> 00:24:53.169
Eileen Cook: So I have my space one that I have right behind me, because I know it shows up in zoom, so I can guarantee you that space is almost always clean. Now, if you were to go a few feet to the right, you would see possibly some other things that were not as tidy, but I certainly can pick it up quickly, because this is my living room. So people come into this space

128
00:24:54.690 --> 00:24:58.939
Eileen Cook: where we live and what we do with that? Space

129
00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:18.050
Eileen Cook: tells us something about that person. This is why people spend so much effort and energy around decor, and about wanting that space to reflect who they are doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be, quote, unquote, decorated. But we're sending a message.

130
00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:31.750
Eileen Cook: Remember, for me when I was growing up in my culture, where I went to school in Michigan, decorating your school locker was one of those most important things that you did at the beginning of the school year.

131
00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:48.859
Eileen Cook: Right? You had to make sure you had the right band pictures that were in there, right? So if you were me wanted to make sure you had the cure and the smiths, so that anyone who came by knew that you weren't someone who liked Duran Duran right like you had a very clear thing where you wanted to set

132
00:25:49.120 --> 00:25:56.249
Eileen Cook: a example of who you were by how I decorated that tiny personal little space

133
00:25:56.310 --> 00:25:58.250
Eileen Cook: that was mine.

134
00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:10.900
Eileen Cook: I'll give another reference. I wanna take off from Star Wars for a chance. And I'm gonna go from one of my other favorite shows, which is Firefly. Both the movie and the show.

135
00:26:11.030 --> 00:26:21.179
Eileen Cook: but the decision to make serenity. and what that ship looked like versus a sleek

136
00:26:21.420 --> 00:26:28.870
Eileen Cook:  spaceship that we often tend to think of if we think of something like a star trek. Right? Those are both

137
00:26:29.070 --> 00:26:32.440
Eileen Cook: ships. They're both spaceships.

138
00:26:32.520 --> 00:26:43.619
Eileen Cook: and we're making a very distinct difference by how we, as the author, decorate those ships to talk about the world, and about the people who inhabit them.

139
00:26:44.290 --> 00:26:54.049
Eileen Cook: And then we look at terms of even within Firefly. If you look at Anara's quarters versus space that Kaylee occupies

140
00:26:54.230 --> 00:26:58.859
Eileen Cook: right, it's a very different kind of space.

141
00:27:00.780 --> 00:27:10.589
Eileen Cook: So there is often how we might decorate what I'm going to call our private public space and our private private space.

142
00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:22.759
Eileen Cook: So this is thinking in terms of when I was a therapist we always decorated, and we always wanted to make sure that we didn't have anything too personal in our offices

143
00:27:22.900 --> 00:27:25.770
Eileen Cook: right? And we wanted the place to look serene.

144
00:27:25.810 --> 00:27:40.359
Eileen Cook: But then there was often things that we might have within our desk, which mine was always a thing of chaos, right? So there would be a very big difference that would happen in that space. Or you might think of someone who might have a really tidy living room.

145
00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:51.380
Eileen Cook: But if you were to open up their bedroom you might find tons of dishes. You might find all various kinds of things that would make a difference to that.

146
00:27:52.030 --> 00:28:12.829
Eileen Cook: So I haven't forgotten Manson's question, but I'm skipping it for just a moment to kind of go back to this in terms of writing eco fiction and eco fantasy, thinking in terms of what are the spaces that the person may have control over, or what they don't have control over, and what they can do with that space?

147
00:28:13.700 --> 00:28:24.600
Eileen Cook: Right. So even if you say something like an ocean, is this someone who is collecting things within their space of that? What are their options within? That?

148
00:28:25.670 --> 00:28:28.490
Eileen Cook: This is where we often see

149
00:28:28.510 --> 00:28:33.750
Eileen Cook: that makeover montage of space as a part of

150
00:28:34.040 --> 00:28:36.500
Eileen Cook: showing a character change.

151
00:28:36.700 --> 00:28:49.980
Eileen Cook: So I'm going to give a nice Earth example, right. So I want you to imagine that we are making a movie. And in this movie I want to show that the character has been so depressed after a breakup.

152
00:28:50.030 --> 00:29:03.400
Eileen Cook: So we see their apartments. Their apartment is covered in takeout containers. There's laundry draped over the sofa. There's a nice pile of dried and crusty kleenexes at the foot of the person.

153
00:29:03.430 --> 00:29:08.389
Eileen Cook: Right? And we want to show that finally, they're like, that's it. That's enough.

154
00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:14.479
Eileen Cook: Right? So we suddenly see them like they look around, and they are like, I am not this person.

155
00:29:14.540 --> 00:29:29.519
Eileen Cook: And so they suddenly clean that space. They might tear down the picture that belonged to their ex partner. They might realize, you know, I never liked that freaking sofa, and out it goes out the window because they're making a change.

156
00:29:29.610 --> 00:29:40.480
Eileen Cook: so you can use, how the character likes their space, or dislikes their space to show that they want to make a shift in the change.

157
00:29:42.190 --> 00:29:53.589
Eileen Cook: You can also have some conflict with this in terms of is there someone who invades their personal space? Who puts that space at risk?

158
00:29:53.750 --> 00:29:58.169
Eileen Cook: So anyone here gone from living alone to having a partner at any point.

159
00:30:00.220 --> 00:30:22.600
Eileen Cook: And you have this moment where someone says they want to move something into your space. And you're like that does not go into my space right? The running joke is some rundown, you know, easy chair type of thing, right? But something where it's like that's not a thing that I would have in my space, and I now have to negotiate that space with someone else

160
00:30:23.010 --> 00:30:32.279
Eileen Cook: college roommates versus family is a great example. So doing. That kind of what is that going to look like

161
00:30:32.560 --> 00:30:43.700
Eileen Cook: some people? I saw it go by. You know, they have a lot of 6 kids, I would never sleep. They have very little personal space like. Is there a drawer in the house where you keep your secrets?

162
00:30:43.790 --> 00:30:48.739
Eileen Cook: Is there something that is this little tiny part of your space?

163
00:30:50.450 --> 00:30:55.549
Eileen Cook: How does your character feel about that space? Are they proud of that space?

164
00:30:56.070 --> 00:31:18.959
Eileen Cook: You know the character? Are they lying, so are they trying to set up a space that looks a certain way. But it actually isn't who they really are. And how can you show that so is it the person who has the meticulously decorated place. But we see that under their bed there is something that tells us who they truly are

165
00:31:18.970 --> 00:31:19.980
Eileen Cook: right.

166
00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:33.280
Eileen Cook: Mounted dead animals would a hundred be a deal breaker for me as well? Malina. And you can see that people make judgments right. I always have a thing whenever I'm dating anyone. If I go to someone's house and I don't.

167
00:31:33.330 --> 00:31:56.170
Eileen Cook: Don't see books, I think we're not going to get along. Unless they say they have everything on digital. I will consider. But I want to see someone's bookcases, and what kinds of things that they have on the wall when they have the singing fish on the wall. I am making some sort of decision about them as well as it's the total cold and sterile place.

168
00:31:56.560 --> 00:32:12.540
Eileen Cook: So what is the space telling the reader about your character? What do they know about the character because of how that character lives in, decorates and creates the space.

169
00:32:14.250 --> 00:32:23.240
Eileen Cook: Now I'm going to go with something that might be a little bit risky. But I'm going to ask you to think of secondary characters

170
00:32:23.470 --> 00:32:27.879
Eileen Cook: as something that might be part of setting.

171
00:32:28.120 --> 00:32:33.170
Eileen Cook: and that is because we also sort of judge people

172
00:32:33.180 --> 00:32:36.680
Eileen Cook: by the people that they have around them.

173
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:50.999
Eileen Cook: So if I meet you outside of this session, and I say, Oh, I want you to meet my friends, and I take you out, and I take you to a biker bar where everybody has tattoos on their personal face. And it's

174
00:32:51.650 --> 00:33:07.719
Eileen Cook: it's loud, it's smoky. You would be like, Okay. that's interesting. That is not what I expected about that person. You're going to make a decision about me because of those people that I have around me.

175
00:33:08.080 --> 00:33:16.380
Eileen Cook: And now, if I took you to someone else's place, and II have all my friends were members of the Chess Club. That's interesting.

176
00:33:16.850 --> 00:33:29.619
Eileen Cook: And again, we're not all one or the other. I don't know if you have this experience, but certainly I have friends from all different sorts of walks of life, and some of them you might be surprised to find I'm friends with.

177
00:33:29.650 --> 00:33:38.900
Eileen Cook: and some that you wouldn't. But what are the universal things that come back? What are the things that sort of? Tell us something about them.

178
00:33:39.090 --> 00:33:45.590
Eileen Cook: Why does your character hang out with the people they hang out with?

179
00:33:47.550 --> 00:33:51.330
Eileen Cook: Here's a fun and interesting prompt, I think.

180
00:33:51.430 --> 00:33:58.140
Eileen Cook: Which is, is there anyone in your character's life that they are ashamed of?

181
00:33:59.610 --> 00:34:24.810
Eileen Cook: Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's the person who's gone off to college or university, and they are trying to portray themselves as a certain way. And then their parents come up and their parents are telling Corny dad jokes or their parents, and they're suddenly embarrassed by their parents car by what their parents are wearing, and they want to distance themselves from that

182
00:34:24.909 --> 00:34:31.520
Eileen Cook: that can certainly again help us to show character, because we can see

183
00:34:31.969 --> 00:34:35.919
Eileen Cook: that they are ashamed of that person.

184
00:34:36.300 --> 00:34:45.619
Eileen Cook: And then we may be wondering we may judge them for that, and that again may be part of their journey is coming to terms with.

185
00:34:45.710 --> 00:34:49.659
Eileen Cook: and I have a dad who is a goofy dad joke. Central

186
00:34:49.739 --> 00:34:59.560
Eileen Cook: right? Is that as a part of me as much as the friends that I have who might work for NASA. They're very different.

187
00:34:59.710 --> 00:35:01.120
Eileen Cook: But as part of it.

188
00:35:03.090 --> 00:35:29.670
Eileen Cook: So there's that kind of shift between that right. And so Shane may be part of it. Embarrassment may be part of it. You may be collecting people around you, because again, you're trying to portray a particular image, so is your character collecting people because they want to have a certain look to them? Is there something that they want to do without with right?

189
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:58.100
Eileen Cook: I saw that the question came in here like in terms of personal space. Can it be a hangout for the community. Yes, now is, if it's a public hangout. So if the personal spaces my house that I invite everybody over to it, or I have a clubhouse, and I invite all of you guys over to it. That's a personal space. If it is a community center where we all hang out. Then that is a community space.

190
00:35:58.480 --> 00:36:04.840
Eileen Cook: So that's maybe that shifts there a little bit. It depends whether or not we're inviting people into that right?

191
00:36:06.710 --> 00:36:34.959
Eileen Cook: So thinking in terms of what people do we have around them? And this may help. Leticia answered the question, what about personal space where people don't have their space, they've had to leave their space. That was the point of the whole story is, they've launched themselves out of the shire. Right is. Do you remember that? Great George Carlin? Skip where he talks about our stuff? If anyone remembers this, if not, you should look up, George Carlin and stuff.

192
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.300
Eileen Cook: but he talks about. When you go on vacation you pack up all of your stuff.

193
00:36:39.340 --> 00:36:50.900
Eileen Cook: and you take a small amount of your stuff to take with you on vacation, and then you're on vacation. And someone says, Oh, well, now, we're gonna go for a day trip over here, and you have to take a smaller amount of your stuff.

194
00:36:51.110 --> 00:37:01.399
Eileen Cook: So if you have someone who is going on a hero's journey, they may have a small amount of their stuff that they are taking with them.

195
00:37:01.570 --> 00:37:07.550
Eileen Cook: And then I'm interested to know what is this stuff that they choose to take?

196
00:37:07.790 --> 00:37:15.739
Eileen Cook: What is the thing that they can't live without, are they someone who is packing their stuffed animals?

197
00:37:16.070 --> 00:37:25.110
Eileen Cook: And they would rather take that than an extra 3 outfits. Right? What is the stuff that is important to them.

198
00:37:25.550 --> 00:37:34.569
Eileen Cook: And for the purposes of this discussion we're talking about setting. Sometimes I think of as other people that we take with us as part of our stuff.

199
00:37:34.930 --> 00:37:40.870
Eileen Cook: Frodo needs Sam on that trip. Right? Sam is going to be a part of him

200
00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:46.309
Eileen Cook: that he needs to take with him in order to have that as part of his trip.

201
00:37:48.320 --> 00:38:11.819
Eileen Cook: We do know, just taking a brief aside from a counseling background, that we are impacted by the people around us. So if you hang out with a lot of people who engage in certain hobbies, if you hang out with a lot of people who are active, you're more likely to be a little bit more active, certainly, with mood. You hang out with people who are positive it tends to sort of pull up our positivity. Right?

202
00:38:13.130 --> 00:38:23.750
Eileen Cook: So again, some fun prompts and things to ask yourself as a part of this is, is there a group of people that your character used to hang out with.

203
00:38:23.860 --> 00:38:29.080
Eileen Cook: But now they don't fit with those people in the same way anymore.

204
00:38:30.020 --> 00:38:33.350
Eileen Cook: How do those other people view that change

205
00:38:34.050 --> 00:38:42.170
Eileen Cook: right? So if you were someone, for example, who used to drink really heavily, and then you decide to become sober.

206
00:38:42.300 --> 00:38:55.770
Eileen Cook: Oftentimes what you'll see is therapists will talk about the need to maybe look and explore your friend group, because you may not be able to hang out with the same people in the same way, because you are now a different person.

207
00:38:56.010 --> 00:39:06.819
Eileen Cook: So can you use the characters around your protagonist whether that's one protagonist or multiple protagonists to show that they have

208
00:39:06.910 --> 00:39:08.330
Eileen Cook: changed.

209
00:39:08.500 --> 00:39:10.960
Eileen Cook: They are, in fact, different.

210
00:39:11.830 --> 00:39:25.160
Eileen Cook: Is there someone, a group of people, or a particular person that your character wants to fit into? And are they trying to change, to do that? So this is always the thing where someone

211
00:39:25.160 --> 00:39:43.099
Eileen Cook: has to decide to do something to fit in with the popular crowd right or I always find it interesting when you go to cons, or you go to conferences. People are sort of looking for those people who fit in with them, and you'll see people sort of become of that part of that group.

212
00:39:43.570 --> 00:39:44.500
Eileen Cook: Alright.

213
00:39:45.770 --> 00:39:46.760
Eileen Cook: So

214
00:39:47.040 --> 00:40:00.509
Eileen Cook: we're still in personal space. But I want to talk a little bit about clothing that might seem like a strange thing to talk about. But I think clothing is actually a part of our setting.

215
00:40:01.100 --> 00:40:04.949
Eileen Cook: Clothing is one of the first elements that we surround ourselves with.

216
00:40:05.190 --> 00:40:11.340
Eileen Cook: And so I want you to think, even to start off with with your own personal wardrobe.

217
00:40:11.620 --> 00:40:25.590
Eileen Cook: So clothing is a prime example of communication. We're trying to send a message oftentimes by what we're wearing now. Sometimes people will say, Well, apparently I'm sending the message. That laundry is not a priority to me.

218
00:40:25.930 --> 00:40:35.540
Eileen Cook: But that is a message, right? If you're someone who's like, I don't care what I wear like I just, I want to be comfortable. That's a message about who you are.

219
00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:45.230
Eileen Cook: in as much as someone else who is wearing a certain clothing to fit in with a particular type of crowd. Right?

220
00:40:46.900 --> 00:40:52.269
Eileen Cook: We judge other people oftentimes by what they wear. Right?

221
00:40:52.550 --> 00:41:14.109
Eileen Cook: Not necessarily. Again, that that is based on this idea that I mean, you may be someone who judges someone, whether or not they're wearing designer clothing or not. Wanna take a a guess that a lot of people here are not in that crowd. But you may make a decision if someone is wearing something that you find offensive.

222
00:41:14.260 --> 00:41:29.610
Eileen Cook: or you feel like. Oh, they put entirely too much effort. I'm always leery of other women that I meet that have the unbelievable huge amounts of makeup where I think what's going on there, and that's probably just my own personal judgment that I have with that right

223
00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:35.089
Eileen Cook: clothing is a great way to identify that you are a part of a group

224
00:41:35.590 --> 00:41:42.589
Eileen Cook: whether that's a uniform, a sports team, a designer, logo gang colors.

225
00:41:42.930 --> 00:41:48.360
Eileen Cook: right? There are certain things that identify that

226
00:41:48.760 --> 00:41:55.370
Eileen Cook: you can use clothing again to possibly show a shift in your character.

227
00:41:55.680 --> 00:42:01.570
Eileen Cook: So is there a moment where your character needs to put on a uniform?

228
00:42:01.820 --> 00:42:16.619
Eileen Cook: How do they feel about the process of putting that on. Is that dehumanizing, or is it something that they feel really excited about? My best friend, growing up, became of all things, a pediatric cardiologist.

229
00:42:16.780 --> 00:42:22.910
Eileen Cook: and she talks about the moment when she was stethoscoped, which is basically where she

230
00:42:22.950 --> 00:42:36.859
Eileen Cook: got her certificate, and she got to put on her lab coat that said, you know, Doctor Emerson, that she got her stethoscope, and it felt like Aha! I have arrived in that moment

231
00:42:37.530 --> 00:42:41.459
Eileen Cook: right, and it felt aspirational, and it felt exciting.

232
00:42:41.680 --> 00:42:48.610
Eileen Cook: So how does your character feel in their clothing? Do they get to choose their clothing?

233
00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:59.340
Eileen Cook: Is there a shift with that again you can play with. Is there a way that your character dresses when they are out and about?

234
00:42:59.610 --> 00:43:10.710
Eileen Cook: Or is it something that they are wearing when they're only home alone. Clothing tells us so much about that.

235
00:43:11.160 --> 00:43:23.929
Eileen Cook: Does your character have to wear something that they can't stand, that grates on them. I'm thinking here of the handmaids, too, where you had to wear a certain outfit depending on where you fit into society.

236
00:43:25.410 --> 00:43:34.900
Eileen Cook: is your character putting on clothing that doesn't actually quote unquote, fit them? And are they going to be outed at some point?

237
00:43:36.280 --> 00:43:46.260
Eileen Cook: Would it add conflict to destroy or damage some lucky piece of item or clothing that someone has

238
00:43:47.370 --> 00:43:48.430
Eileen Cook: again.

239
00:43:48.440 --> 00:43:57.310
Eileen Cook: This is often those montage scenes right? It's the person who goes from one clothing, and they sort of change into something else.

240
00:43:57.560 --> 00:44:24.070
Eileen Cook: If you wanna look in film film is another great example that you can see. So much effort is spent by the customers to show that change. So if you look at how Luke Skywalker looks at the beginning, he's in very nondescript clothing. It's a farmer's outfit right? And then at the end of that first film. You see that he is in more of what we'd call kind of maybe a soldier's uniform, right? So he is

241
00:44:24.070 --> 00:44:40.220
Eileen Cook: moving to being someone who is an active rebel, not a farmer. If you look at how Katniss looks at the beginning of the hunger games, and how she appears at the end of those first films, you will see again that there is that shift that happens.

242
00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:55.489
Eileen Cook: Anyone. Look back at high school pictures and think. Oh, sweet Jesus, I wore that outfit out right and like I would not wear the things I wore in high school necessarily, because I am a very different person now.

243
00:44:56.050 --> 00:45:11.010
Eileen Cook: So how has your character changed? And space has changed with that right? So you can have a lot of fun to see how their clothing may change, and how that will shift and make a difference to them.

244
00:45:11.670 --> 00:45:12.750
Eileen Cook: Alright.

245
00:45:14.420 --> 00:45:18.790
Eileen Cook: The next part of space that we talk about is the mind.

246
00:45:19.510 --> 00:45:44.999
Eileen Cook: So how we perceive the world depends on what's happening often inside of our own mind, and I know whether or not you've been in therapy. I think you have known this experience, right? Which is depending on how your feelings are, what's happening with your clothing or sorry clothing? What's happening within your kind of mood impacts how you see things.

247
00:45:45.210 --> 00:45:57.630
Eileen Cook: So you can go to a space that is neutral like an airport. and you can find that overwhelming and stressful. Or you can find it exciting and invigorating.

248
00:45:57.920 --> 00:46:06.389
Eileen Cook: The truth of the matter is, the space itself has not changed. It is strictly the perception of that space.

249
00:46:07.340 --> 00:46:17.139
Eileen Cook: Maybe I'll give an example. I'm dental phobic. So the instant that I walk into a dentist's office I am highly attuned to the sounds.

250
00:46:17.360 --> 00:46:27.869
Eileen Cook: That weird, creepy, burnt teeth smell that's in a dentist office mixed with antiseptic right? And I am on edge the entire time that I'm there.

251
00:46:28.230 --> 00:46:32.890
Eileen Cook: I have a good friend. She has 4 kids, she naps

252
00:46:33.460 --> 00:46:45.450
Eileen Cook: which I find bizarre. She falls asleep while they're cleaning her teeth. The space isn't different. The space is exactly the same.

253
00:46:46.200 --> 00:46:49.650
Eileen Cook: It is the person's perception on that.

254
00:46:51.250 --> 00:47:03.689
Eileen Cook: This is where I'm getting a little bit psychology. But you need to understand that emotions drive motivation. And, in fact, if you look at the root word for emotion, you'll find out it means to move.

255
00:47:04.120 --> 00:47:07.969
Eileen Cook: So emotions are what drive, change.

256
00:47:08.540 --> 00:47:20.440
Eileen Cook: and motivation is either a push or a pull. So I'm going to give an example here. That's a little bit of a setting example. I worked with Simon Shuster before as one of my publishers.

257
00:47:21.300 --> 00:47:34.300
Eileen Cook: and Simon Schuster is in the Rockefeller Plaza Building. Anyone's ever had a chance to be there. And I think it's I'm gonna screw this up. But I'm gonna say, it's 110 stories. It's a tall building, and there is a rooftop deck at the top of that.

258
00:47:34.510 --> 00:47:41.779
Eileen Cook: If you go up there you can see all of Manhattan you can see for days. It's an incredible view.

259
00:47:41.980 --> 00:47:50.890
Eileen Cook: So if I took all of you up there on a field trip. and I said to you, I would like you to jump to the next building over.

260
00:47:51.900 --> 00:48:04.430
Eileen Cook: and, in fact, there is one corner of the building where the next building is only about 6 feet away. You actually probably could make that jump from one place to the other. Very few people are going to make that jump.

261
00:48:04.770 --> 00:48:07.320
Eileen Cook: Very few saying people are going to make that jump.

262
00:48:07.750 --> 00:48:18.370
Eileen Cook: but I can talk about a pull or a push, so I could say, we are now in the Publishing Hunger Games, and there is a 1 million dollar book contract

263
00:48:18.400 --> 00:48:23.160
Eileen Cook: on the other side, and all you have to do is jump across and grab it

264
00:48:23.470 --> 00:48:30.969
Eileen Cook: right. And all of a sudden some of you might be like, you know, I actually took track in high school, and if I got up a running start, II might be able to make it.

265
00:48:30.980 --> 00:48:45.680
Eileen Cook: and that was what we would call is a pull motivation. To make a change. So is your character pulled to change their setting? Are they pulled to go exploring because something looks amazing or looks interesting.

266
00:48:46.580 --> 00:48:51.419
Eileen Cook: I can also do what's called a push motivation.

267
00:48:51.640 --> 00:48:59.500
Eileen Cook: So push motivation is where I say to you, I have really bad news. This building is on fire.

268
00:48:59.630 --> 00:49:15.270
Eileen Cook: and the fire has already spread to the stairwells. We are up 110 stories, so there's absolutely no way that we're going to be able to get a fire truck ladder up here. It's a super windy day, so the copters aren't going to be able to take us off.

269
00:49:15.300 --> 00:49:18.239
Eileen Cook: So you have to make a choice at this point

270
00:49:18.270 --> 00:49:21.240
Eileen Cook: to risk it and go for it.

271
00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:24.440
Eileen Cook: or to basically burn to death.

272
00:49:24.470 --> 00:49:36.230
Eileen Cook: Right? This is what basically happened to Luke Skywalker. As Chris is pointing out, he was pushed from his home. His farm was literally with his family in it, Burt to the ground.

273
00:49:36.290 --> 00:49:39.450
Eileen Cook: He had to make a push

274
00:49:39.670 --> 00:49:53.499
Eileen Cook: change. He had to make that shift. You may have something in your story where your character is pushed out of their environment in order to do something, because they have no choice.

275
00:49:54.320 --> 00:49:57.029
Eileen Cook: Now you can have

276
00:49:57.100 --> 00:50:10.029
Eileen Cook: both a push and a pull. There can be a little bit of both. So if we look at somebody like Frodo. That was one of the examples that came up there was a little bit of both. I think Frodo wanted to go adventuring.

277
00:50:10.390 --> 00:50:23.140
Eileen Cook: There was also a push in that if someone didn't return that ring to Mordor Middle Earth in general was all at risk. So that is both a push and a pull.

278
00:50:23.730 --> 00:50:29.720
Eileen Cook: Right setting can do that. Our setting can become uncomfortable.

279
00:50:29.860 --> 00:50:42.500
Eileen Cook: Maybe where your character lives. differences between them and their family are going to drive them out of the place that they live. Or perhaps there is something that they want.

280
00:50:42.510 --> 00:50:44.449
Eileen Cook: some brave new world.

281
00:50:44.470 --> 00:50:50.060
Eileen Cook: and they want to go exploring that. And they feel pulled to that thing

282
00:50:51.020 --> 00:51:01.449
Eileen Cook: setting can create an emotional experience. I was talking to someone who was going through a divorce, and she was talking about the fact

283
00:51:01.460 --> 00:51:11.259
Eileen Cook: that she knew she had to leave when she would drive into her driveway, and she would feel her stomach clench and become ill.

284
00:51:11.460 --> 00:51:20.149
Eileen Cook: because that was the moment that she realized I'm not comfortable in my own home. That was becoming a push.

285
00:51:20.370 --> 00:51:39.709
Eileen Cook: So, even though she wanted to leave, and she liked the idea of leaving. She was scared much. In the same way. Luke Skywalker talked a big game about wanting to go to the Academy and talk to big game about how he wanted to see the world, see the universe and have all these adventures. He sort of stopped himself from doing that, so he needed that extra push

286
00:51:39.760 --> 00:51:41.939
Eileen Cook: in order to go with it.

287
00:51:43.380 --> 00:51:54.939
Eileen Cook: So when you are in doubt, and you're thinking about why a character is going to make a change. I'm just going to point out to you that people in general, and I say this as a therapist with years of experience

288
00:51:55.030 --> 00:52:00.480
Eileen Cook: don't easily make change. We are creatures of habit.

289
00:52:00.660 --> 00:52:16.850
Eileen Cook: So things that need to happen tend to be strong emotions. It's a strong pull, or it's a strong push that will often drive us to do that. So thinking through, if you're changing settings, what is it that is driving your character

290
00:52:16.870 --> 00:52:25.680
Eileen Cook: from one thing to the next, in order to do that. and understanding that their perception changes that

291
00:52:26.260 --> 00:52:33.920
Eileen Cook: so a quick and there's no quiz on this. You don't have to worry. There is a counseling theory called rational emotive therapy.

292
00:52:34.070 --> 00:52:43.129
Eileen Cook: And it's by a fellow named Ellis. You don't need to remember that. But you want to maybe remember his ideas. A, B and C.

293
00:52:44.030 --> 00:52:49.399
Eileen Cook: A is the activating event. It's what actually objectively happens.

294
00:52:50.270 --> 00:52:58.810
Eileen Cook: B is our belief about that event. And C is the consequence of that belief. So, for example.

295
00:52:58.890 --> 00:53:04.409
Eileen Cook: if you walk into a room and everyone starts laughing, that's the activating event.

296
00:53:05.120 --> 00:53:15.420
Eileen Cook: If your belief about that is, they are laughing at me. That will drive your consequence. You may never go back to that event again. You may never want to be with those people again.

297
00:53:16.430 --> 00:53:20.030
Eileen Cook: so you can start playing with what happens to your character.

298
00:53:20.090 --> 00:53:27.350
Eileen Cook: what they believe about that event, and how that drives a consequence that may have them change their setting.

299
00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:42.989
Eileen Cook: I like setting so much. I wrote a whole book about it. And what I'm hoping to convince you, or that I have convinced you in the time that we had together is that it is more than where your story takes place.

300
00:53:43.640 --> 00:53:48.249
Eileen Cook: It is where your character feels comfortable or uncomfortable.

301
00:53:48.580 --> 00:53:53.969
Eileen Cook: and it will show us how your character has changed by how they fit. In that space.

302
00:53:54.150 --> 00:54:00.100
Eileen Cook: They are different people, then how they fit into their space will be different

303
00:54:01.430 --> 00:54:09.549
Eileen Cook: alright. So I left some time for questions. So I wanna see if I made a chance to get through things, or if I missed anything

304
00:54:10.940 --> 00:54:18.480
Eileen Cook: and please feel free to dump extra questions in there. If I've missed anything. hang on, I need to read this one.

305
00:54:19.470 --> 00:54:39.100
Eileen Cook: Someone asked, do you think it's possible to add moral complexity on the story in which the protagonist never, always a good person where they are sometimes sacrificed other victims to save someone else. Even the antagonist wasn't always a bad person. I'm gonna go on the big thing that I absolutely love.

306
00:54:39.100 --> 00:54:50.789
Eileen Cook: Morally ambiguous people, because I think the truth is, almost all of us are. So that complexity is really interesting. And again, thinking about space with that

307
00:54:50.910 --> 00:54:58.620
Eileen Cook: around where we feel comfortable, where we don't feel comfortable, how that changes in different times. If you've ever had someone

308
00:54:58.880 --> 00:55:09.020
Eileen Cook: see you outside of a space that you expected to anyone ever as a little kid, have a moment. Where you saw a teacher

309
00:55:09.380 --> 00:55:18.260
Eileen Cook: outside of school, and you had that total freak out moment because you didn't realize that they didn't live like in the supply closet. Right? It's it's a shift of that.

310
00:55:18.600 --> 00:55:40.520
Eileen Cook: So changing. That can make a big difference. I saw someone say, is the mind. Maybe the most pivotal in a lot of ways. There's questions sometimes about what comes first, and therapists will debate this endlessly. What comes first thinking about something differently, or things happening to you. And I think the truth of the matter is that both of those

311
00:55:40.770 --> 00:56:03.519
Eileen Cook: interact with each other, that is, if you've ever had something really stark happen to you. It changes your thought process. If you've ever were betrayed by a best friend, where all of a sudden you now see the world differently right? But in a lot of cases, if we're trying to drive a change, you have to start thinking about what your perspective is.

312
00:56:05.160 --> 00:56:20.609
Eileen Cook:  are there rules to setting up different spaces is one of the questions. I don't think that there's necessarily rules, and I think there's some great workshops that are coming up, and also the one that was earlier today that talked about the idea of

313
00:56:20.650 --> 00:56:34.829
Eileen Cook: how do you kind of step by step, go through the process of world building. So I'm gonna kind of defer to the other speakers on that one other than from my only role. And again, coming from my perspective is thinking always, not just

314
00:56:35.500 --> 00:56:46.130
Eileen Cook: oh, they need to have a bedroom. So I'm going to put a bed. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that, but think in terms of how does this individual person see their space?

315
00:56:46.680 --> 00:57:00.789
Eileen Cook:  As a psychologist, how would the mentality of a character that doesn't have a personal object they need, but in the story finds it so before and after. I think one is just starting in terms of thinking of yourself.

316
00:57:00.830 --> 00:57:18.099
Eileen Cook: There are certain things that I have in my life that gives me comfort, and if I need that object, and in fact, you can think of. There are a lot of stories that are set up with. You need to find the magical ring. You need to find the book. You need to find this thing that belong to your grandmother, and that will unlock things.

317
00:57:18.850 --> 00:57:33.129
Eileen Cook: It's rarely, actually the object itself. Right? The power to go home was always Dorothy's but it's the process that she went through. So what is the meaning that we attach to things?

318
00:57:33.660 --> 00:57:47.949
Eileen Cook:  a ring is just a ring until you say to someone, this is a symbol of my love and fidelity, and then, when I take off that ring and throw it in your face, because I find out that you had an affair. That's a different way of using that perspective

319
00:57:49.110 --> 00:57:55.949
Eileen Cook: going back through here. How different can a character's different aspects be and still be a cohesive, healthy person.

320
00:57:56.040 --> 00:58:21.090
Eileen Cook: Yes, I mean, we can go all the way to the as you talked about the dissociative disorder. But most of us are different with different people, and, in fact, that sometimes we, we can sometimes be uncomfortable when we have people who know us in one world suddenly show up in a different part of those worlds. We feel uncomfortable with that in part because we may allow different vulnerabilities in one space

321
00:58:21.090 --> 00:58:33.929
Eileen Cook: than another. So someone who in your work life suddenly shows up in your writing group. And you're like, I don't know how I feel about that person reading my pages makes a very big difference.

322
00:58:35.400 --> 00:58:39.410
Eileen Cook: Someone asked any psychology book recommendation for character building.

323
00:58:39.430 --> 00:59:01.079
Eileen Cook: I'm gonna give 2. So the first is purely self serving. I wrote a book called Build Better Characters where I take psychology theories, and I show how you can use them in fiction, because that's what I'm interested in but you don't have to buy my book. The other thing that I would say is, your library is the best resource you can have

324
00:59:01.130 --> 00:59:31.419
Eileen Cook: is, go into your library and look for self-help books on any issues that your character is dealing with, and I guarantee you the Self Help Section is huge. Does your character love too much? Love? Too little? Is your character have just become a new parent? Is your character dealing with post traumatic stress? Disorder. Is your character dealing with any of those things? Then, any of those things are. There's a self help up which will have examples in it, and it will have, step by step about how someone can move through that which will be really useful.

325
00:59:32.260 --> 00:59:35.529
Eileen Cook: Alright, we got a couple of minutes left.

326
00:59:36.390 --> 00:59:54.319
Eileen Cook: always mentioned. Using a flashlight to show the environment. How much should environment should we let the reader imagine? I think readers can imagine a lot when we give people just a little bit to see that thing, because again, we will judge people by those little snippets of space.

327
00:59:54.500 --> 01:00:21.480
Eileen Cook: So hopefully, it is that idea of honing into what those details are. So it's less of an importance that you know that I have a navy blue sofa, and probably much more of a character showing detail for you to have a moment where someone scans over a floor to ceiling bookcases. That tells a lot more about me. So thinking about. If you're gonna point your flashlight in some part of the environment, what's the part that's gonna give you the biggest bang

328
01:00:21.490 --> 01:00:22.510
Eileen Cook: for the buck.

329
01:00:23.100 --> 01:00:49.409
Eileen Cook: I think we're out of time, so you can find out more about me. Michelle put it in there. There's my website. And if I didn't answer a question feel free to reach out to me, and I will find a time to answer it for you. Thank you so much, Eileen. This was great. There's been so much good chatter in the chat and great feedback already. So I know that they've just taken so much away from your session today, and we're just so grateful to have you here.

330
01:00:49.640 --> 01:00:52.949
Eileen Cook: Thank thank you to pro writing aid. I love you guys

331
01:00:53.420 --> 01:01:00.260
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: alright. Everyone. Thanks for attending. We'll have the replay, and all of Eileen's

332
01:01:00.410 --> 01:01:09.539
Michelle @ ProWritingAid: links in her slides up on the hub by tomorrow morning, so check back there to see those, and we'll see you at the next session. Bye, everyone.