Tag Archives: throat chakra and writing

How to Use the Throat Chakra for Deep Character Development

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This is the next in a series about how to utilize my Writing Through the Body Method™ which uses the chakra system as a practical tool for uncovering a character’s desires, wounds, and motivations. By exploring these psychological foundations, writers are able to portray their characters’ behaviors, reactions, and responses on the page with greater depth and emotional truth.

For example, the throat (fifth) Chakra rules Willpower. The throat relates to how your protagonist speaks their highest truth, self-expresses, and living creatively. The Solar Plexus Chakra says I SPEAK.

By considering how your characters connect to their voice and ability to speak will give you clues about how they will speak in your story by understanding not just their words, but the intention behind their words (both conscious and unconscious)

Below is a brief explanation of the Throat Chakra, its traits and characteristics, and some ways you might integrate its attributes into your character development.

Fifth Chakra – Throat Chakra

Location
Throat

This does not directly apply to your character but is used for visualization purposes when doing certain exercises within the Writing Through the Body™ method, offered here as an FYI.

Primary strengths
High self-awareness and ability to speak one’s truth to others, faith in oneself to make sound decisions (and the ability to follow through), belief in the power of love and courage, and confidence in choosing/having healthy relationships with substances, money, and power

This is about how your character responds to situations that call for them to speak, as in dialogue, make decisions, and how they feel about those decisions.

Primary fears and fearful expressions
General insecurity, small/soft voice, relying on external validation, avoiding conversations to express one’s needs/desires, gossip, exclusivity, arrogance/condescension.

This is where you’re able to start seeing your character respond in both voice, and in action, based on the strength of their own self-awareness.

_____________________


Writing exercise

Take some time to sit quietly, and think about the aspects of the Throat Chakra as they relate to all your characters. 

Write a sketch of a character that may not be materializing as fully as you would like, and answer the questions below as fully and exhaustively as possible. 

Tip: Every time you arrive at a new place of understanding or identify a particular behavior or response in your character, ask “why?” Continuing to ask “why?” is how we get to the deep psychology of our characters. 

Example: Your protagonist has been asked to speak at an event where someone from their past will be in attendance. 

Questions to begin your exercise:

• How comfortable is your character with public speaking?

• Who is the person from their past, and what was their relationship like? How did the relationship end?

• Do they know that the person will be in attendance, or will it be a surprise to them?

• What happens when they step up to the microphone?

Let me know what you discover in the comments.

As always… Sending you mad writing mojo…

Happy writing!

Johnnie
OOOOO

How Understanding the Throat Chakra Can Improve Your Writing

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Photo by Niño Piamonte from Pexels

All writing is hard, and dialogue may be one of the hardest aspects of writing. Oftentimes, we start by putting two people in a space with a conflict to create a scene. We start writing, and we get them talking to see where the conversation takes them and the story. Simply letting them talk can work and eventually lead us to the core of the scene. It can also eat up valuable time.

Eavesdropping on strangers’ conversations can help us with crafting characters and giving them a voice. However, much of the day-to-day dialogue we hear in real life doesn’t belong on the page. Dialogue should be more layered. It should accomplish more than just making a scene. It should advance the story, further character development, and more.

The Throat Chakra represents the culmination of expression, after shaping the identity in the Root Chakra, understanding relationships with others in the Sacral Chakra, developing a sense of agency in the Solar Plexus Chakra, and the ability to view others with compassion in the Heart Chakra, which is a bridge between the lower and upper chakras.

Before you attempt to get your characters talking, give some thought to all the information you’ve amassed about them by studying them through the lens of the lower four chakras. Think about their desires and motivations. Think about their self-image and self-confidence or lack thereof. Think about their fears and vulnerabilities.

If you’re writing fiction, let your characters be their own free agents. Let them show their not-so-desirable sides – even your protagonist (and even if the protagonist is you, in the case of memoir). If you’re writing in the non-fiction, self-help/how-to category, write an imaginary conversation you might have with your Ideal Reader or client, or schedule a few discovery calls with people who you think might be your Ideal Readers, and see what unfolds in the conversation. No matter your genre, show your people in all their frail humanity. They will thank you for it, and your readers will thank you for it.

Has one of your characters been giving you trouble? Have you been stuck, not knowing how to move forward with him or represent him objectively? Write a dialogue between you and the character. Let him tell you what you’re not letting him say. Let him be in control.

Please leave a comment below. I’d love to know what you discover.

How understanding the throat chakra will improve your writing

Posted on by

All writing is hard, and dialogue may be one of the hardest aspects of writing. Oftentimes, we start by putting two people in a space with a conflict to create a scene. We start writing, and we get them talking to see where the conversation takes them and the story. While just letting them talk can work and eventually lead us to the core of the scene, it can also sometimes eat up valuable time.

In a recent blog post, I wrote about how eavesdropping on strangers’ conversations can help us with crafting characters and giving them voice. Now I’m going to contradict myself, because to be honest, the process of writing is one, big, messy contradiction. What is true for one scene, story, or book, might not be for another. This is the pain and perfection of the creative process. There are no formulaic answers.

Much of the day-to-day dialogue we hear in real life doesn’t belong on the page. Dialogue should be more layered than that. It should accomplish more than just making a scene. It should advance the story, further character development, and more.

The Throat Chakra is the culmination of our expression – our will – that we’ve gathered while identifying our identities in the Root Chakra, our relationships with others in the Sacral Chakra, our ability to be agents of our own lives in the Solar Plexus Chakra, and our level of love and compassion in the Heart Chakra – which is a bridge between the lower and upper chakras.

Before you attempt to get your characters talking, give some thought to all the information you’ve amassed about them by studying them through the lens of the lower four chakras. Think about their desires and motivations. Think about their self-image and self-confidence or lack thereof. Think about their fears and vulnerabilities.

Rather than force them to say what you want, let them be their own free agents. Let them show their not-so-desirable sides – even your protagonist (and even if the protagonist is you). Show them in all their frail humanity. They will thank you for it, and your readers will thank you for it.

Which one of your characters has been giving you the most trouble? Write this character’s monologue, telling you what you’re not letting them say, and see what you discover. (Let her/him be in control, for a change.)