Find Your Fictional Character’s Energy Motivators Part 2 – Water by Deborah-Zenha Adams

Using an ancient philosophy of energy can help you create better characters

This is the second part of a series of posts that exist across multiple blogs. You can find links to the Introduction and to other posts at “Part 1-Earth Energy” on my blog.

The Water Energy is associated with sexuality, emotions, creativity, and imagination. People who maintain a healthy Water Energy balance are fearless free spirits who live in harmony with the earth and all its beings. They are bold (and why shouldn’t they be?) and can trust their instincts. Their heads and their hearts work together, they are compassionate, and they consider the work of caring for others an honor and a privilege. People with strong and balanced Water Energy seem to flow through life, whatever comes.

In literature, Water Energy would be expressed through a character who finds taking care of people, animals, and the earth effortless and fulfilling. Cinderella and Glinda the Good Witch—these are perfect examples of healthy water energy!

Because energy is constantly moving and changing, there is always an imbalance. As mentioned in an earlier section of this series, every energy affects the energies above it. This means that your character with an uneven Water Energy will also exhibit symptoms of imbalance in the areas of Fire, Air, Ether, Light, and Consciousness. (These areas are addressed in Parts 3-7 of this series. Links to the other posts will be added as they go live at Find Your Fictional Character’s Energy Motivators on my blog.)

When your character’s Water Energy gets wonky you’ll know it by the expression of certain personality traits and behaviors.

Some of the symptoms of imbalance in Water Energy might be:

• Narcissism
• Rigidity (physically, emotionally, or spiritually)
• Emotional numbness, inability to feel one’s own or others’ pain, joy, etc.
• Being out of touch with emotions
• Poor social skills
• Indecisiveness
• Depression
• Clinging to the past
• Physical and sexual inhibitions or sexual addiction
• Engaging in sexual activity that is either harmful or injudicious
• Using sex for personal gain
• Psychological fickleness
• Mood swings
• Emotional dependency
• Chaotic thinking and behavior

When Water Energy isn’t balanced—whether it’s over- or under-active—it will lead to certain clusters of behavior. An imbalance here can be summed up in one word: Me Me Me! Or in two words: I want, I want, I want!

Classic water energy imbalanced characters

• The Queen in Snow White – a woman so vain she tried to kill a young girl because of what a mirror said
• The Emperor – a man so vain he fell for a ridiculous story about elite clothing and pranced around naked
• The Princess in The Frog Prince – a girl so narcissistic she lied and mistreated every living thing around her

These are just a few characters from fairy tales who likely suffered from Water Energy imbalance. You can probably think of dozens of other characters from literature (and real life) with this same imbalance. Go ahead and leave your thoughts about them in the comments section.

Questions to ask about your character

When you discover (or determine) that Water Energy imbalance is present in your character, take some time to mull over the implications.

• How does water energy imbalance affect your character’s senses?

—Can she visualize a better life or a better world? Or is she constantly sucked under by worries and anxiety?

—Does she easily respond to the beat of her own heart? Or is she afraid to break away from the herd?

—Is her relationship to food antagonistic or sensual? Which foods does she refuse to eat? Which foods does she find impossible to resist?

—Does she reciprocate hugs or other touching with ease and affection? Or does every close encounter mean sex to her?

—How do the scents of her childhood affect her now? Which scents relax her and which scents arouse her?

• What caused the imbalance in the first place? Was it lifestyle, stress or trauma, a loss of connection to the authentic self? Was it caused by some outside force?
• What other symptoms might be present? Start with the brief list at the beginning of this post and extrapolate.

How to strengthen the Water Energy association in your writing

You can reinforce the effect of Water Energy by using subtle indicators of this imbalance. For example, you might

• Use words throughout your narrative that call to mind the Water Energy qualities: numb, sensitive, fickle, steady, fearful, fearless, instinctive, measured.
• Use the color orange, perhaps in clothing, furnishings, cars, flowers, or flames. Maybe your character is forever peeling oranges or drinking orange juice.
• Bring in other elements associated with this energy: water (is your character a swimmer or boater?), beverages, baths or floods or other scenes with large amounts of water, scents such as cinnamon or patchouli, and orange gemstones

Practice and prompt

Choose any character from your work in progress.

Make a list of physical, mental, and emotional traits characteristics that you’ve already assigned to that character. For example, let’s say you’ve written: brave, operates on gut feeling, often late for appointments, cares for an elderly neighbor.

First, consider whether any of those might come from a Water Energy imbalance.  Fearlessness and trusting one’s instincts are healthy signs of Water Energy, as is serving as caretaker for others. The question to ask, in this case, is: why is she late for appointments? Is this a subtle sign that she lacks thoughtfulness and consideration for others’ time? Or is she often late because she’s flowing through life moment-to-moment?

If the former, you might look closer at this character to determine whether she’s on the verge of becoming a full-blown narcissist. If the latter, consider how her laid-back approach to life affects her actions and your story.

Where did her imbalance originate?

When and why did the imbalance fluctuate and grow stronger or weaker? What scenes relay this information to the reader?

Within the context of her story, how might the imbalance be mitigated?

What element of your theme is manifested in Water Energy?

How can you use the character’s imbalance to strengthen the theme and vice versa?

One or more of your characters will almost certainly be dealing with Water Energy imbalance. Now that you’ve experimented with ways to use that imbalance to flesh out a character, you’ll want to move on to other characters and their imbalances. Part of the fun of this character building system is watching how the energies dance with and poke at each other.

Part III: Fire Energy will appear soon.

Deborah-Zenha Adams is an award-winning author of novels, short fiction, CNF, and poetry. You’re invited to learn more about her at www.deborah-adams.com.

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