Gaining control

As humans, we want to find control. The world is chaotic and changing, we are chaotic and changing, and we want a steady ship in the churning waters.

We get control by developing strategies. Either we make our behaviour adaptive or manage our responses. Or we create an internal change in how we perceive and understand the world.

We change our outer or inner selves to gain control.

Sometimes these responses aren't positive or productive. Sometimes they're defensive and reactionary, and we're ready to burn the whole place down to gain control.

So when you write your fiction, consider these forces that act upon your character. Each paragraph is an opportunity to show the push and pull of action and responses, either in your character's actions or their responses to the world around them and within.