This is K.M. Ireland and you are listening to the 627 episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this week's episode.

Five ways to use your character's shadows to power your story.

Complex characters mirror real-life humans in their contradictions of inner light and dark. As writers, it is our job to create these contrasts in ways that become cohesive and

thematically meaningful. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do this is to explore Shadow Theory.

In last week's episode we talked about the concept of the Shadow, a phrase originated

by C.G. Young. The shadow refers to the parts of the self that

are not present in the conscious personality or ego, but instead are hidden

away in the dark of the unconscious. The concept of the shadow suggests

that the parts of ourselves that are repressed or neglected in the unconscious

actually wield tremendous power over us.

Many different personality models offer tools for exploring these lost pieces of ourselves and doing shadow work to return them to our consciousness,

so we can wield them consciously and reclaim their lost power.

The MBTI or Meyers-Brigs system, which is based on Jung's idea of cognitive function polarities,

talks about how you might be in the grip of your

shadow functions. This can even cause you to momentarily seem to have a completely

opposite personality as discussed in Naomi L. Quanks' book,

was that really me?

Additionally, the Enigrams entire philosophy

is built around recognizing that our personality type

is not us, and offers a map to expanding ourselves beyond the basic idea of our visible personalities.

Because good stories explore the human psyche and particularly catalysts of psychological

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