Frustration: Crippling, or Creative?

Ever gotten frustrated, as you write? Do you look at your work, groan inwardly, as you realize you haven’t achieved what you’d hoped? Did your frustration make you want to crawl into a hole? Project your frustration onto a character. It can be a pre-existing character of yours, or one you’ve created especially as a vehicle for your frustration. Create reasons for his/her frustration. Perhaps his/her reasons are the same as yours. Perhaps s/he has his/her own reasons for the frustration. Explore your character’s reasons. Let him/her project them onto something, or someone else. Let your character write about why this someone, or something is feeling the frustration. This exercise doesn’t need to be limited to writing. You can try it in drawing, or painting, too. Paint or draw a character, who embodies your frustration. Try to depict this person’s feelings in the designs, the patterns, with every stroke of your brush, or pen/pencil/pastel/graphite. What color is the frustration? What shapes does it manifest in? How do the shapes interact? I have done this exercise. I poured all of my frustration into a character. I ended up creating a villain. At least one person truly hated this villain. I was surprised by how many people liked him, though. You may be surprised what you can create, if you channel your frustration into a form of art.