{"id":1950,"date":"2009-11-04T10:05:19","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T10:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2009-11-04T10:05:19","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T10:05:19","slug":"are-you-living-a-default-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/are-you-living-a-default-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Living a Default Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"
A friend tole me about the concepts of “default future” and “linguistic clutter”. Default future is a psychiatric term that posits that there was some “event” or series of events that occurred in your life that created a host of habits\/attitudes\/actions that makes you feel safe or that you believe keeps you “safe.”<\/div>\n
These are similar to a character’s Strongest Traits in the Character Map. \u00a0The Character\u2019s Strongest Traits are:<\/div>\n
– The traits the character believes are his or her salvation.<\/div>\n
– The traits the character relies on to get out of trouble or \u201cfix\u201d problems.<\/div>\n
– The traits the character leans on and uses as a crutch instead of making the Leap of Faith.<\/div>\n
– The traits the character has to a fault.<\/div>\n
– The traits the character must surrender.<\/div>\n
These emotions\/habits\/attitudes\/actions can keep you from experiencing your true self and\/or separate you from otherwise healthy emotions. For example, if you feel “pleasing others is more important than your own happinesss” then you may resist the healthy emotion of getting appropriately angry with someone because you fear that you will make them unhappy or upset.<\/div>\n
Good strong qualities like being diplomatic or conciliatory can easily revert to Trouble Traits. \u00a0A character\u2019s greatest strengths are always his or her greatest weaknesses.<\/div>\n
The ways the character tries to appease or compensate for his or her fear only feeds the fear and makes it grow stronger and more powerful. \u00a0When the character surrenders the Strongest Traits they don\u2019t just disappear. They simply operate more appropriately in the background. The character won\u2019t cling to these traits as a crutch to try to fend off or deflect the fear. Instead, he or she will turn and face the full force of the fear head-on.<\/div>\n
One way to break the pattern and spot your own “default future” is the same situation\/pattern keeps coming up again and again. You end up in the same set of circumstances facing the same kind of difficulties. Do you have a mini “GROUNDHOG DAY” in your own experience.<\/div>\n
A character goes round and round the Character Map until he or she either falls to the Dark Side or Makes a Leap of Faith and flies in the face of his or her fear.<\/div>\n
One of the ways to understand and in some case identify default future thinking is through an exercise called clearing “linguistic clutter.<\/div>\n
Here’s the process: \u00a0Take 5 minutes and without stopping write down everything that comes to mind. Write about everything makes you feel or believe you are safe as well as what makes you feel unsafe. \u00a0The trick is– you can’t stop! This process is analogous to “clearing the mind of clutter” so that new ideas, attitudes, habits, patterns have a chance to emerge.<\/div>\n