Duality of the mind

Writing a story

Writing a story requires work. Attention. Inspiration. Persistence. Those things sound all credible, I guess.

Writing a story also requires duality of the mind, and especially – I dare to pose – when writing naturist fiction.

Why is that, and why is that so important?

The thing with a story is that the writer has to become everyone. The main character(s), their friends and family, co-workers, but also the enemy, the villain, the bad guy(s) and gal(s).

That is a lot to take in and ‘take out’, because keeping all these characters, creatures, species and types apart and ‘in character’ is a lot of work. It requires attention. Simple things like accents shouldn’t shift from John to Mary and back to John via Marcus or even Corina. Even when Corina does the accent better than John. 😉

Naturist fiction

Why is this even worse in naturist fiction, you may wonder. There are good guys and gals and bad guys and gals.

True. But in naturist fiction, the writer also has to crawl into the mind of the very opposite. The dressed ones. Those folks who refuse to accept anything showing skin, the ones who are addicted to underwear, swimwear, or any-other-wear.

Think of it as being a political figure who also has to play the convincing part of the political adversary. At the same time, because a story goes on ‘at the same time’. There is no switching sides between chapters. At times the switch occurs from one sentence to the next, for example when writing dialogue.

Imagine a dedicated naturist in a heated discussion with someone who is opposed to seeing any kind of skin. A burka proponent, for instance. The writer has to hop from mind to mind in mere seconds, to keep the conversation going, and also switch mindset and conviction of the topic from both sides. Yes, a naturist author harbours his/her own devil’s advocate, and that one has to come up all the time.

It can be challenging, but it’s also a great help in understanding people who are against or who don’t understand our lifestyle.