Emotion Challenges
Emotion challenges require a character to manage feelings in order to move forward. For example:
Having recently lost a close friend, navigate daily life while dealing with overwhelming grief.
I trace your name on the war memorial and feel the marble’s cold go straight to my heart. “You are not on the fields of a foreign land, my friend. You are not lost and looking for home. You are already here, in my heart.”
Find a way to resolve a strained relationship with a family member.
Who else but Mom would use a squirt gun to stop us kids running through the house? I found the squirt gun and could help to sort her things. The Fork & Spoon at noon, like we used to do? Maybe talk about what happened—maybe share the air and a cup of coffee.
Despite a deep-seated fear of heights, climb a tall tower to retrieve an important item.
Four floors would be fatal, yet all I can think of is Dad tossing us in the deep end and shouting: Swim! I climbed out, and he threw me in again.
I climbed out again. Maybe it was the blood he feared more than my resolve, but he left me alone after that. His methods were brutal. We were brave. I take a deep breath and start climbing.
Apologize sincerely.
I pumped the tires on the bikes. Maybe we could go to the park. It’s been too long since we enjoyed the outdoors together. And it’s been too long since I accepted responsibility. My problems aren’t your problems. Next time I have a bad day, I won’t make it your bad day. I’m sorry that I hurt you.
In “Kid Clown,” the protagonist seeks identity but receives little parental support. Low earning. Socially awkward. At some gigs, the parents abdicate their role, and chaos ensues. The protagonist’s high school shop teacher is supportive, at least until the protagonist made a faux pas and sent an email that ought not to have been sent.
After a self-help session, the protagonist’s parents are more supportive of (if surprised by) the protagonist’s choice of career: counselling. And yet counselling is a natural extension of putting people at ease with themselves, which the protagonist has been doing since Kid Clown days.
Kid Clown
Quinlan, 2020
I am a twig cast upon the river …
Don’t measure worth by wages, son. Don’t do as I have done.
… is not what he said when I was making the circuit as a kids’ clown.
In two minutes, I make what you take home for an afternoon’s performance.
But my father wasn’t wrong, nor was my fashionista mother.
It must be awkward in school, what with your classmates once clients.
I have been clowning since I turned ten. At some gigs, I see what it’s like to be seen, having had little with parents on the go. At other gigs, parents abdicate, and I am left to babysit the bunch, young and old.
I am a twig, floating with the river …
You are a welcome distraction from the stench of bleach and blood.
… says Mr. Rue, my high school shop instructor. I visit oncology. In costume, of course.
Caring will make you a great teacher.
Caring might have, had I not hit ‘Reply To All’ on his behalf, telling him what was not supposed to be told.
Build Confidence! Become Your Truth!
… reads the poster for a session, spoken mostly in self-help rehash from online.
At least it helped my latter-day parents …
It was a surprise that you took to psychology.
The surprise was not guessing all along. I wear a clown suit with clients I have known since childhood. It helps them float the river, become their truth.
