writing the gray areas

july 2 | weekly warm-up

Make a list of experiences in your life when you faced an ethical or moral dilemma. This can be a looong list, so focus on the ones that feel most significant to you. Choose one of those experiences and tell yourself the story in your journal. Write about the circumstances, how you felt about it, and the gray areas you were facing. Consider the following questions to support your exploration:

What decisions and inner conflicts were you facing?

What were the positive and negative consequences of the decisions you made?

How did your values and/or beliefs change for after this situation?

Hi friends. This is our last week on the theme of morals and values. Being the writers and creatively curious people that we are, there’s so much to explore here. For the past few weeks, I’ve asked you to reflect on the morals and values that drive you (or drain you) as you do your creative work. I hope these questions facilitated some realignment for you, refreshing what you know about yourself, and affirming the importance of creativity in your life. This week’s exercise is about channeling that alignment into writing about a moral dilemma from your life.

Moral dilemmas are tough decisions where there is no simple right/wrong or good/bad. Where your own values are in conflict with each other, or perhaps with someone that you care about. Many of you know that one of the biggest moral dilemmas I’ve faced in my life is choosing to distance myself from my mother. It’s a decision so heavy that I will probably be processing it and writing about it for the rest of my life. I also face daily moral dilemmas like whether or not to let my daughter order accessories from Shein when I know the company has been scrutinized for poor working conditions and other unethical practices. Or when I’m with family members who have strong opinions that I disagree with—do I argue or do I stay out of it? And do my decisions align with who I really am? When I reflect on my decisions, what do I learn about myself? When our morals and values are tested, the choices we make help us learn about ourselves and explore the complexity of human nature; hopefully making us more aware and compassionate individuals and better storytellers. Personally, morality-focused stories are my favorites.

“Morality-focused stories typically feature a protagonist grappling with ethical dilemmas, moral ambiguities, or personal values. The central conflict often revolves around the protagonist's struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the reality they face or the choices they must make. Examples include stories that delve into moral grey areas, tales of redemption, and narratives that explore the nature of good and evil.” — FirstDraftPro (for those of you who want to read more about content genres, I found this overview helpful)

This week’s exercise asks you to journal about your own morality-focused story. As you work on it, notice the themes that come up for you and notice your comfort level when writing about these often emotionally charged topics and memories. Do you feel resistance? If you get stuck writing about what happened, try writing about the resistance first and use that as a way to ease into the story.