Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Choose a confidant and write a letter about your project. What is most important to you about creating this artwork?

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Finding the Heart

Time

15 mins

THE ATTIC:

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Whether you share your letter or not, writing about the importance of your project to a specific person can unlock buried ideas and insights. When you give yourself a goal — to communicate clearly — you can rattle loose thoughts that were otherwise stuck.

Consider, too, writing to more than one person. Each reader will draw out different aspects of your personality, and the combined insight may surprise you.

Materials

How to Play

Timer
Paper
Pen
Envelope (optional)

1. Choose a friend or family member who you trust.

2. Set your timer for ten minutes.

3. Write a letter to your loved one, explaining your project and why it matters to you.

– What do you want to create?

– What obstacles are you facing? What are your fears?

– Why are you willing to face them anyway?

– Are there examples, common points of reference between the two of you, that help to describe what you’re trying to do and why?

– What, if anything, could your loved one do to help support you in this effort? (And if you don’t send the letter, is this “ask” something you could ask of yourself? Sometimes we look to outside people for support we have every ability to offer ourselves.)

4. Read over your letter and underline thoughts that stand out. If you think there’s more to say, and you have more time to write, expand on the thoughts you’ve underlined.

5. If you’d like, send the letter to your friend. Or, keep it in a safe place where you can reference it when you need a reminder about the WHY of this project.

Adaptations

Try a Character

If you’re writing a story, step into the shoes of one of your characters and write from their perspective. Again, choose a loved one, or a pair of loved ones, that will bring out various parts of their personality. Instead of asking yourself about the project, ask about the main situation in the story. Then, use the rest of the questions in step three to deepen your understanding of this character’s motivations and purpose.

Try a User

Step into the role of a reader, or of someone who will experience or use the item you’re creating. Assume reading the story or interacting with the object is important to this user. Why would that be? What desire or need does this item address for them? How does it shift their mindset, provide new perspective, offer resources, or help in other ways? The more specifics you use, the more helpful this exercise will be.