Some acquaintances of mine have asked me how I write. They get excited when I tell them that I believe in “loosening my identity” so I can see from different characters’ perspectives. Sounds cool, right? They ask me how to do that, and I tell them that a simple (but not easy) exercise is to make a convincing case in your mind that the most respected/loved/revered person in your life is a villain, and that the most hated/vile/evil person in your life is a hero, and to support these cases with evidence. (Everyone’s played the hero and villain at one time or another, right?) But folks don’t like to hear that, much less try it out; I suspect it attacks the comfortable boundaries they’ve set around the people they know.
Needless to say, the acquaintances I’ve told that to have moved on to other endeavors.
Kent Wayne 
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