Part 2: Diving Deeper into Word Triplex and Journal Practice by Timothy J Sullivan

Have you been collecting your own triplets?

Did you see part 1 of this article?

A metaphysical aside: In many cosmologies and theologies, there is the Law of Three, a three-element logic that drives all creation. This shows up in spiritual traditions as various representations of the Trinity. For example, you are likely familiar with the Western version, and there is an Eastern version too. The point is that ‘three things’ linked in some way is pervasive. Entire tomes have been written about this.

My mom always used to say ‘things happen in threes.’ From her perspective, that was often catastrophes, accidents, or other notable events, but not always. Sometimes it was a happy synchronicity of three gifts of some kind unexpectedly arriving on your doorstep, or inbox. One after the other.

Here we are taking poetic licence, to spark the imagination, or the mimetic memory, to fuel our creativity in more intentional ways. Applying a whimsical version of the Law of Three.

After playing with a triplet triplex as suggested in part one, you may be ready to follow up and begin a conversation between your compositions, journal entries, or poetic wanderings, and your journaling persona.

The characters who inhabit the page, the voices ringing through those written words, the other you (there might be more than one), that’s what I mean by your journaling persona.

Do you notice that you show-up differently on any particular day?

These are many characters, or sub-personalities, in your psyche. Some you may be familiar with, others not so much. You may know them as moods that come and go. Or, not so pleasant, as a voice-over in your daily activities, making comments and criticisms.

Various situations or certain people, may bring out in you these voices. A different ‘you’ for different occasions or circumstances. They tend to show up whether you want them to or not.

This practice I’m suggesting is another approach to journaling your experience. This alternate approach is more whimsical, wacky perhaps, but wonderful. Which is to say may invoke wonder, wit and standing ovations from your fan club.

Here I suggest playfully re-problematizing your daily perplexities by exploring various versions of you.

For a first exercise, focus specifically on the one you are taking yourself to be right now.

Maybe you recognize a mood, a familiar felt-sense. Or, you may feel ‘off’, not the regular you.

Take a moment and make up three words for that felt-sense.

Begin your morning pages, or your writing time, letting your terrific triplet transpose your imagination and take you to new territories.

Does a terrible terror transect the flow, cause you to pause? Courage! Carry on!

In this exercise, the triplet you’ve chosen is a metonymic representation of you, the writer, as you take yourself to be this moment. Your exploration, using this device, is a way to inquire into who you are, right now.

You might recognize this-very-moment-you has a particular attitude, persuasion, or viewpoint. A quirk perhaps. A hidden desire. Explore, expand, extrapolate!

Notice the way she dresses or wants to, what she abhors, disavows, dismisses. Or, the opposite: what she favours, flaunts, or flips-over.

This is not about establishing, once and for all, a definitive you, a preferred or perfect you. It’s more an opened ended exploration of some possible unexplored terrain, in this case alternate personae, or sub-personalities.

While this inquiry and exploration may provide insight and more understanding of your multiplex self, the writer in you will surely begin to contemplate how to use this material to flesh out a character, or several, for a story that you’ve been mulling over.

That’s what writers do.

A variation:

Maybe someone you know or recognize in your actual world, who is also a resident in your imaginal vortex, suggests a triplet. They inhabit various recesses, corners and closets of your psyche. Take up a certain space. What are they doing there? Hook them to a triplet, then give them a voice.

E.g. Debbie, deserving, but dismissive. Dallas does dalliance well but is always doubting. Then there’s Trevor’s trials and travails that trip him up.

Can you match a triplet with a significant other, a neighbour, a friend, the high school sweetheart of years gone by? Perhaps a favourite artist or actor?

Maybe a trifecta of events, happenings , and synchronicity occur with two or more of these favoured friends.

All these can be potent mirrors of your unrequited desires. Or, even your yet unfound, undernourished, certainly under appreciated talents and gifts.

Another variation, as you get more familiar with composing triplet trialities:

As you review your writing, certain passages may suggest a triplet. Go ahead and make some ‘pairings’ of passages with triplets. Make note. You are a miner for that heart of gold.

Revisit, from time to time, those triplex associations with the fragments of yourself (and significant others which are also fragments of you) you have discovered in your journaling or writing practice. What’s changed, what’s your new discovery, or insight?

You are diving deeper.