The Life in Pink website is a project made as part of my therapy for my mental well-being. As the pressure of life took its toll, I was burnt out and needed a break to recharge and reset everything. As part of a six-months break, I decided to pour everything into a short story. The initial idea was to tell the story in one linear timeline, but where's the fun in that?
Pic is intended low resolution
The main topic is the battle of the Past, Present, and Future. This is one of the recurring topics that many of us have trouble with. Does the past dictate the Present? or the present is detached from the past?
To try to understand it better, two books come to mind: The Courage to be Disliked, and The Courage to be Happy. The ground idea of the story is teleology and etiology. I was trying to define the blurry lines between causation and purpose-driven.
The map above is the map of the main story (The Kid) that was based on my own life events and challenges in life. It would then be broken down into three parts: The Enchantress as the depiction of the past, The Kid as the present, and The Gardener as the far future.
Each storyline has its own character archetypes as shown below (redacted).
Redacted for privacy
Each story is intertwined with another story, creating a circular timeline. This is intended as a means to show that past and future, while correlating with the present, have no power over present time. This concept of circular time is better to be understood via the Epilogue. The story also implements several variations from the original Hero's journey. While the Kid story is linear, the Enchantress story timeline is jumbled up to increase the intensity and play around with the audience's emotions. The Gardener is a milder version of The Enchantress in terms of storyline.
Each story is designed to have a different vibe, reflected by three things: the color scheme, the word choices, and the visual design. The Enchantress, representing the past, is dark and heavy, intended to share the suffering part with the audience. The color theme is ash and cold. The Kid, representing the present, is dreamy and hopeful, intended to share the idea of happiness searching with anyone who reads it. The Gardener, representing the future, is light and airy, intended to share the sweetness of small stuff in life.
I hope this story reminds you, my dear audience that we are all in our own fight. It might be a financial, family, relationship, life-changing event, or even a fight with our own mind. Be kind to others, be kind to yourself. Life is good, should you decide it is.
Life in Pink was launched on the 1st of October, and the reception was good. Analytics are provided at my Instagram @folieplease.