Returning to the United States after more than two years of wandering through Mexico was a great joy, even in pandemic times. Living once again in a country where I had a good grasp of the language and general culture provided a relief I didn’t anticipate. I discovered that the life of a gypsy is not good for me. I needed a home base more than I knew.
Within a month of our return, my hubby discovered that he’d require back surgery to alleviate a “strangled” sciatic nerve, followed by a dental emergency for me. Next came a race to obtain the plethora of documents required by the state to be worthy of a driver’s license before my birthday, which approached with lightning speed. And, we needed to find a permanent place to live.
I couldn’t think beyond what felt like moment-to-moment emergencies. I was pretty much flailing at the end of this whirlwind.
Grasping for prose and finding nothing but critters
I turned to writing to sort myself out, plunking down in front of my PC, and attempting to focus on what to write next. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. A jumping spider appeared to have taken up residence on top of my workspace while I’d ignored my computer for several consecutive days.
Another, slightly larger jumping spider scurried around the other side of my PC. We regarded each other. It pumped two front legs up and down. I blew a bit of air in the spider’s direction. It hurried away. The smaller spider on the other side of my computer repeated the stare-off and leg-pumping maneuver.
They won that round.
I left the workspace to them for a while. Besides, I was too distressed to write. Either my muse had forsaken me or I needed to do something about my stress level and find my creative flow.
Note to self: Raise moving higher on the priority list!
Meanwhile, I focused on breathing and really examined this stress roadblock. My research turned up some interesting information.
Not all stress is felt equally.
Negative stress
Negative stressors wall off your creative mind, allowing fear and stress to smite the ability to be creative.
Common effects of negative stress on mood are:
Feeling overwhelmed
Restlessness
Lack of motivation
Irritability
Anxiety
Sadness
I was saddled with all six! It was time to find a way out of this quagmire.
Reaching for control
While stuck in a difficult situation, finding activities that provide control helps people cope. Everyone needs to feel some sense of control.
Finding control through creative cookery
Baking is aces for stress relief, and it provides an inexpensive reward. We can control what we make. During quarantine many people, myself included, devoted time and energy to creative cooking and/or therapy baking, like the sourdough craze.
I became adept at making vegetarian curry dishes.
Other ways to stop the stress tailspin
Slow the heart rate using four-square breathing. Inhale through the nose to the count of four, hold to the count of four, exhale through the mouth to the count of four, hold to the count of four. Repeat as necessary.
Get enough sleep. You know you’re not getting enough sleep if your mood is negatively affected. You may not think there is enough time in the day to get everything done, but sleep deprivation makes the brain wonky. (I've found meditation can help bridge the sleep gap.)
Schedule some relaxation time. Dance, watch something fun, call a friend, book a massage, read a good book, listen to music.
Learn to say "no." Or at least say, “Let me get back to you on that. It sounds intriguing.”
Beneficial stress may jump-start your creativity
Positive stress helps with:
Developing and transforming ideas
Generating alternative possibilities to solve problems
Executing those ideas to transform dreams into reality
Redirecting and focusing the mind and keep from overthinking
Three different kinds of positive stress and their connection to creativity
Task-Switching Stress
Recent studies show that frequently changing gears causes a different view of a task. This rearranges the thought process, nurturing creativity, avoiding the rigid thinking that happens when you focus too long on the same thing.
Changing the subject refreshes your view, and it's a great cure for writers’ block.
2. Meaningful Stress
Two stress conditions known to nurture creativity are “on an expedition” where work is low-pressure but highly meaningful, and “on a mission” with high-pressure, high-meaning work.
When people achieve meaningful goals, they feel good and are inspired to carry on. Perception of the stress people are under determines the relationship between stress and creativity.
If you can set or follow goals that have meaning, that positive stress may help you see a novel answer.
3. Deadline Stress
Small doses of stress like multi-tasking projects or having tight deadlines, sometimes produce great ideas because they spark the brain to power through to specific goals.
Some people thrive on this one, procrastinating until there is little time left. A time-sensitive environment can force focus and wall off any distractions.
Now it's your turn. Which type of stress helps you in your work? Do you think that the right stress can bring out the best in us? Please share your stress tips with us down in the comments!
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About Ellen
Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works In Progress are, The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and Crystal Memories, YA fantasy.
1. My stomach churned with garlic and guilt, but I’d get over it. I always did.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Alliteration – garlic and guilt
Zeugma – garlic and guilt
Visceral Response – Those two rhetorical devices made that visceral fresh.
Compelling Cadence
2. But since returning to Montreal—with all the post-war magic flying around like explosive shrapnel—I’d learned to ward myself against such an awful alchemic assault. I took a moment to reinforce that ward now, one psychic block at a time.
Strategic with Style and Structure – Used white space and stand-alone words.
Compelling Cadence
The Patient, Steena Holmes, 2-time Immersion Grad, 2-time Cruise Grad, NYT Bestseller
1. My voice sputters, splits, spirals into silence.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Dialogue Cue – carries powerful emotion
In-Your-Face Alliteration that works well!
Compelling Cadence
2. I sat there, stone cold, a blank statue without facial features she could read.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Double Alliteration: stone, statue, facial features
Compelling Cadence
Stranger in the Lake, Kimberly Belle, 5-time Immersion Grad, International Bestseller
1. My gaze tracks to the lake, churning silver peaks on water that’s a gloomy, bottomless black.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Power Words – churning, gloomy, bottomless, black
Themed -- Mood
Alliteration – bottomless black
Compelling Cadence
2. The creak of the body bag’s zipper is like a knife, cutting through the cold and crawling all over my skin.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Power Words – body bag, knife, cutting, cold, crawling, skin
Themed – Mood
Simile – Amplified
Alliteration – body bag, cutting, cold, crawling
Compelling Cadence
The Last Breath. Kimberly Belle, 5-time Immersion Grad, International Bestseller
And then I remember something else. Something that shoots a shiver up my spine and slams my heart to a standstill.
So many “S” words! Seems like it would be too many. But that sentence carries amazing power. Why does it work?
The different consonant blends make it work: so, sh, sh, sp, sl, st, st.
Never a Viscount, Sheri Humphreys, Multi-Immersion Grad
The past few weeks she had refused to let herself think of the last endless minutes of Nancy’s life, and the night she dreamed of her friend’s death, Anne woke and banished every lingering image from her mind. Permitting only tiny sips of pain worked.
Deep Edit Analysis:
Power Words – refused, think, last, endless, minutes, life, dreamed, friend’s death, banished, image, mind, permitting, sips of pain
Alliteration – let, last, endless, life, lingering, dreamed, death, permitting, pain
This blog is dachshund-long. I won’t deep edit analyze the remaining examples.
Most Likely to Succeed,Monica Corwin, Multi-Immersion Grad, NYT Bestseller
The feelings build in my chest brick by brick, the mortar just a smidge too tight. But the moment I let myself get close to that wall, it would crack and crumble and collapse.
Drawn and Buried, Dana Summers, Immersion Grad
He had the kind of blunt-featured face I'd seen in graphic novels. Like someone had slammed on the brakes in his brain, and all the weird crap from the backseat had piled up behind his smoldering eyes.
Morianna, Corinne O'Flynn, Virtual Immersion Grad
1. Standing at the stern of the dinghy, my head swam with dizziness and dread, distracting me from my deadly thoughts about my navigator.
2. His words slithered through his lips like serpents.
Tango Fuego, Terri Wilson, Virtual Immersion Grad
1. She instantly knew, if Hell served whiskey, it would be a fabulous fiery pit of fun.
2. On a good day, Orion’s quirky-smirky banter would be fun. But accounting day was never a good day.
Note: I was talking to Terri in Virtual Immersion class when quirky-smirky came out of my mouth. I told her it was hers if she wanted it. I love how she used it!
Magic and Menopause, Lisa Manifold, Virtual Immersion Grad
1. He’s attractive, a good five years older than my 26, and decidedly desirable.
Note: We added that part about their ages in virtual immersion class. An easy slip in.
2. Maxim tends to keep those who work for him under lock, key, and concrete, if you’re not careful.
Note: Love that cliché play!
J. D. and the Broken Promise, Dee Armstrong, 2-time Virtual Immersion Grad
1. The skin on JD’s arms tingled and puckered like a plucked goose’s butt.
2. Working with the Geezers was like working with two toddlers. Annoyingly adorable.
It Hurts, Robbin Luckett, Multi-Immersion Grad
1. Every unanswered question adds to my throbbing headache, a pounding and pulsating pain, as if the center of my brain is going to explode.
2. My heart rate slows to a dull delirious thump thump thump.
Neighbors That Prey, Robin Olson, Multi-Immersion Grad
Dedication to my craft forced me to sit in front of my computer, but for every paragraph I typed and didn’t delete, I granted myself permission to sneak a peek.
I didn’t have time for a stranger playing danger games.
Into the Shattered Night, Sia Huff, Virtual Immersion Grad
1. Agnes smiled and slipped a tip to the steward. 2. Her heart raced. Her mind raced, battling the erratic beat for first place.
Once Upon a Farm by Jacqueline Visconti, Multi-Immersion Grad
1. The German commander rode in the back of the topless Vauxhall like a king in a chariot, his grey coat a cape, his peaked cap a crown, and a target for Guy.
2. They came that day. The Germans. With a stomp of boots and squeal of tyres and steel-hard commands.
Concrete Evidence, Laurie Dennis, Virtual Immersion Grad
1. His tone was slow, steady, strong, no doubt he was in charge.
2. What should have been an active site had the feel of an abandoned ghost town, hushed except for the whoosh of the occasional desert dust devils twisting across the dirt road.
Evil’s Deadly Divide, Book Four in the Alexis Black Novels,Jenn Windrow, 7-Time Immersion Grad
1. Crap on a crumbling cracker, I hated heights.
2. We had to keep our operation covert because Delano Melazi’s zealots saw any human stuck on their side as a walking talking snack pack.
Flash Point: Legacy Series Book 5, Luna Joya, Multi-Virtual Immersion Grad
To be released July 20, 2021
1. Were her psychic powers on the freaking fritz as well?
2. Delia’s yeah-right look was a speed dial straight to Mina’s self-doubt.
3. The smell of spilled whiskey almost overpowered the stink of smoke and sweat.
Wicked Crown, Redemption Series Book 1, Luna Joya, Multi-Virtual Immersion Grad, Future Release/Under Contract
1. Goblins and gold went together like supermodels and stilettos.
2. He curled his far-too-sexy mouth into a sneer more bitter than goblin beer. “Why are you really here?”
The Six-Percent Baby, Jenny Hansen, Multi-Immersion Grad
1. We left the fertility clinic like car crash survivors, slow and staggering, our faces blank, our knees shaking.
2. I couldn’t think about anything but my dead womb, dead eggs, and the dreams she’d just demolished.
3. The hours were long, the coffee was strong, and still we couldn’t finish.
We’ll wrap up with this powerful piece from Cassandra Shaw, one of my many brilliant Aussie Multi-Immersion Grads.
Blood Ring: Book 1, The Vampire King’s Daughter, Cassandra L Shaw
Funny how a fragile, vulnerable, human could steal a monster’s heart. A cruel joke. I had forgotten the throbbing agony of loss that took a hundred years to heal. True, Tatum was not dead. But the wave of horror and hate, of disappointment and disgust, that warped her wonderful face when she’d realized what I was, was as true a death as any.
Don’t forget about Lawson Writer’s Academy courses. I’m so proud of all the smart classes we offer writers. Click that link to check out our powerful line-up for June!
Dazzling Developmental Edits
Write Backstory with Confidence
Killing It with Conflict
Flying Write
Can We Talk? Dialogue the Write Way
Crazy-Easy Awesome Author Websites
Battling the Basics
Six-Week Author Mentoring Intensive
Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist
Profitable Facebook Ads
Hang out with me at my monthly “Get Happy with Margie” Open House
Drop by and chat! May 18th, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time.
Thank you again. See you in the comments section!
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About Margie
Margie Lawson left a career in psychology to focus on another passion—helping writers make their stories, characters, and words strong. Using a psychologically based, deep-editing approach, Margie teaches writers how to bring emotion to the page. Emotion equals power. Power grabs readers and holds onto them until the end. Hundreds of Margie grads have gone on to win awards, find agents, sign with publishers, and hit bestseller lists.
An international presenter, Margie has taught over 150 full day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France, as well as multi-day intensives on cruise ships in the Caribbean. Pre-COVID, she taught 5-day Immersion Master Classes across the U.S. and Canada and in seven cities in Australia too.
COVID Update: Immersion Master Classes are now virtual, taught through Zoom. Virtual Immersion classes are limited to six writers. They're two days long—and as always, writers get one on one deep editing with Margie.
She also founded Lawson Writer's Academy, where you’ll find over 30 instructors teaching online courses through her website. To learn more, and sign up for Margie’s newsletter, visit www.margielawson.com.
I wrote big, then went small. I discovered the art of writing small fiction or flash fiction after having two short story collections and a novel published. My first flash piece was published in 2016, when the form cast the initial spell on me, fascinating me with its versatility, immediacy and energy. Since then, I've written flash exclusively, with dozens of stories appearing in journals around the world. When I asked myself why I'm attached to the form, I came up with the following ten reasons.
1. The Word Count
I love writing flash because the stories are under 1000 words and, to me, small is beautiful. This form of fiction has also been called the short-short, sudden fiction, the postcard, and the miniature.
2. The Brevity
I love writing flash because of the intensity in the brevity. The stories might be bite-sized but they contain an intensity and a succulence that satisfies the reader.
3. The Challenge
I love writing flash because the style is challenging. The stories might be short, with few characters, but the size of a piece of flash does not make the writing easier. It takes practice and skill to condense, to weed, to excise, all without taking away the crucial elements to create a complete story arc.
Flash fiction is about compression, efficiently and effectively delivered.
4. The Strong Splash
I love flash fiction because the story starts in the middle of the action with no lengthy introductions. With this form, I arrive late to the party and exit early, but not without making a strong splash.
5. The Experimentation
I love writing flash because the style lends itself to experimentation. I've seen flash written as a crossword puzzle and flash that masquerades as a review. I've also seen flash pieces that are entirely without dialog, and many that are one-sentence paragraphs.
The hermit-crab flash borrows a specific form to tell a story. One of my works in Matchbook Literary, Life Times Nine, uses the form of the times-table. In Lunate Fiction, I used anaphora, a repeated phrase at the beginning of each sentence, in Learning to Row.
6. The Impact
I love writing flash because of the impact of the story on the reader. A good piece of flash leaves the reader thinking about the story long after the story has been read. The punch and the resonance that a piece of flash packs is what makes the form so captivating.
7. The Blank Spaces
I love writing flash fiction because of the story that is not told. Flash fiction believes in an intelligent reader who can fill in the blank spaces, one who can make the connections within the story, between and under the lines.
8. The Ease of Consumption
I love writing flash because the stories are easy to consume. In these fast-paced times, readers can read flash on their devices, while they're on the move, while they're waiting somewhere, or in the traditional manner. Well-respected journals like The New Yorker have published flash fiction.
9. The Uniqueness
I love writing flash because as Kathy Fish, teacher and flash fictioneer extraordinaire, says: "Flash fiction, I believe, is its own unique literary form, not merely a short story in miniature, and we should teach it as such."
I love writing flash because it is the arc of a captured moment, when the small becomes profound. As Nancy Stohlman has said, it is the cupcake of literature.
Have you written flash fiction? Do you have other flash fiction resources for us? Share your thoughts down in the comments! (And please welcome Sudha, our newest contributor at WITS!)
About Sudha
Sudha Balagopal's recent flash fiction appears in Monkeybicycle, Matchbook, Smokelong Quarterly, Split Lip Magazine and Milk Candy Review among other journals. She is the author of a novel, A New Dawn. Her novella-in-flash, Things I Can't Tell Amma, was highly commended in the Bath Novella-in-Flash contest and is forthcoming from Ad Hoc Fiction. Her work will appear in Best Microfiction 2021. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions and is listed in the Wigleaf Top 50. Find her on Twitter @authorsudha, or via her website at www.sudhabalagopal.com
