Writers in the Storm

Julie Glover

A minister, a priest, and a rabbi are walking down a dark alley -- no, this is not a joke, but hang with me here -- when an eight-foot, three-headed monster jumps out, roars, and bares his sharp teeth and claws.

The minister throws a punch.
The priest runs.
The rabbi can't seem to move.

See? I told you it wasn't a joke. It's acute stress response; that is, the way our bodies and minds handle the presence of an immediate threat.

One fights.
One flees.
One freezes.

You've heard of those, but how can writers apply this knowledge to our stories? How can the fight-flight-freeze response be used to ratchet up tension and guide action for our characters?

First, the Visceral Reaction

Physiologist Walter Cannon coined the phrase "fight or flight," back in the 1920s, to describe the adrenaline rush and response people exhibit when faced not only with physical emergencies, but psychological ones as well. In recent years, scientists added a third option: tonic immobility, or "freeze."

This video explains these reactions well. (And yes, there's a quick sales plug for the video's creator at the end.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJhcn7Q0-LU

That list of symptoms alone can help us better write our characters' acute stress responses! Which of these might your protagonist exhibit?

• Quick, shallow breathing
• Fast heartbeat
• Chest pain
• Need to urinate
• Dry mouth
• Nausea
• Butterflies in stomach
• Cold hands
• Sweaty palms
• Trembling and/or weak hands and legs
• Tension in thighs, neck, or shoulders
• Negative memories
• Tunnel vision / loss of peripheral vision
• Reduced ability to read facial expressions
• Dizziness / feeling one might faint (but they won't)

Then Fight, Flight, or Freeze

In The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes -- and Why, journalist Amanda Ripley shared how people responded to disasters, from an explosion to Hurricane Katrina to Tower 1 on 9/11 and more.

Fight is actually an uncommon response, with fleeing and freezing more likely. Freezing can be seen both in denying the severity of a situation and/or dithering so long about what to do that opportunities to effectively deal with the disaster pass, leaving the worst option as the inevitable one.

So let's say your main character is facing a disaster -- be it an alien invasion, an inferno, or high schoolers storming the cafeteria for the last of the Twinkies. Starting with the visceral reaction:

Gayle's mouth went dry, her heart sped up to a gallop, and her knees buckled.

Then what? Is your protagonist the type to fight, flee, or freeze? Which answer determines what happens next, as well as the pace of the action.

Fight

Gayle didn't have time to think. Didn't allow herself to think. Adrenaline poured into her veins. She dove forward and slashed at the laser-wielding alien. If she was going down, she'd take it with her.

Although fight is an uncommon response, this is fiction and we like kick-butt heroes. Plus, an ensuing fight definitely puts tension on the page.

Flight

At the sight of the laser-yielding alien, Gayle's brain yelled, "Run!" Her feet obeyed. Dodging tables and chairs, she sprinted across the room.

Gayle heard crashes and shots and screams behind her, but all she could see was the door ahead. She had to get to reach that exit.

Flight is a more common response, and you can see the tension and conflict her choice creates. Is everyone else in the area running for the door, causing a logjam at the exit? Might the alien chase after her? Could she stumble? Injure herself? Find the door barred or locked?

Freeze

Gayle couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think. Al-al-alien. That right there was the stuff of science fiction, a creature from the Star Wars cantina, an impossibility. Only there it was, not only three-dimensional and fully present but shooting lasers at people around her.

Numbly, she watched people fall. Were they dead or just stunned?

Her brain struggled to process what was happening. She was caught between two worlds, the real one she'd been in moments ago and this surreal one where nothing made sense. There had to be a link between the two, even if that link was only Gayle herself.

The alien stomped toward her, its sinister eyes bulging, green teeth bared, weapon raised. Gayle's jaw dropped open and her feet weighed a million pounds each, gluing her to the floor.

If she just stands there, she might get squashed like a bug. But you can keep tension up. Does someone rescue her, but it's not someone she wants rescuing her? Could the alien kidnap rather than kill her? Might she discover that silence and immobility are the only way to avoid an attack? (Looking at you, The Quiet Place.)

Combining Responses

You don't have to choose only fight, flight, or freeze. Your character might go through two or all of them.

Real-life case in point: My mother has a phobia of frogs, possibly due to a near-drowning event in her childhood. Anyway, I was in college when I saw the depth of her fear up close and personal. A frog had gotten into our forest-surrounded home, and my mother's acute stress response caused her to shut down quickly and thoroughly when confronted with a harmless amphibian that could fit in the palm of my hand.

She was frozen. But I snapped her out of her trance and got her to flee. Mind you, my first few few requests did not work. I literally had to get in her face and yell, "Get out of here!" But then she startled and scurried away, and I returned Senor Frog to his natural habitat outside. Crisis averted.

When you write a combination, you'll likely need another trigger to change the first response to a new one. For example:

• Your character flees, but then hears a child's cry and runs back to fight.
• Your character surges forward to fight, gets knocked down, and freezes.
• Your character freezes, but a glancing blow awakens their desire to fight back.
• Or like my scenario: Your character freezes until prodded by another character to flee.

Scene and Sequel

The fight-flight-freeze response is driven by the amygdala, a structure of neurons in the brain linked to fear, pleasure, and aggression.

What we actually think about a situation, however, involves different parts of the brain. The cognitive processes of evaluation, self-regulation, and behavioral goals happen in the frontal lobes, parts not as active when you're in panic mode.

If you're familiar with the scene-sequel structure, originally proposed by Dwight Swain, you may already see how these differing brain functions align with that model.

When our character goes through a jarring event, their immediate stress response is part of the scene. It's what's happening right then and there and how they react. Since it's amygdala-driven, hold off on describing the processing one goes through later to make sense of what's happening and to determine the next goal. It's in the sequel where you have that cognitive processing, and that may involve a few lines or a whole chapter.

So when it comes to fight-flight-freeze, you're not likely to see something like this:

Bob's feet sank into the floorboards, and his heart throbbed against his ribs. How had she found out? He'd been so careful to hide all the receipts. To keep a separate bank account. To use a fake name whenever possible.

Maybe he could get his wife back. They could go to counseling. That's it--he'd schedule a counseling appointment in the morning.

Um, no. That second paragraph is unlikely to happen right away. Your character will need more time hanging out with their stress response, which is good news for your reader. Because that's more tension, more wondering how things will go, more continuing to read to find out.

Exactly how fast your character moves from the fight-flight-freeze scene to the executive-function sequel depends on who they are.

Different characters or even the same character in different seasons will recover differently. For a quick example, imagine the acute stress response recovery time for Sarah Connor before and after her encounter with the Terminator.

Where on the spectrum between these women is your character? Write to that timing.

How have you used fight, flight, or freeze in your own story? What more do you want to know about using acute stress response to create conflict and reveal character?

Resources
"Exploring Human Freeze Responses to a Threat Stressor," Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
"Walter Cannon: Homeostasis, the Fight-or-Flight Response, the Sympathoadrenal System, and the Wisdom of the Body," Brain Immune
"Understanding the stress response," Harvard Health Publishing

About Julie

Julie Glover writes mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart® and is now on sale! When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit her website here and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

by John Peragine

In a recent blog post on Writer’s In the Storm, writers provided one word for other writers to contemplate for the New Year. The word I chose was Trust.

I am a ghostwriter by trade and have years of experience writing and publishing books. When people hire me, they do so because I have a sense of the process.

Often (too often) people hire me and stop listening. They don’t always trust what I am saying to them, even though they hired me for that very purpose. I don’t know all the answers to publishing and writing questions. Luckily, for those times I don’t know, I have built a team of other professionals I trust to provide me those answers.

I've been thinking about my writing journey and that of others I know, and trust is a powerful determiner for a book, from concept to publishing. Trust is not something given lightly, but at times, we have to take a risk and place trust outside ourselves to move a book from our heads to the page.  

It's not always easy to do. We must ask questions for clarity.

There are many pathways to writing and publishing. Whichever one we choose, we must see it through and trust those guiding the way. We must rely on our inner voice and the advice of others throughout the entire process of writing, but I believe that it can be a methodical process in which we can increase our chances of success.

Important questions:

• At what points do we rely on trust?
• How can we reduce the risks involved with trust?
• Is trust something blind, or is it strategic?

Christmas Morning Confession

My family would tell you that I have a serious holiday problem. I can’t wait to open presents until Christmas morning.

The anxiety overwhelms me on Christmas Eve. Every. Single. Year. My family rolls their eyes at me. But by 6 pm, it is imperative that I know what’s in the boxes, and I must see other people open the presents I got them.

I know, I’m incorrigible. But it boils down to this: I don’t like not knowing the outcome of things, and I don’t like taking unreasonable chances.

In book writing and publishing, I don’t take too many chances either. When I decide what to write, or how to publish a book or article, I remove any doubts I can. I decrease risk while increasing trust.

How do I do this?

I believe there are three levels of trust: trust others, trust a process, and trust myself.

Trust Others

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we decide to write and publish something. There is a process, and a method that can be followed that will lead to a successful venture.

There are many people to connect within the publishing business and I follow a process. This process also works with agents, publishers, or other writers.

1. A blank slate. When I meet someone new, I see them as a blank slate and trust what that person says and claims. I have no evidence to the contrary. I try to reserve judgment and keep their slate clean.
2. Trust but verify. If someone refers an editor to me, I ask the person making the referral what their experience was with the editor. But their positive experience does not guarantee I will have the same experience. Maybe they just clicked, or were friends. Perhaps there is a finder's fee for referring to the editor. There are many unknowns and I try not to let them positively or negatively affect my trust in that editor.

I begin with trust and build upon it based upon performance. Questions I ask myself include:

• Do I trust the person making the referral?
• Have they referred me to other professionals in the past?

I build trust by beginning small. I might have the editor do one or two pages of editing to see how they perform. I follow these considerations:

• Did they edit the way I asked them?
• Was it on time?
• Were they thorough?

I increase the size of the job, and with every success, my trust in them builds. Perhaps answer the following questions:

• Do they return calls and messages?
• Do they listen to me? Can they provide examples of past performance?
• Can they offer me references of others they worked with?

The process of writing is a solitary craft, but the process of publishing is a team effort.

You need to trust those you work with, and you must decide for yourself, based upon the data you collect, whether you can trust an individual. Choosing the wrong person can cost you time, money, and credibility as a writer.

Trust the Process

A question I hear a lot: How do we write a great book and have success selling it? I share my process, but people often stop listening.

There is the social proof disconnect. Writers listen to friends and family, who mostly have the best intentions, provide them with advice about book writing. My question is, “How many books have they written and sold?”

I provide people with the same process that helped me, and many others produce a successful book they are proud of that sells copies.

As a writer, we must trust others we are working with. If we believe they are an expert with valuable advice, then we must trust their process.

Trust Myself

In the creation of a book, there is an important word on the front cover. More important than the title, and that is the author’s name. It is you.

This is your book. Your project. You call the shots, and you should never give away total control of your book. Nor should you stop asking questions, because even if you trust someone, and trust the process, you must trust your gut because it is your name on the spine.

I recently presented a manuscript to a literary agent I trust. She has an excellent track record, and I would love to work with her. I gave her my first ten pages to review, and she was excited about the premise, the characters, and the pace of the story. She deemed it a Middle-Grade Fantasy and I trusted her assessment.

As part of the process of selling a book in this genre, she recommended that I shift the POV from third person limited to first-person.  I rewrote those pages in the first-person POV as she recommended. It wasn't a bad attempt, and she liked it, but then I considered the rest of the book.

Would shifting the rest of the book to first-person work?
Was my book truly Middle Grade or was it more YA?

I sent out two versions of my first ten pages to other experts for their opinion. I received mixed reviews on the POV but there was a strong opinion that the book is YA, not Middle Grade.

Ultimately, I must decide what the book is and will be. I have people I trust, and I trust the process, but at the end of the day, I must trust the guy whose name is on the spine of the book.

This is the hardest form of trust but a smart one to learn: listen to the inner voice advising us. 

Ask the right questions, do your due diligence, and write the best, most successful book you can. Trust in yourself -- you are an author. Whatever you decide, it will be the right decision.

How have you trusted your own intuition in terms of your writing? Do you have advice you didn't take, but wish you had?

About John

John Peragine has published 14 books and ghostwritten more than 100 others. He is a contributor for HuffPost, Reuters, and The Today Show. He covered the John Edwards trial exclusively for Bloomberg News and The New York Times. He has written for Wine Enthusiast, Grapevine Magazine, Realtor.com, WineMaker magazine, and Writer's Digest.

John began writing professionally in 2007, after working 13 years in social work and as the piccolo player for the Western Piedmont Symphony for over 25 years. Peragine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. His newest book, The No Frills Guide to Book Marketing, will be released in Summer 2020.

Top photo credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

by Karen DeBonis

Writer karma. It’s one of the myriad phrases I’ve learned over the last three years since I emerged as a writer. Writer karma has led me, an emerging writer, to be here at Writers in the Storm as a new quarterly contributor. Hello!

A bit about me…

I didn’t discover writing as a creative outlet until I was almost forty, a year after my eleven year-old son Matthew was diagnosed with a brain tumor. As our family recovered from the trauma, an awareness grew in me that our story must be told.

My first draft was dreadful. Even my 20th draft was shitty. But that didn’t deter me, perhaps because I didn’t know how crappy it actually was.

Then, I quit.

My son’s recovery was slow. Painfully slow. I found it impossible to write the story as we lived it, without yet knowing the ending, so I packed writing away and left it to languish. In 2016, when I medically retired, a voice in my head said, “Finish your book.”

And my writing life re-emerged. It was time to put those early lessons to use, and to learn more.

One of early writing lessons was the importance of boosting other writers. Read, share, retweet, like, comment. It all comes around in the writing and reading community.

What you give, you shall receive.

Writers in the Storm, with its wealth of insightful and informative articles, was one of my regular stops, and I commented frequently. It never occurred to me that anyone other than the article author took note. Then, in November 2019, I got an email from Jenny Hansen, one of the founders here.

“I've been keeping an eye on you over at WITS for a while and I'm wondering if you'd like to take on a bigger role.”

And I thought, “Who, me?” But here I am, in all my newbie-ness.

Positive energy out, positive energy in.

I reached out to several more experienced writers in my quest to research writer karma.

Marion Roach

Memoir coach, teacher, and editor, with an entire curriculum of online classes. Marion is the author of four published books. She was the instructor for my first live writing class.

On writer’s karma, she said, “What I was taught is what I use to write and what I teach. Given to me, it must be moved along.” Her book The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text on Writing & Life—sits dog-eared on my shelf.

Susan Shapiro

An award-winning writing professor, and bestselling author/coauthor of twelve books, Susan has helped hundreds of students get bylines in the New York Times, Washington Post and other big-name publications. She shares her best practices in The Byline Bible, which also sits on my shelf, its pages thick with sticky notes.

When I asked Susan about writer karma, she wrote, “I think helping my students get published, returning the kindness my mentors showed me, is a way of paying it forward.” Susan believes the focus of an emerging writer’s promotion should be on non-famous writers, “especially debuts by women and marginalized authors from indie presses.”

What about other newbies, like me?

Ronni Robinson is working on a memoir about her recovery from over thirty years of compulsive overeating. She and I connected on social media and then exchanged emails.

When I wrote a Facebook post asking writers for their thoughts on karma, Ronni didn’t reply, which is unusual because she rarely misses an opportunity to comment or share fellow writers’ posts. When I emailed her, she replied: “It's funny, I saw your post about karma on FB and to be perfectly honest, it stumped me. I never heard of it, had no clue what it was, so I didn't comment.” Yet, Ronni shares more positive feedback than any other writer I know.

Back at ya’, Ronni—here’s a little karma for you.

Whether you call it karma or kindness or manners, writers helping other writers helps us all. Everyone decides how big a role engagement plays in those precious few writing hours (because there’s never enough writing time, is there?).

5 Tips To Spread the Writer Karma

1. Read essays and articles.

In the time it takes to read one book (and I read lots of those, too), I can read dozens of pieces by dozens of writers, giving me scores of opportunities to engage. Don’t know where to find writers? Subscribe to sites like WITS to get you started. (And check out the Resources tab!)

2.  If you read it, “like” it.

One “like” can silence the drone of a thousand post-publication crickets. Writers hate hearing crickets.

3. If you have time to comment, do.

Simple is fine: “Powerful.” “Thanks for sharing.” “This spoke to me.” “I enjoyed this.” If you have time for more, all the better. “I can relate to this because…”

4. If you love a piece with no like or comment option, track down that author and tell them!

Shortly after my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2018 (yes, two completely unrelated brain tumors in one family), I happened upon this Vogue essay on Twitter. Daphne Beal, a writer, had the same tumor as my sister—a meningioma—and was doing equally well. I found Daphne’s email address, wrote to tell her of our commonality and wish her continued good health. She was flattered.

Important note: If you reach out when there’s no direct link, be gracious: “Please forgive this personal email; I want to tell you how much your essay means to me.” Most authors will be thrilled that you took the time and energy to pay them a compliment. But, don’t be stalkerish! One email is enough. If you don’t get a reply, let it go.

5.  Comment in a way you’d like to read about your own writing.

You can share a negative opinion politely. Or just scroll on by. What you send out into the world will come back to you, remember?

Whether you believe in karma or positive energy or the power of kindness, I hope you will spread a little writer love in the world. The world can certainly use it.

Do you have an engagement practice or tip to share? Please let me know in the comments, and I promise to reply. I need all the good karma I can get.

About Karen

Karen began writing twenty years ago after her eleven-year-old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Those early pages are now a real-life medical mystery about a mother who must overcome her toxic agreeability if she's to save herself and her son. The manuscript is currently in submission for publication.

A happy empty-nester with her husband of thirty-seven years, Karen lives and writes in upstate New York. You can find out more about her journey  at www.KarenDeBonis.com.

Top photo credit: Pixabay