Writers in the Storm

Lisa Hall-Wilson

Boo! What better day to write about the body language of fear than the scariest day of the year!

Fun Fact: Fear and excitement create the exact same physiological response. What I mean by that is our bodies react the same way to both emotions. The difference between how our bodies respond to fear or excitement is how we internally/mentally interpret what we’re experiencing.

Scientists believe that pleasure and pain share some neural pathways. There are studies looking at how different painkiller medications also numb the ability to have an orgasm for instance. When in pain, the body flushes with endorphins and other pain-blocking pleasure-building chemicals that quickly shift the pain into pleasure. There’s such a thing as benign masochism – which is the intentional seeking out of pain while also maintaining an awareness that pain won’t cause serious damage. Think of everyone who loves tear-jerker stories, wild roller coasters, or scary movies! So, there’s a very close association.

* AHEM * Moving On

A Deeper Look At Fear

Fear can range from mild to paralyzing. What’s interesting though is that fear caused by a real immediate threat is rarely paralyzing. Our bodies and minds instinctually engage in a race for survival. Usually the fears that can leave us paralyzed are imagined (what ifs).

Chronic stress is in fact a low-intensity fear response to worry, daily insecurity, anxiety, etc. The more I learned about fear, the more I realized this is an emotion that every novelist should know more about because it’s laced in virtually every character arc ever written.

**Sorry if you thought this post was only for horror/thriller authors.** smile **not sorry**

4 Components Of Fear

Fear can be partly instinct, partly learned, partly taught, partly imagined. Pain causes instinctive fear – survival instinct. Falling is an instinctive fear present even in newborns. Past experiences can create learned fears – a young child will learn to fear bunk beds if they had a friend fall out of one and seriously injure themselves. Social context can teach fear of a particular person (avoid your uncle – don’t ever be alone with him) or various forms of racism. The fear of public speaking is largely imagined, but what’s really at stake is reputation, identity, self-worth.

What blend of fear does your character feel?

“Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in.” 
― Stephen King, The Shining

The Role Of Intuition

Humans have this wonderful gift of intuition. The problem is we don’t listen to it often enough. We perceive a threat (could have been body language, past experience, a friend’s experience, an article we read a year ago) but we discount that perception in favor of what we can see. When you take that admitted predisposition and place a character in a situation that feels threatening but they can’t see anything threatening the fear is ramped up.

Gavin De Becker in his book The Gift of Fear talks about a woman waiting for an elevator. The doors open and inside is a young man in a suit who leers at her and bobs his eyebrows suggestively. Given the statistics about violence against women, her own past experiences and those of her friends, the isolated location, etc. she’s not crazy for perceiving this man as a threat. But rather than obey her intuition and wait for the next elevator, she’ll get into the sound-proof steel box – because he looks OK.

We allow ourselves to disregard our intuition if we can’t explain it logically – he doesn’t look like a rapist.

In fiction, the role of intuition -- especially if the character ignores it, is a great device to show the reader unease and discomfort and tip them off that something bad is about to or could happen. The conflict between internal dialogue and physiological response can be juxtaposed with what’s expressed outwardly.

“It is understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different – men and women live in different worlds…most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while women fear rape and death.” Gavin De Becker, The Gift of Fear

Answering The Why Question

Remember, we have to answer the why question for readers so we work backwards. Why is your character afraid? What is it exactly they’re afraid of and what’s at stake? What do they stand to lose?

Don’t just go through the motions on this. Really dig deep for these answers because the why is how you show the emotion. In deep point of view, we avoid naming emotions so you’ll have to show your reader the excitement or fear through body language, physiology, internal dialogue and spoken dialogue.

Your POVC has finally worked up the courage to ask a pretty girl out on a date. Ask him why he’s afraid.

Because she’s really pretty. OK – why does that make her scary or make talking to her scary?

Because he likes blonds. Nope – too superficial. Dig deeper.

She is pretty and he’s attracted to her, but she’s also friends with some influential people who could help his career. Ahh – there, now this is something we can work with. Which people? Why is their influence important to him?

He’s starting out at the bottom of the corporate ladder. Being seen in the right places with the right people is important. That she’s gorgeous and funny are icing on the cake.

…what if she says no? So, you’re afraid you’ll be disappointed?

I’m afraid my friends will laugh at me. I’m afraid that I’ll be stuck in this entry-level position forever. I need a girl like that to get where I want to be. I’m afraid that I’m not good enough to get a girl like that. That I’ll never be good enough for a girl like that. That she’ll turn me down because I’m nobody.

Now we have a better why—certainly better than “she’s pretty.” Now there’s more at stake for this character than having a pretty girl turn him down. Now he’s got skin in the game. Now, it’s not just his ego, but his career, potentially his self-worth—you get the idea.

The fear is partly instinct, partly imagined, partly taught. If she says yes, his fear is instantly turned into euphoria. If she says no, what’s he do with that? It confirms his worst fears. He’s lost his identity, his role or place among his friends potentially. What kind of man is he? What will he do with that tsunami of emotions?

How do we show this guy’s fear? Does he fall all over his words, does he overthink every gesture? Is one of these things (the girl or his job) more important to him? How could you show that? Does he cross his arms in a protective gesture or stand tall and use a power pose to impress her? Does he stare at the ground and tap his thigh? Does he have sweaty palms, a racing heart, a hyper-awareness of every other person in the room?

Fear is so much more than what a character says, it oozes out of every gesture, expression, pose, tone of voice, and thought.

“…there has to be an element of genuine loss connected to that fear—be it loss of life, limb, sanity, or loved one… “ Gary A. Braunbeck, To Each Their Darkness

Fear Amplified

Once fear is already present, it’s very easy to amplify so that even harmless events seem scary. You can prime your character to feel fear. The abusive man who comes home already angry, slamming doors, kicking toys out of his way, swearing – his family is now primed for fear. They’ll be on edge when he sits down at the table, hyper-vigilant to a threat, they’ll avoid meeting his gaze or contradicting him, and their posture will minimize their size (work to appear small). The father leans over to cut his four-year-old son’s meat, the knife scraping the plate. The child breaks out in tears and this angers the father even more – he didn’t DO anything to make the boy cry.

What Does Fear Look Like?

Wide eyes, raised eyebrows, furrowed brows, flared nostrils, avoid eye contact, look the floor or hands, slouching, hunched, crossed arms, feet angled away, busy hands, shaking or tapping legs or feet, rocking back and forth, rapid breathing, speaking very quickly or not at all, hyper-awareness, weakness, pent-up energy, inability to sleep, sweaty palms, racing heart…

Always answer the why, work backwards and layer in the emotions. A character’s body language, tone of voice, internal dialogue, gestures, expressions, ticks – these are all the pieces of evidence you need to show fear to readers. Above all – tell the truth. Fiction is truth inside a lie, as Stephen King says.

What was the last story (book or movie) that left you feeling fear?

Registration is open now for my 8 week course Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers.  

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About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson was a national award-winning freelance journalist and author who loves mentoring writers. Fascinated by history, fantasy, romance, and faith, Lisa blends those passions into historical and historical-fantasy novels.

Find Lisa’s blog, Beyond Basics for intermediate writers,  at www.lisahallwilson.com.

by Christina Delay

How do we keep moving forward when life decides to TP our plans? In other words, how do we keep going when we hit creative burnout?

In a season that my daughter likes to call “candy-tastic,” it may feel like we must throw candy around like everything’s peachy, but inside we’re dealing with the mother of all cavities.

What Creative Burnout Looks Like

Creative burnout is a tricky goblin. It starts small, with a little poke in your side that may say, “Is that really the best idea?” Or, it may just be this impending sense of doom that if you don’t do all the things, you’ll miss out on the one thing that could maybe lead to the big thing.

Here’s the deal. That doubt or anxiety to do it all? It builds. And it’s sticky stuff that has the consistency of tar. And before you know it, you’re tarred and feathered and can’t raise your fingers to the keys to type the words…because everything’s all gunked up.

After that initial doubt or anxiety, creative burnout escalates. We become defensive, taking action we wouldn’t normally take to protect ourselves. We begin to feel stuck in all areas of our lives. We get sick, depressed, irritable, and experience mental fatigue. We lose the ability to create.

Help! I’ve Entered Burnout and Don’t Know What to Do!

Creative burnout is inevitable. At some point in our life, we’re going to go through crap…and lots of it. The problem with being buried in crap is we lose the ability to smell what we’re wading through. We don’t realize how bad it is until someone else points it out to us and offers a hand to pull us out of the mess.

Knowing you’re in burnout is half the battle. (By the way, I prefer the term entering burnout rather than being burned out. Because if there’s an entrance, there’s a way out.)

Kerry Schafer, my co-host and the creative coach for Creative Wellness Retreats where we teach creatives how to prevent or get out of burnout and go deeper with their creativity, had to be my hand a few weeks ago. In her words, “it’s time to jettison the non-essentials until you get back on solid ground.” When we’re in burnout, we’re essentially in survival mode. We don’t have the capacity for all the tasks and responsibilities we normally do.

So, what next? We’ve let go of the non-essentials, but what do we do next to refill our creativity and conquer burnout?

Thankfully (unfortunately?), I’ve been through this before and have some tips to defeat creative burnout.

Insulate yourself.

Like a bear putting on his winter coat to survive the long months of hibernation, during burnout we need to insulate against illness, depression, and irritability. Take your vitamins, drink tea, exercise, get 8 hours of sleep (yes, this may mean not binging Netflix).

Practice healthy selfishness.

Say no to the things that don’t feed you and say yes to the things that feel indulgent. I’m not talking bonbons and wine here. I’m talking about the thing that you wish you could do if you just had the time. Volunteer, do the craft, bake the cookies, visit that antique shop.

Visit your inner child.

Practice daydreaming again. Lose yourself in a great book. Color a picture and don’t worry about the lines. Remember when you used to keep a diary and hide it under your mattress? Do that. Pick up flowers or interesting leaves or acorns on a morning stroll. Slow down the pace.

Focus on what excites you.

When in burnout, don’t force the creativity. Instead, focus on what does excite you. It may be something totally unrelated, like planting flowers or your morning coffee or holiday baking or cleaning out your closets. We have those urges for a reason, and that reason is not always procrastination. Go with it.

If you’ve entered a period of burnout, I feel for you. And I’m there with you. But practicing these tactics and getting rid of the non-essentials can greatly lessen the burnout time period.

For more tips to defeat creative burnout, check out these creativity strategies from Leonard da Vinci, or join us on Whidbey Island in April 2019 for a retreat focused on creative wellness.

Have you ever entered creative burnout? How did you deal with it? What tips do you have to share?

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About Christina

Christina Delay is the hostess of Cruising Writers and Creative Wellness Retreats and a multi-award-winning author represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. When she's not cruising the Caribbean, she's dreaming up new writing retreats to take talented authors on or giving into the demands of imaginary people to tell their stories.

Cruising Writers brings writers together with bestselling authors, an agent, an editor, and a world-renowned writing craft instructor writing retreats around the world.

Get ready to Dive Deep and join us on a 7-day Immersion Cruise with Margie Lawson this December to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel! Only TWO SPACES LEFT!

About Creative Wellness Retreats

Creative Wellness Retreats exist to teach you practical tools to go deeper into your creativity and learn how to protect yourself from burnout and creative blocking. If you’re already in burn out mode, our retreats for authors and artists will offer channels for healing your creativity, using effective techniques that are driven by your MBTI type.

Join us on beautiful Whidbey Island next April for a one-of-a-kind creative wellness experience.

Wearing multi-pocketed pants, a plaid red and blue shirt, and a pack, The Man shuffled with his eyes down. He was so accustomed to the smell of petrol from the oil and herbicides on his chosen mode of travel, that it did not register in his brain.  He was making a game of achieving the pace, which allowed each shoe to land on a crosstie. The amusement helped keep him attentive, as he was tired, and his alertness was not sharp, and his mind wanted to replace the current smell with salt air. The man looked up.  His hair lifted on the back of his neck. He stopped to listen for a train. 

            He heard footfalls, sticks breaking, and brush pushed aside to his left and turned to see a group of four uniformed men running out of the woods and down an embankment towards him. The Man angled to the right to get off the tracks so he could run unimpeded. But the group was fast and caught him and dragged him back up onto the tracks. There, they hit him and beat him on his body and his face, and he was thrown to the ground. He could smell their sweat and their fear, as they began removing his pack. He grabbed it and held it tight to his chest as they continued to hit him in the face. The nearby train-whistle made them all pause, and they released their hold on The Man and the pack.  

            With the train insight and a short distance away, their faces turned ashen, and their eyes sprang wide open. “Train-Drifter” took this opportunity to roll over the right rail and down the short embankment. He knew that trains in this area traveled fifty-five miles per hour and would be on top of them in seconds. 

            The group of blue-uniformed men with DVP stamped in yellow on the back of their jackets hesitated. Two of them jumped off the tracks and the other two reached with their arms as if they could somehow stretch far enough to catch the man. Realizing their intended prisoner had escaped, they jumped to avoid the iron monster. 

            The Man knew that this passenger train would be short and he did not have a lot of time. His attackers would be looking for him as soon as the train passed, so he ran for the woods as hard and as fast as he could. His fervent instincts caused him to run in the opposite direction of the trains travel, as he suspected the DVP men would continue to

My Thoughts/Comments:

Wearing multi-pocketed pants, a plaid red and blue shirt, and a pack, The Man shuffled with his eyes down. He was so accustomed to the smell of petrol from the oil and herbicides on his chosen mode of travel, that it did not register in his brain.  

I'd recommend some scene-setting first. Why? Because we don't care what he's wearing until we know where we are. Earth, we'd assume, but what time period? Men jumped trains in the 1920's to find work - that's where my mind would go first. What time of year is it? Is it December or July? Don't tell us, show us. Is the air crisp? Snow on the ground? Is he sweating? What color are the leaves on the trees? Are there even trees? See how we don't know?  You say, 'chosen mode of travel', before we know what that IS, making the reader stop, and read back, to be sure they didn't miss anything. That's an example of a question you don't want the reader asking. Also, you have a POV violation - we're supposed to be in his head, so if something doesn't register, you can't say it. See what I mean? That's why I say this feels like omniscient POV, but it's not, because a narrator wouldn't know what's going on in his head at all.

He was making a game of achieving the pace, which allowed each shoe to land on a crosstie. The amusement helped keep him attentive, as he was tired, and his alertness was not sharp, and his mind wanted to replace the current smell with salt air. The man looked up.  His hair lifted on the back of his neck. He stopped to listen for a train. 

It's not until 'crosstie' that we find out he's on a train track. You say 'amusement', but that doesn't fit with the tone of the beginning - he's watchful - we sense danger. Why does the hair lift on his neck? You never say, and it's important. He'd have plenty of time to get off the tracks, so it can't be worry about the train. It's okay to build suspense, if you give us some context. 

I'm going to try to rewrite this, below. It may not be right for your story (I'm making some assumptions that might not be correct), but hopefully it will illustrate what I mean.

     The man shuffled through the dead leaves covering the railroad ties, his feet finding them more by repetition than by knowing. The smell of diesel and creosote mingled with the dying smell of autumn. Jobs were hard to come by this summer, and if he didn't get a roof over his head by the time the snow flew . . . better not to think of that now. He stopped, listening. There! Rustling from the embankment above. Five dark-jacketed men broke from the woods and ran toward him, yelling.

Now, we need to see his emotion - heart rate speeding, dread...etc. since we don't know why they're after him, if we see that it's important to him, it will help us care. Why? It goes to stakes. For example, if he's just been jumping trains because he has no money, the reader will have empathy for him. If he's a child molester, they're going to feel very different! I think it's important here to give the reader a hint. It doesn't have to be a lot - just something like: He hadn't meant to kill that girl--it was an accident. Couldn't they see that? 

            He heard footfalls, sticks breaking, and brush pushed aside to his left and turned to see a group of four uniformed men running out of the woods and down an embankment towards him. The Man angled to the right to get off the tracks so he could run unimpeded. But the group was fast and caught him and dragged him back up onto the tracks.

I have a logic issue here. He's on tracks. Tracks are dangerous. So when they catch him, WHY would they drag him back to where there's danger? They're going to have their hands full, capturing him as it is - why make it harder? I don't see a way around this without rewriting the beginning. What if he was asleep in the woods, and wakes just before they're on him? Then he runs to the tracks and they catch him there? See how that solves your logic problem?

There, they hit him and beat him on his body and his face, and he was thrown to the ground. He could smell their sweat and their fear, as they began removing his pack. He grabbed it and held it tight to his chest as they continued to hit him in the face. The nearby train-whistle made them all pause, and they released their hold on The Man and the pack.  

            With the train insight and a short distance away, their faces turned ashen, and their eyes sprang wide open. “Train-Drifter” took this opportunity to roll over the right rail and down the short embankment. He knew that trains in this area traveled fifty-five miles per hour and would be on top of them in seconds. 

To increase tension, cut words. We're in his head, and thoughts would be short, cut off, jerky. Don't describe every single thing, or repeat. Less is more, in tense situations. Show us how those blows FEEL to him, from the inside, and that he's desperate to hold onto that pack.  Why are they afraid? And why isn't he? There could be a really cool reason for this (maybe he has a bomb in the pack?) but you never tell us, so the potential cool thing doesn't really do anything.

            The group of blue-uniformed men with DVP stamped in yellow on the back of their jackets hesitated. Two of them jumped off the tracks and the other two reached with their arms as if they could somehow stretch far enough to catch the man. Realizing their intended prisoner had escaped, they jumped to avoid the iron monster. 

Since I don't know what 'DVP' stands for, your mentioning it doesn't help. Even fast trains signal their approach by sound and vibration. They'd have plenty of time to get off the tracks before it was upon them. This is a bigger threat than losing their prisoner, so I don't understand why they'd wait so late. Unless, he has a nuclear device, or an airborne pathogen in that pack. But since we don't know, it doesn't make sense.

            The Man knew that this passenger train would be short and No time! Heartbeat chugging louder than the train, he sprinted for the woods.

Do you have problems showing close POV? Post a sentence, and we'll work on it!

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