Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Jan 10 2014
Flood, famine, pestilence and other party poopers
Stress can be a writer's best friend or worst enemy. It's easy for stress to distract us from the task at hand. But if it brings on deep emotion it can be a force to enhance a story in the same way that actors uses past personal experiences to drive a scene for maximum effect. We should't lose sight of our objectivity as we relate a character's experience, but we can certainly harness our own personal stress to the character's angst in a sort of orchestrated empathy.
If the stress is so great that we absolutely can't handle objectivity at that moment, it might be nest to set aside the fictional writing for a short time and describe in writing the way the stress is affecting us. We'll get a release by writing about what's bothering us. And we'll maintain a professional space between our immediate stress and our current characters' experience. This probably won't work for every situation, but it might be a viable solution when there are just too many distractions to make concentration possible. Even a neurosurgeon would have to take a pause if the medical building exploded. We just have to make certain we don't use every bump in our day as an excuse to wander away writing.
posted at: 12:20 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Stress can be a writer's best friend or worst enemy. It's easy for stress to distract us from the task at hand. But if it brings on deep emotion it can be a force to enhance a story in the same way that actors uses past personal experiences to drive a scene for maximum effect. We should't lose sight of our objectivity as we relate a character's experience, but we can certainly harness our own personal stress to the character's angst in a sort of orchestrated empathy.
If the stress is so great that we absolutely can't handle objectivity at that moment, it might be nest to set aside the fictional writing for a short time and describe in writing the way the stress is affecting us. We'll get a release by writing about what's bothering us. And we'll maintain a professional space between our immediate stress and our current characters' experience. This probably won't work for every situation, but it might be a viable solution when there are just too many distractions to make concentration possible. Even a neurosurgeon would have to take a pause if the medical building exploded. We just have to make certain we don't use every bump in our day as an excuse to wander away writing.
posted at: 12:20 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
