This week: Stress for Writers Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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For Authors Newsletter by Dawn
A look at stress in regards to writing and how it might be of use sometimes and even a little healthy. |
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Stress is a common topic and something many of us face on a regular basis. In high school, I competed on the speech and debate team. During a couple of years back then (trying not to date myself too much here) it was a hot topic for the informative speeches to talk about stress. They would talk about the health risks associated with stress, some common practices used to destress and include some reasons stress can even be good for you. Years later, I had to watch a Ted talk for a class in psychology. It was published a few years ago but I watched it last month. I can sum it up so you don't have to go find the short video clip. Even though stress is associated with mental and physical health concerns, some have found that the knowledge and belief that stress is helpful has a positive benefit to the person. In some ways, the woman giving the presentation stated that thinking stress is healthy helps you live longer. I'm already forgetting some of it but the idea in part is that your body uses stress to prepare and survive. If you consider the nervous feeling of getting ready for a speech as getting prepared or amped, then it's supposedly going to have better influences than if you take it for panic and failure.
In some ways, the overall view is a matter of perspective. How we view the potential struggles and our own physical or mental reactions to them can have an influence. And this can relate to our writing as well. Stories can be stressful. There are deadlines, potential readers, the editing process... different elements that may or may not cause a spike in concern or create varying levels of anxiety. All of which can feel like a struggle or even have aspects of usefulness.
Deadlines are a good example of this. Doing things last minute, like writing newsletters or entries for contests, where you know it needs to be done by a certain day and/or time, that can cause a spike in stress. Knowing it might be late and the potential consequences that can be a weight that makes it difficult to get the words out or create a block within the mind. However, it can also be helpful. For published authors, deadlines are important and more often occurring but for some of us it can be difficult to get something done when there isn't a time frame. Contest deadlines have definitely helped me make progress in my writing over the many years I've been on WDC (16 as of this month, wow) and will continue because I'm a last minute homework/paper/anything type of person. Sure, I know it would be less stressful to plan better and get things done in a more timely fashion but that's just not how I function.
So providing a push can be helpful and a benefit from stress as a writer. However, it is good to make sure you don't put too much stress on yourself with everything that is going on with your life both on and offline. While the one ted talk from the psychologist found through research that viewing stress as something helpful might produce good results, there are also some known less than positive effects that can come from the experience as well. One low key example is a muscle twitch. My last year of my first bachelor's degree I had an eye twitch off and on through the couple of semesters trying to get it all done. And now I've got a twitch that has developed in my leg, which may be from a combination of stress and caffeine. It's a nuisance.
We know stress can get in the way and be difficult to face, so having some way to de-stress or relax is helpful. It might be to take a break. Go for a nice walk, do some yoga, lift heavy weights or even take a bath with matcha epsom salts. Or if the stress is work and life related, an option may be to write. Get things out from whatever you are facing or get a break by going into the world of characters and fantasy. The activity of writing can be a solution as well as a source, just depends on the moment and your perspective.
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How do you handle stress?
A few months ago, I wrote a newsletter that focused on the issue of feeling overwhelmed when writing. Here is a comment sent in from a friend here on the site in regards to the topic and question presented within the newsletter.
Comment by Annette 
Do you ever feel overwhelmed when it comes to writing? Writing? Ha! If writing were the only thing to overwhelm me. Work, going back to college, running a 5-person household, trying to fit exercise into lockdown life - it all drags me down. I'm everywhere and nowhere. And all of it from my desk. The one thing that makes it easier is my slow cooker. I prepare something and then I can say that I cooked all day long. At least something gets done. 
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For Authors: July 07, 2021 Issue [#10865]
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