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Writing Through Turbulent Times: Using Uncertainty to Enhance Your Story

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Flickr Creative Commons: Patrick Marione

2020 was destined to be a year of transition for our family even before Corona Time became a thing, but since March 13th these upcoming changes have been overshadowed by the odd reality of living in a pandemic “hot spot”. Don’t get me wrong; that reality hasn’t been all bad. Yes, my younger daughter did spend the last third of her freshman year watching TikTok videos and Netflix, with occasional breaks for pass/fail schoolwork, but her empty schedule allowed us to build a uniquely strong connection at a time when teenage daughters tend to butt heads with their moms. I have loved watching my girls turn to each other for companionship, to become friends as well as sisters. These things would not have happened if it weren’t for the pandemic.

No ceremony marked the occasion when my oldest graduated with both her high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree in May. I’m beginning to wonder if this lack of closure, combined with that fact that “moving clutter” doesn’t look all that different from “quarantine clutter,” has kept me in a state of denial that she’s actually leaving home in two days, COVID be damned. The expected tears aren’t flowing. Instead, there is a mad rush to make sure she has her own medical insurance card and access to our reimbursement account. I’ve added masks, hand sanitizer (a.k.a. liquid gold), a non-contact thermometer and a pulse oximeter to her items to pack and noted that Medical City is seven minutes from her new home.

She’ll be two counties away, but if any of us gets COVID, she may as well be in Australia. That’s honestly what keeps me up at night—the idea that she’ll get sick and I won’t be able to be with her.

As you can imagine, I have the attention span of a gnat for most things right now, including writing this post. I have, however, learned to push past the notion that my WIP is small and pointless in comparison to overflowing hospitals, mass unemployment, worldwide protests, and a government that appears more fascist by the day. All of that underlying tension seeps through the cracks of my fictional world, infusing the story with conflicting bursts of dread and hope that would not have been there otherwise. It is morphing into a novel that is uniquely of this time.

Getting to this place took patience and a lot of soul-searching. Here are a few ideas that helped me emerge from my rut and start working again. Maybe they will be of help to some of you as well. [Read more…]

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The Fierce Urgency of Now

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The world has a way of shaping our literature, bending our writing to align with the arc of history. I began writing The Kindest Lie, my debut novel, in earnest during President Obama’s second term in office, a time when Americans were grappling with the promise and limits of hope. The racial and socioeconomic chasm of that period influenced my narrative and provided the cultural milieu for the book. Soon, we’ll all emerge from this international health crisis into a new world order, a new … [Read more...]

Embracing the Darkness

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I’m a bury-my-head-in-the-blanket kind of guy. When something scary comes on TV or in a movie, I hide until it’s over. I’m famous for it. My kids know it. My friends know it. My husband knows it. He’s my enabler. Because when things get really bad, I plug my ears, too, and he lets me know when it’s safe to come out. So, a few years back when I had the seed of an idea for a novel of psychological suspense—a dark story about a husband and wife who each have a secret life they are hiding from … [Read more...]

Overcome Fear to Unbox Your Best Writing

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Few things in life fill me with as much fear as writing (and I’ve gone skydiving, held an alligator, and entrusted my heart to another human being, so that’s saying a lot!). Ironically, or maybe not, there are even fewer things that bring me as much joy. There are magical days when I sit down to write and the words just flow. (Ah, those days.) More common are the days when writing feels like a battle. When I lock horns with my story and must wrestle every word onto the page. Whether the … [Read more...]

Addressing Anxiety

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Being a writer often means hosting a legion of insecurities. Impostor syndrome? Check. An overload of empathy, perhaps – creating an over-sensitivity to what’s going on with other people? Yup. Fear of rejection?  Absolutely. There are rarely writers who glide through the day, getting their however-many-thousand words on the page before switching gears and then gracefully promoting with that perfect balance of humility and self-confidence. Those that do appear to “have it all” usually … [Read more...]

Confessions from a Weary Writer

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If my life were a reality show, this would be the part where I’d sit alone in a darkened room—just me and the camera. I’d speak in hushed, urgent tones. This is where I'd spill my guts and tell you my deepest darkest fears. Confession 1: My writing is at a low point, and I am in a flat panic I miss the feeling of being lost in my writing, of being in the zone—I haven’t felt like that in a while. I wake up every morning with an empty feeling inside, longing to feel lost in a story like I … [Read more...]

Fear is a Liar

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Fear is a liar. Fear will break your courage, steal your dreams, and tell you that neither you nor your art will ever amount to anything. Of all the many hurdles that stand between writers (or any other person) and their dreams, fear is often the hardest to fight, and the easiest to surrender to. For many years, I lived in fear of failure. I refused to write, despite the stories that burned inside me, because I feared that if I tried and failed I would lose the only identity—that of … [Read more...]

Quiz Your Fear

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Please welcome author Laura Heffernan back to WU today! Book 3 in Laura's America's Next Reality Star series released just this month. Said bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale of the series: “Smart, witty, and really freaking good, America’s Next Reality Star is a fun read that has you cheering from the first paragraph through the last page. Laura Heffernan spins an entertaining tale, expertly mixing the main character's real life events with the reality show's challenges. With enough drama to … [Read more...]

How (Not) to Overcome Fear

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. -- Frank Herbert, Dune Fear is not unique to writers, but we do seem to spend a lot of time dwelling in its kingdom. Sometimes I think the only thing I spend more time doing than being afraid of some element of writing is trying not to be afraid. It’s a little bit insane. Let’s talk about fear. Fear is not the enemy. It doesn’t exist to stop you achieving greatness; it exists to make you … [Read more...]

Are We Having Fun Yet?

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A couple of years ago I took a weekend writing class from a reasonably well-known author. In the first hour of class he told us a little bit about his writing process, and at the end of his spiel he said how much he really hated writing (but was driven to do it by the stories he had to tell). Writing is hell, he said, I don’t enjoy it, not one bit, and, further, if you’re a real writer—if you’re doing it right—you shouldn’t enjoy it either. At the time, I was beginning revisions on my second … [Read more...]

Overcoming Fear

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Welcome to 2016! It’s time to brush off the cobwebs of last year, make some new writing resolutions, and feel smug and confident about your future achievements. At least, until the reality of the year sets in and, suddenly, those goals you were so confident of achieving take on an aspect of hitherto unimagined terror. What if you fail? That’s fear talking. We all know the touch of its icy fingers. Now, fear isn’t good or bad, it just is. Fear is only a problem when you let it control you. … [Read more...]

The Elephant in My Living Room

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Therese here to introduce our newest regular contributor, Kim Bullock. If you're a part of WU's Facebook community, you'll certainly be no stranger to Kim, who has long been a part of the Mod Squad there. Kim has also become a valued right hand for me here at Writer Unboxed, and as one of WU's two Assistant Editors (along with Julia Munroe Martin) is a big part of the reason my sanity is mostly intact. When Kim's longtime blog, What Women Write, was shuttered, it seemed the right time to see if … [Read more...]

The Thrill of the Write

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Recently I read on Kirkus about novelists “who do really funky research.” Like Jodi Picoult who spent time in a prison. Susan Minot traveled to Uganda to get to know girls kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Peter Rock explored an underground shelter used by former members of a New Age religion. Ann Tyler has written: “I write because I want more than one life.” It made me wonder. What would I do? How far would I go? My just-finished work in progress is about the Vietnam era, and it’s … [Read more...]

Fear: The Uninvited Guest

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This is the fourth Writer Unboxed post I have started in as many days. I now have all these partial posts, each of at least 800 words, sitting on my desktop and determinedly not being the post I need them to be. That seems to be happening to me a lot lately. If you follow me on Twitter or FB, you probably heard my cyber-bellow of frustration and gnashing of teeth when I had to cut 7,000 words from my manuscript. The manuscript that is due in less than two months and is only partially … [Read more...]