Here’s a question for all those who write. Can you redecorate and remodel the first floor of your house while writing exciting scenes for your upcoming novel? In other words, can you write under stress? I’m alternating taking breaks from both writing and redecorating to get through both and staying somewhat sane.
For me the answer for writing under stress is two-fold.
- In times of high stress, I can’t think straight enough to put words on paper. They either come out as a scrambled mess or they don’t come at all. When my husband was in the hospital for 69 days (41 of them in ICU) I sent a manuscript to my editor who promptly sent it back saying “Try again, please.” Which I did, and it eventually became DESPERATE HOPE, which just received a NEST award (National Excellence in Story Telling.) So my book and my husband are doing all right.
- The second answer is that during times of stress, if I don’t write something, anything every day, no matter how stupid or useless, I slowly fall into a deeper abyss of confusion. My mind races. Finding characters and their story calms me. It gives my thoughts a place to focus, and I realize how much writing is a part of who I am.
So how do you cope with your need to write/create and stress?
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