Atlas’s Pen: Writing Under Stress

Bonnie and Miranda talk with Ronda Simmons about writing under stress. This week’s question: What do you do to relieve your stress? And what do you do to keep writing and doing creative things while you’re stressed? Come chat with us on our socials.

Tips and tricks:

● If you’re trying to create under stress, it sometimes helps to change things up. Create in a different space, put on different music, engage your senses differently: these can all help put you in a different mindset.

● Practice self-care like meditation or taking walks to free up your mind for more stressful projects.

● Creating a habit before difficulties come up can help carry you through stressful times.

● Create a “trigger” to send a signal to your brain that it’s time to start writing. It can be burning a scent, positioning and settling in your desk chair, etc. Make it unique and specific to your writing time.

● Some people find changing up fonts can help give themselves permission to write poorly, which can help them get over blocks.

● Changing genres or switching between fiction and nonfiction can tap into different parts of your creativity, giving part of you a break.

● Find a community and/or support system. A writing community can help bring you back to a creative headspace with constructive ideas and brainstorming. A support system can help you release the stress to the point where you have room for creativity again.

● Helping other helps yourself. Helping another writer can help your mood, plus a lot of times you’ll be working on your own problem as you're working on theirs.

● Sometimes the simple act of writing when surrounded by a group of people who are also writing can be enough to help you get in a writing headspace.

● Having supportive people to hold you accountable can keep the creativity flowing.

Links:

Ronda Simmons: https://rondasimmons.com/

The Potato Primer: https://www.amazon.com/Potato-Primer-Only-Cookbook-Will/dp/B09KN7ZRWP

https://www.ambient-mixer.com/

Atomic Habits: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

Maggie Walker, cover artist: http://www.magpieartdesign.com/

Join Northern Colorado Writers at https://northerncoloradowriters.com/join-ncw

Shut Up and Write: https://shutupwrite.com/ https://www.meetup.com/shutupandwriteonlineevents/

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